the beauty of the "clipping mask"

I had a wonderful lesson the other day from a friend. She showed me how to use "clipping mask" in Adobe Illustrator. ! I had this idea a few weeks ago to use scans of my paste papers to create letters. The class I am currently teaching, "The Printed Word," is making a book about one of their initials. I decided it was a good assignment for myself as well. I tried making these letters completely round-about in Adobe Photoshop. And I know, I know, you don't do type in Photoshop. The edges of the letters were completely raggedy - as one would expect. 

Now that I've been shown the right way to do it, I have these beautifully clear letters.

I'm mulling over how to make use of this with my students in the future. Using the paste paper is a great way to have students explore how pattern and texture affect what we are looking. For example the orange t above, looks completely different when the curves in the ascender are not there. What I don't understand is the strange background color. Hm. Maybe that's the next lesson. 

 

I love the blue T. 

And while I've been lesson planning, I came across an assignment online. Students need to design a glyph that does not exist, for a sound that does. I love this idea and gives us a chance to play around with type. I don't consider this one of those glyphs, but I still really like this one:

 

I like it because it plays with both of my initials. 

surviving the snow

It's been a while since I've posted because all I want to do is stay snuggled up in bed under the covers. It has been so cold. Weekends, I have been slug-a-bedding until at least noon! One cat is fine with that, the other is rather impatient to go out.
We have not had as much snow as our neighbors to the north and I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand - great. It's rather inconvenient to have your car hidden under 10ft of snow. On the other hand - at least it would make all of this cold weather worth while. But if I remember correctly the Farmer's Almanac said that this winter would be lots of snow, but short. Well, I am all for that!

When I haven't been snuggled under blankets, I've been makin' stuff. Lots of stuff. My most favorite thing I just made is this cowl/hat.See, you can wear it around your neck like a scarf...  

Or pull the chord together and you can wear it on your head as a hat! 

 

All of that is pretty good color. I tried going outside to take pics against the snow. Didn't work so well.

 

 Jacques was interested though, until the snow smelled more interesting.

Its actually not really snow anymore, just solid ice. It melts during the day and freezes at night - solid.