The 2015 Wisconsin State Fair Craft Competition Results

For the first time I entered items in the Craft competition. I arrived too late to see them judged. Two of my items were on the "reject" table so they came back home. Because the other two were not among the "rejects" they must have won something.  Results are typically posted on the State Fair web site in about a week or so.  In the meantime here are the two that did win something...

UPDATE 7/29: Pumpkins came in 3rd place in Holiday category. Watercolor came in 4th place in Painting category. 

"Pumpkins" Repoussé and Chasing

Design and crafted by Carol Banach

Material: Soft Copper .005 thick 36 gauge

Trace design onto copper sheet with pointed wooden stick

Shape front and back, pushing out areas to enhance design

Continue flipping over, adding detail as desired

Brush ink over embossed copper sheet

Remove excess dried ink with fine steel wool

Polish gently with soft cloth

Yellow Hibiscus Watercolor

Sketched and Painted by Carol Banach

• Negative Painting Technique
• Masking fluid used to protect yellow blossoms and stems
• Cobalt Blue and Permanent Yellow blended wet on wet for background wash - Primary Red used sparingly in wash
• Layered background several times to create leaves darkening each layer by adding more Cobalt Blue to pallet.
• Blossoms, stems and details added last

 

(This painting was matted and framed when entered in the competition, 

however I forgot to take a photo.)

The current Zoo Interchange mess is All My Fault!

It happened one afternoon in the fall of the early 1960's. I would have just turned 11 or 12 years old. My family recently moved closer to my grade school. Close enough in fact to ride my bike there and home.

My school was on 95th and Bluemound a few blocks east of the Milwaukee County Zoo which was being built up little by little. Not too many buildings were there yet. However Monkey Island was done and I think Samson the gorilla had already arrived. The best part was back then we could get in for free! We were looking forward to a lot more structures and animals. We visited the area frequently.

Situated between the school and the zoo, my friends and I found some great hills to ride our bikes on. We noticed a lot of trucks going in and out of that area, but on the weekends we had the place to ourselves. We also found sticks in the ground - not branches - but sticks that had some markings on them. We played around with them pulling them out to look them over and then either sticking them back where we found them, or moving them to make a sort of track for our bikes. It was a really fun time.

So back to that fall afternoon. A couple of Milwaukee police officers came to school and visited every classroom asking if we had seen anyone in the area between our school and the zoo. They told us a highway was being built and it was a very important project. The police were investigating some vandalism regarding surveyor markers. The damage would likely cause big problems and probably a delay in the construction.

Of course no one admitted anything!

After researching the Zoo Interchange history  I found The Milwaukee Journal wrote in a front-page story in early August, 1963 "the interchange has been a source of concern. The work is complicated, and the relocation of strategic power lines is involved...the structures weave and twist like an intricate pretzel..."

I think the real reason we going through today's re-construction is because those surveyor markers got messed up back in the l960's. The current FIX started in 2012 and won't be completed until 2018.  I sure hope no kids are riding their bikes around the area now...

To read more information about how they are fixing the mess I made go here:

WI Zoo Interchange Project

Watercolor Madness

Got the itch to do some painting lately. I found a cute hummingbird tutorial on YouTube so gave it a try.  Might make this into a birthday card.

While on YouTube I found a very interesting video about a "negative painting technique".  This is supposed to be good when trying to reproduce a photograph which is right up my alley. Basically the background is painted first - layer on layer until you get to the most important part.

I decided to give that a try. The ugly stuff you see in the early shots is some watercolor mask I used to cover up the main images while I painted the back ground. The masking stuff was no longer fluid and I should have thrown it out and bought some new stuff but as usual I was in a hurry so I used it anyway.  It worked - sort of.

Sketched a couple of passion flowers and stems them covered them up with masking gunk.

Covered paper with lots of water and dropped in some yellow and blue and let it blend to get shades of green. Then sketched in more stems and leaves and painted around them.

Added another layer to the background using lots of the blue to darken it and added a few more leaves.

Added detail to the leaves and started adding color to a few of the stems. (I wish I had left the stems alone)

Removed the masking - I really like this but I see the masking did not cover as well as I hoped.

Introducing the third color - red. Lots of water gives it a pink shade and a touch of blue the purple I wanted.

After the "red" dried I wanted more, but I lost the tube! Oh well - I found a tube of pink.

Decided to smooth out the flowers by adding white around the edges.  FINISHED!

I think I'm done, but then again maybe not.

I'll be shopping for a new bottle of masking fluid soon and give this technique another try.  I wonder what happened to that tube of red???

Reporting the news (my personal tirade)

When did news reporting become more about the reporter and less about the news?  News reporters and journalists should not BE the news.

This morning's news on NBC is all about Matt Lauer riding a bike; and Mike Jacobs retiring. Matt isn't the first person to ride a bike to raise awareness and money; and Mike isn't the first person who has retired. REALLY? Time to switch the channel!

Television scandals regarding Brian Williams (NBC); George Stephanopoulos (ABC); Dan Rather (CBS); Bill O'Reilly (FOX); Lou Dobbs (CNN) prove my point across all networks. And don't get me started about Wolf Blitzer! 

Once about a time; there was a separate segment on TV news called "The Editorial". Very clearly, they would state the following is an opinion of the newscaster.  Now, all TV news is an editorial.

My message to reporters and journalists:  It Is Not About You!  Just report the news and if you have an opinion or are slanted in anyway - say so. I don't need anyone on TV to tell me what to think - I'm quite capable of thinking for myself - what about you?

One Ball...That's All!

Having just ended my second season of league bowling today, it thought it might be time to express some thoughts on this sport.  Bowling seems to weave in and out of my life.

My favorite thing about bowling is the sound. As soon as I walk into a bowling alley the sound of bowling balls hitting pins make me smile; and the sounds of people cheering and sometimes groaning also makes me look up to see what just happened. I like it that the scores are visible.

I remember going to bowling alleys with my parents when they were in leagues many years ago. One of the alley's they bowled at was the Bluemound Bowl, and it is still there. Just recently I went there to practice and it brought back many memories.

My first experience of league bowling was in high school. We got out of school about an hour early once a week and were bused to the "Rose Bowl". That alley, most recently named AMF West Allis closed last year. Too bad - it was really nice and had a lot of parking.

Once I started working. I joined several teams with the ladies. I also bowled on a few couple leagues with sweetie and one season joined a church league. I also remember a few years bowling on a league that started at 9 p.m., which while late, allowed me to put the kids to bed before heading out for a few hours. Actually, in those days the men's leagues got the prime time and the ladies had to wait until they finished.  A few years ago, my daughter and I joined a women's league and that got me back into the sport. We did several city, state and even a National tournament. I also was talked into the women's Senior tournament; and a couple of "500" tournaments.

So...back to the present. After retiring, I joined a morning ladies league and really enjoy it.  My bowling keeps getting better and I won enough in the City Tournament to buy a new ball.

Next season in addition to bowling in two morning leagues, I'll be in the State Senior Tournament in October; and the State "600" Tournament in November. The National's will be held in Las Vegas next spring - I haven't committed to that one yet.