Play Time!

Well, hello! There's a new title at the top of this page. Don't worry, you're in the right place.

But didn't this blog used to be called "Augustine and Claire?"
Yes it did.

And now it's "One Lonely Bee?"
Yep.

Why?
Because it's better this way.
I had originally named this blog "Augustine and Claire" because this blog is dedicated to those Saints, just like the Augustine Program at Claire hall where I first learned to cook for a general audience.
This blog is still dedicated to those Saints, still stands in memory of my old learning environment, and still has the old URL of www.augustineandclaire.blogspot... (you know the rest).
But I had to make a change. "Augustine and Claire" sounds like the title of a blog that would belong to a married couple named Augustine and Claire. I am not Augustine and I am not Claire. I am not even in a couple. So, the old name had to go.
And now I'm One Lonely Bee.

But wait! I'm not a bee, either, am I? Why that name?
Because I like it and I think it's cute and it's my blog and I can call it whatever I like and I can even use run on sentences to make my point in a petulant manner. So there.

So, welcome!
Welcome to The Lonely Bee!

Didn't this blog used to be pink, too?
Yes. Now it's yellow. In addition to that, I'm working on some drawings so that I can (with my sister's computerly help) update the design with yellow, bee-themed graphics. Look forward to that.

Does that mean there are going to be even MORE disorienting changes in the future?
Yes. And you will like them.


To celebrate the continuing redesign of this here blog, let's play!
Grab a can of shaving cream, food coloring, and paper.
You'll also need a plastic or metal tray, like a cookie sheet, and various tools such as a ruler, chopsticks, a comb, and some marbles.

We're gonna marbleize paper!

Pretty, right?

I wish I had more pictures to show you the step by step process, but it's best learned by doing it anyway and that's best done with guess work and mess.

First, spray your tray with shaving cream and spread it out. Use your hands, the ruler, or the back of your comb. It doesn't matter. You're going to get it all over yourself eventually.
Then, choose your colors and drop them on the smoothed shaving cream.
Sprinkle a couple colors, drip one, pour all of them on... what ever.

Now, choose your tool. Take your comb and rake it across the surface, dragging the droplets of color in neatly spaced rows. Or swirl your chopstick, pricking each individual drop or pulling each drop through another until they're all connected in a big web of color. Or drop your marbles in the cream and tilt the tray, rolling them around until the colors are mixed in a design to your fancy.

Now, gently lay your paper onto the shaving cream. Run your finger or a clean ruler (or the back side of the clean comb) along the surface of your paper, pressing it into the food dye and shaving cream.
Lighter weight papers tend to curl once they're taken out of the shaving cream, but that might be more of an endearing feature rather than a problem. It's up to you.
Peel it up, whip the shaving cream from the paper with a few deft swipes of a paper towel, and squeal with delight.
Turn the paper over so that the blank side is on the shaving cream, and repeat.

This one was done with marbles rolled back and forth in blue dye.

To be perfectly honest, the blue sheet was done a few years back. I'm just showing it to you now as an example of the effect marbles can have in your art.

This one was done by piling already dyed shaving cream in a mound (it was left over from previous papers that same night, so had all sorts of colors in a crazy, uncontrollable pattern), and then pressing the paper onto the mound until it was completely squished and all the shaving cream oozed out from under it.

At one point during this craft, my hands were black. Then they turned khaki. Then they somehow became a lovely wine color that I was still sporting around my nails and in blotches up my arm for the rest of the week. That actually became a little awkward when I was roped into testing a cleanser at a cart in the Galleria. The young man working there began to demonstrate on my wrist the wares he was vending and found himself a little surprised. There's nothing quite like having a handsome stranger hold your hand, roll up your sleeve, and finding that you're a daring shade of magenta.
That aside, this is the most fun you can have with shaving cream (on a PG rating, at least. I don't even want know what else you might be thinking). Plus you get to make pretty colors. And it smells good.

Enjoy your messy paper-craft, my friends. I look forward to this little blog's future as "One Lonely Bee," and I hope you'll join me for the ride.