Tea and Tell Tuesday: Darjeeling

Tea and Tell Tuesday is back! I drink enough tea to keep this section of the blog in business for years so let's do this! 

The past few weeks in my tea world have been shared with my very strong friend, Darjeeling, from the Darjeeling district in West Bengal, India. Also called - "The Champagne of Teas" - Darjeeling is a little full of himself, but being quite a strongly caffeinated black tea, I get it. I tend to hang out with Darjeeling's black counterpart but the tea also comes in green, white and oolong. 

To brew a nice, black Darjeeling tea:

- make sure you have a nice boiling pot of water - about 185 degrees

- rinse out your tea cup/mug with hot water

- add one tablespoon of tea leaves per 8 ounces (or one tea bag)

- pour heated water over tea into mug

- steep for 3 to 5 minutes 

- Try it without milk the first few times to taste the fruity and brisk qualities

Darjeeling and I have become good pals but I am quite interested in his relatives green, white and oolong. Have you ever had green, white or oolong Darjeeling? How does it taste?

♥ Kenzie

In the Studio: Dip Dyeing and Straddling Screens

(1. Box of blank t-shirts received in the mail; 2. Dyeing day at the studio; 3. Dip dyed and washed waiting to be printed; 4. Designing the graphics; 5. Thrifted paintings bought for the frames. Used the frames for screens; 6. Screen burning kit; 7. Burning the first image; 8. When the bulb died, I found this to use; 9. Straddling the screen to hold it in place. Attractive, I know; 10. Printed shirts!)

The studio has been busy this past week! Mostly, I have been I have been working on this project for Health Simple Is, my Aunt Sue's nutrition business. We had a show at Room Full of Sisters in Auburn, NY and guess who joined us? None other than Miss Kirsten Nunez from Studs and Pearls!

I have missed this girl so much! We had a great time hanging out and of course, she brought a car full of projects so we could both work. Because we're crazy craft ladies.

A shot of our section of table above.

Have you ever screen printed before? Or dip-dyed anything? 

♥ K

p.s. To get immediate studio updates, follow me on Instagram: @mackenziegelina

Gallery Show - Wanderlost

It was a night full of art, knitting, food, a community painting and lots of hugs. A few Fridays ago, we had the opening to my show - Wanderlost. Being my first solo show as a college graduate, I was sooo incredibly nervous and excited but it turned out wonderfully and so many people came out to show support.

These are just a few images from the night.

(Credit to Ms. Teska and my mom for the photos!)

The show will be up at the North Rose-Wolcott High School until May 31st available for viewing during school hours. 

 Above is the community painting that we created. How great is it!?

Thank you thank you for all of you who came out to support! And special thanks to Ms. Teska, Mrs. Allen and my mom who helped me through this entire gallery process! You guys are the best!!!

♥ K

No limits just epiphanies

This is the finished piece from my last post. 

It might be my favorite painting that I've done so far. 

I will be posting more pictures from the opening of the gallery show later today. It was such a great time! 

♥ Kenzie 

Progress

Do you remember this painting in the top left corner? I've made some progress since my last post. Though I've been busy planning my art show, I actually remembered to take progress photos! Yeah, I know - I never remember to do that. If you've been following me on Instagram, you know this. But if not, here's a little update on that painting:

At this point (above), I still had no idea what was going on...

I started to see it here.

And now, I'm refining the details as you can see above.

If you read my last post, it might give you more of a wordy description into what my process is. But I hoped you enjoyed a visual look at my start to almost finish of a painting. I will post the final piece when it's complete! 

Other than this, I have been working on two other paintings, as I said in my last post, and preparing the final details for my show. Food, getting work together, getting supplies together, handing out postcards and flyers... It's so exciting!

♥ K