Drypoint etching

The first of this year's workshops with Cumbria Wildlife Trust - and what a pleasant day with some cracking work produced! 

We began by doing small etchings of butterflies to give everyone the chance to do a trial etching for reference, whereby they could practise using the different tools and learn how to ink up and print the plate. After that it was free choice! 

I did test two different inks - previously I have stuck to the Aqua ink, but it's a bot of a pain to clean, so I had bought some Calagio Safewash which like the Aqua is oil based, as it has to be to print onto damp paper, but it is washable. How oil based and washable combine I have no idea but it was, as it says, water proof and washable in soap and water. The Calagio, I think, gave a crisper print - but the Aqua is easier to rub into the plate and gives a more 'etching-like' effect ....swings and roundabouts comes to mind! 

The initial trial prints - well worth doing to give everyone a feel for how hard to scratch in, how to use sandpaper and how much ink to put on ..it also gave participants an idea of what size piece(s) were achievable in the given time. 

The final wokshop of 2022

On a cold and foggy day I led my last workshop of the year. To be honest, I was glad the fog didn't clear into sunshine as I was well aware of the fact that it would be a beautiful day on the fells and while I couldn't see the sunshine, it didn't feel like I was missing out. I do enjoy leading workshops though, and this one, with mulled wine (non-acloholic) and mince pies yielded some excellent and rewarding results! Attendees were complete lino cut beginners and certainly challenged themselves - well done all! 

A frosty start at Gosling Sike.

...and the lino cuts ....

Gosling Sike printing workshop

It seems to be all workshops and craft fares at the moment! One of the most successful has been a recent Cumbria Wildlife Trust printing workshop held at their Gosling Sike property near Carlisle. The day was loosely based on seedheads as sources of inspiration. We did lino printing for the morning and then after a late lunch gelli printing - there were some fabulous results! 

Bowberhead Cushion

Following my visit in early July to Boweberhead, I came back and gelli printed some fabrics based on a Hay Rattle in seed motif. I then patched peices together and quilted  them into a cushion ...

Printed fabric piece.

Patched and quilted. 

Detail.

Cushion front.

Cushion back.

Detail, 

Abstracting Bowberhead

While at Bowberhead, I did a quick concertina sketchbook Click here to see them. I then decided to do a larger scale version of one of the images, trying to retain the looseness. 

Detail.

Screen Printing Experiments

I have always wanted ot have a go at screen printing, ever since I was a child, but have never had the space to make it worthwhile investing in the equipment. Earlier in the week a friend let me play - it was great fun and the comparisons to gelli printing on fabric were interesting ....anyway a few photos...

I based my design on yellow rattle/hay rattle as I had made stencils for my visit and demonstrations of gelli printing at Bowberhead last week; it was a shame not to use  them again ...

I hope to do a few more! 

Smardale Squirrels

So today, I led a guided walk along the path from the Smardale carpark to Smardale Gill Viaduct and then on to the limekilns, just past the viaduct. It was primarily a sketching walk, so we looked at and learnt about the flora and fauna as well as sketching in different media. Susan Cartwright-Smith, published poet and author, joined us too, to encourage us to include a written response. The star though, had to be this red squirrel ...and the four lizards that were not for moving from our first sketching bench stop. The flowers - especially the Common Rockrose, Bloody Crane's-bill and Chalk Fragrant orchids were splendid! 

Gelli printing northern hay meadows

Whilst at Bowberhead I was able to demonstrate and play around with gelli printing based on melancholy thistles and yellow rattle. I now need to spend some time working on how to combine the two species and corresponding colours without making 'muddy' colours and I don't really want to collage them - although that, it has to be said, would be the easy option that would work! 

My demonstration and 'Have a go' are in the barn - a lovely building with the cattle stalls entact.