Printing Extravaganza

On Thursday I held a 'Printing Extravaganza' where participants could either improve their skills,  learn, or combine techniques.... and their work was superb! We focussed on lino, dry point and collagraph. It's quite a challenge to run this workshop and keep everyone happy, so I didn't get time to photograph everyone's work ...sorry! But then again, I didn't even get time to eat a biscuit! ..and it's normally me that eats most of them! 

Lino cut gift tags that will be embellished at home ...

This was a great effort for a first time at drypoint! Several prints were made and they may be hannd coloured later. 

Trying to represent snow on the fell is no easy task ..this collagraph captured the feeling of the Northern Fells. 

A fabulous collagraph by an experienced and regular attendee - superb! The plate is above the print.  

By carefully removing ink the stones stand out in this image - the inking up of a collagraph plate is often the hardest part. 

...and  I love the feeling of the light coming through the trees in this collagraph! 

Birch textures and colours

I nearly didn't bother with the camera - but you never know what you'll see on a walk ....

So down on the moss again ...I focussed on birch to begin with until we found some exquisite and unusual fungi! 

I love the colours and contrasting patterns.

Birch paper...

Birch leaves and reflective patterns and below....

And then we came across these lovely little fungi - I couldn't find them in the book as they are a deformed version of Laccaria. - a Deceiver.

..and more autumnal colours - love the blue-grey and sandy colours. 

Now thinking these would make a great gelli print with the bullrush leaves and stencils for the seed heads. 

 

Wedholme textile again

 Well I finally got some time to do some stitching on this little collage. It's based on the colours and textures of Wedholme Flow NNR and the main outlined plant is the seed head of the Bog Asphodel. 

The collage...

..with stitch....

..for comparison.

Buttermere Colours

 A dry forecast so a walk round Buttermere. The colours are particulalry good this year, but sadly the sun didn't shine, so the colours didn't really show up on the photos as well as they might. 

Not a sight you often see - the National Trust Buttermere carpark - empty!

What I presume are Kerry Hill Blue sheep in Buttermere - nice! 

But nothing beats a Herdie! 

Autumn colours. 

The lump that is Grasmoor.

Fleetwith Pike. 

Looking back down Buttermere. 

Stature! 

The classic view! 

And Grasmoor again. 

Wedholme textiles ...preparation

Following on from gelli printing fabrics and tissue, (click here for more information),  I began to tear them up, ready to piece them together with stichwork...I'm still not sure where this is going,but if  I don't do something nothing will happen...

The First Peninsula Potter

It's at this time of year that we begin to drive round the Anthorn Peninsula, on the way to my folks, so that we can see what birds are around. An unprepossessing start, but the Barnacle Geese were back and a delight to see. There were plenty of Teal, a couple of Shoveller, Golden Plover, Wigeon and Black-tailed Godwits .....and many, many Lapwing. Suddenly all of these dropped out of the sky and we had a brilliant view of a Marsh Harrier - excellent! 

Barnacle Geese.

Teal.

Across to Scotland.

Incoming tide and plenty of birds in the sky.

Incoming Lapwing.

Prior to the Marsh Harrier.

All settled down again....

Plenty of Teal at Campfield Marsh.....

...and sleeping Wigeon.

Textile piece experiments...

Right - I have been waiting to have some sort of mental image about a textile piece based on Wedholme Flow to appear...it isn't happening, so it's time to go for it! 

Today I started by dying some fabric - well not really dying it, but printing it because a white piece of paper or fabric is really intimidating! I have a role of museum archive tissue and I had been wondering how it would work for gelli printing. The advantage of the tissue is it can be layered and you can see the underlying image and it's easy to sew through. 

I choose my theme as Molinia grass - which is curly when it dries and the seed heads of Bog Asphodel. 

I cut stencils for both and used Golden Open acrylics and textile medium to print...the tissue was a joy ot work on ...and I also used some sheets of teabag paper that I had for comparison - both lifted good, clear images ...the teabag paper was stiffer. I also printed onto cotton as a base layer ...

Anyway - here are some of the results. The pieces will be combined and manipulated - I just need to work out how! 

Archival tissue paper.

Teabag paper. The skin tone lines are oil pastel.

Tissue.

Printing onto a commercial coloured fabric.

Printing onto a purple fabric.

A compilation.

Now to decide how to work with these prints!