Breakdown or Deconstructed Screen Printing.

 A very unsuccessful print run. The first one or 2 are usually not up to much, but neither was number 3 or 4 unfortunately.

This screen looks as if it might be a usable one!

With some added imagery and stitching it might just work out.

A Bit of Dyeing Today.

These aren't dry and ironed yet, hence the wrinkles, but I'm happy with there result of all that tying of tiny rubber bands.

More Playing.

 I found these large metal earrings the other day and thought that they might make good prints. Here I'm using them on a gelatine plate.-

   These nasturtium leaves are printed on fabric from a screen made with my print Gocco machine.

Amazing Effect.

While out walking this morning I happened to glance up and see the sky reflected in the glass windows of this office block.

Yet more Experimenting.

In this image I have added multiple layers in Photoshop, having made brushes out of some of the elements of my designs. I'm having fun!

Playing with Stencils and Photoshop.

 Here I've used the stencils that I made previously, as well as the printed leaves and collograph plate.
                                This is just a fun application, not in any way a final version!

           This uses the stencil and also a print of the rubber stamp that I cut some weeks ago.

                                            This is a stencil image combined with leaf prints.

Making a Photo Sensitive Screen Stencil.

             Several different drawings of nasturtiums photocopied onto transparency sheets.

 A home made exposure set up, a flat piece of wood with an attached sheet of foam, covered with a sheet of glass held in place by 2 pieces of elastic sewn into bands.

           A finished stencil screen and the transparency that I used. Now to try and get a print from it.

Photoshop and Collograph.

This is a bit of a fiddle around in Photoshop with my recent collograph plate. Who knows what I might do with this!

Cicadas.

 With the good winter and spring rains we seem to have had a bumper crop of cicadas this season.
The singing is ear-splitting and really gives you a headache after a while. Even the dog puts herself into bed inside to escape the noise! Here is a single larval shell from which the cicada has emerged.

 There are so many of them all emerging at once and all trying to get to a tall spot to crack open the shell and emerge that there are multiple shells on every vantage spot. Here are 3 all one broken branch end.

Here is the adult insect and what a transformation! There are 3 or 4 different species all with different calls.

Wildflowers.

 It's only just Summer and the wildflowers are everywhere in our bit of country. This is the very beautiful Fringed Lily.

                                                     Here is the dainty little Rice Flower.

      The Stellaria or Star Flower grows on rocky outcrops and is prolific in the right habitat.

The little Praetia loves boggy areas and is a delicate shade of pale blue with purple markings which just don't show up in this photo.

First Christmas Table of the Season.

                        All ready for my 10 guests, though I need to find some more chairs.

Collograph 2.

O.K. here is a second attempt. Shellac waterproofing and no overlaps. Stems are made of yarn and not badly cut cardboard.

The rubbing is alright, but the design is too symmetrical at the bottom and the stem of the top leaf meets the leaf at an odd angle. As I want to play around with the design in Photoshop this may in fact be useable. I want to try gelatine prints for a start.

Collograph 1.

 Unfortunately this collograph was a bit of a disaster, not only were the overlaps a mistake, but everything else was a mess too.  The so called water proof coating turned out not to be waterproof  and in fact nothing worked well at all.  Back to the drawing board!

                                        This was just a crayon rubbing to test out the plate.

Pasta From Scratch.

 Having bought a pasta cutting machine for use with polymer clay, and not actually using it for that purpose, I thought I might try to use it for it's real purpose, making pasta.
Here is the dough that I made from imported Italian pasta flour, eggs and water.

 I found that it was very difficult to feed the pasta into the machine at the same time as catching it as it emerged the other side, especially when cutting the fettuccini ribbons.

                                  Here is the finished product, not bad for a first go I reckon!
                                 The hanging rod is fittingly propped up on 2 cookery books.

Stamp Print.

This is the first print from my carved stamp using markers to colour the stamp. It didn't turn out all that well, as the markers, water based ones, still dried a bit too quickly. I must try with acrylic paints or stamp pads designed for fabric, they are very soft and the ink takes ages to dry.

Flowers at Last.

I  decided to grow some 'special' Nasturtiums from seed to see if I could get some of the more unusual colours. This one above is a softer orange than usual, but still orange.

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                                  This one above is more of an apricot colour, very pretty.

                   This one is really lovely, a soft creamy yellow with deep orange markings.

Fun with Nasturtiums.

                                             Here is the finished stamp with colour added.

                            Almost finished, a black try-out to see what more need to be done.

      Here I was having fun with a Kaleidoscope program and a picture of a nasturtium painting.

Stamp Carving.

                                                        I'm out of practise unfortunately!

                                           Some of the veins in the leaves are far too heavy!

Back to the Nasturtium Project.

It was raining this morning, but not too wet so I ventured out to pick some fresh nasturtiums.

                         Just a simple drawing to hopefully get started with a stamp carving.

Eucalypt Flowers.

Most people are familiar with the gorgeous pink and red flowering varieties of Eucalypt, but this fluffy cream species is just as gorgeous in it's understated way I think.

Chocolate Lilies.

                                           Part of a large field of flowering Chocolate Lilies.

                                               They really do smell faintly of chocolate too.

Bird Orchid.

This is a Common Bird Orchid growing at the base of a tree in the leaf litter. The flower resembles the open beak of a begging baby bird, hence the name.

Not Wanted!

 A cheeky Blackbird has moved into the area, an introduced bird that until recently had never been seen in this particular area.......... there must now be 2 of them I guess.

                                                  Pretty eggs, but we don't want them here!