Flowering Gum Blossom.

 I was looking through some photos of our flowering gum tree to see when the current crop of tight buds would be popping open. This is taken just as the little caps on the blossoms pop off and the flower opens right out.

                Then I spotted this photo, 2 drops of water for eyes, and a big grin of red teeth!
                                         Anyone else see this?  I can't see anything else now!

Grasses.

 I wanted to get some photos of grass seed heads against the sky, easy you'd think, but with a digital camera without a viewfinder it's actually rather difficult.

With a bright sunny day and looking into the sky, I couldn't see a thing on the screen, so it's amazing that I got anything suitable at all!

Textures.

    I thought that this piece of old wood was so interesting with all it's fascinating textures and colours.

Not to be Played with!

               That snout belongs to Polly, who knows full well that you don't play with Echidnas.

                                                    These spines are really hard and sharp.

These are very shy creatures who bury their heads underneath and tuck them selves up when they perceive danger.  I took this picture from quite a distance away, hence it's not really in focus.

I'm Watching You!

 We spotted this little creature last year and were delighted when he/she appeared again this year. When we first saw it, with just a little head visible at the entrance to the nest box, we wondered if it was some sort of small mammal.

                  Then, as the light moved around we could see it wasn't, but what was it?

                                       It was a little bird, an Owlet Nightjar to be precise.

             It's a tiny little thing, especially as we can't see the rest of the body and the longish tail.
                                                              Welcome back little bird!

Never Too Young!

                She's only 2 1/2, but already has the right action. She's making dog biscuits!

Moving on to the Next Stage.

 When I was researching nasturtiums, I came across some really interesting facts about the naming of the plants.  Apparently Linnaeus thought that the leaves looked like the shields of Roman soldiers and the reddish flowers like the blood-stained helmets of slain foes on a Roman Trophy pole. Hence the name Tropaeolaceae for the genus.

                                               A trial run of some Roman shields and text.

                Not at all sure how I will incorporate this design, but it might be worth a try.

Heat Wave Aftermath.

 The ivy on this pillar will of course recover, but in the mean time the burnt leaves are a reminder of last week's heatwave.

                                                 These poor ferns are really badly scorched.

Not Bothered by the Heat.

This cactus wasn't at all set back by the heat of the past few days, in fact I think it was very happy with it and this is just one of several flowers on the plant. Whilst the flower itself is quite large, the stamens are all very small and delicate. A welcome spot of colour in an otherwise scorched and burnt garden. Looking for a way to keep your camellias from getting too burnt? See this blog. for a handy hint.

Blame the Hot Weather!

 With the weather being just too hot, around 44 C, it has been impossible to go anywhere or do anything much, especially in the garden. So with the air conditioner on and frequent trips outside to retrieve screens, I've gone a bit mad (heat stroke) with the screen printing!

     I think that I now have enough bits of fabric to move on to the next stage, whatever that is !

Getting There.

 

Starting to get the collection of fabric and embellishments together for the nasturtium project.

Trying out the nasturtium screen on dyed fabric. I'm not sure about the dark green ink, maybe black would be better, or dark brown.

Nasturtium Seeds.

 I wanted an image that looked like a stylised nasturtium seed, but I really had trouble with my drawing, it looked more like a bunch of bananas! Anyway, after many attempts I decided to use the best of them. I rolled ink onto a Perspex plate, put the page of drawings over the ink and traced over the images. In this one the ink was obviously far too thick.

                This one is definitely better, particularly the larger ones in the bottom row.

Again the bottom row is better, but still not quite what I was after, the weave of the fabric makes the lines blurry, so I think I'll make a Gocco screen print and see what that looks like. It seems as if nasturtiums are a good design source for others too.

Photo Emulsion Screens.

I found that the secret to getting a good image on the emulsion screens is to have quite thick lines, rather than the fine ones that I tried out earlier. The sheets are past their use-by date so perhaps the emulsion is a bit too 'baked on', but making sure that the lines are thick gives me good usable screens for printing. I've mounted them in windows of thin plastic, the sort that is used to make covers for documents and then sealed the edges against paint leaks with plastic tape. More fun to come!

Still Playing.

 The colours aren't correct in these photos, but you can see the effects that I'm getting with the deconstructed screen printing.

Blue and Blue.

While waiting to meet a friend in the city I happened to glance up and see all the different shades of blue, from the sky to the different blue buildings.

Yet More Playtime!

 

This is once again using my nasturtium leaf Gocco screens, this time on tie dyed fabric.

Not quite sure where, if anywhere, this is going.  Looks like trees seen through a wet window to me.

Just Playing Around.

This is a combination of deconstructed screen printing and Print Gocco screens made from my gelatine plate prints of nasturtium leaves. Nothing useful here, just fun trying things out.

A Gift of Lilies.

                                                 The perfume from these lilies is amazing!

More Screen Play.

                        A painted screen below and a print run of beakdown printing above.