Still Playing.

 I've now chosen the gelatine plate prints that I want to add to the background fabric that I printed some time ago.  This is the second in the series and this time the applied circles are gelatine prints not the solar prints that I used in the first piece. See Here.

I also made Photoshop brushes of some of the prints and here I've played around with them in different colours and sizes. Lots of potential here I think.

Choosing.

Having gathered together all the small gelatine printed images from last week's session I now want to choose a few of the best ones for further work. I haven't sorted through the bigger sized ones yet, but this is a start.

Playing with Photoshop and My Tree Lino Cut

                                             I love to play around with images in Photoshop.

                     This is just as simple Inversion of colour, but I think that it is quite effective.

                                         Another change in colour for the background only.

                 This is weird, spooky even. I have no idea what filter I used, but it's interesting!

                                      Another slightly odd version, maybe a bit spooky again?

Another Item Finished.

The jumper for' Miss nearly 4' is now finished, however, it's huge! Perhaps the one that I knitted last year in a size 2 will last another year and she will be ready for this one when nearly 5 years old.

A Good Crop.

Although not as many nor as big as last year, these olives will be good to eat in about 4 months time.
I'll make a cut in each one and then soak them in bine for 10 days, changing the brine daily. It's a bit of a job, but once the routine is established it only takes a couple of minutes each morning. Then a soak in a really strong brine and a few months in water before adding basil, garlic and olive oil. Yumm!

Early Morning Market.

This was the scene early this morning at the local farmers' Market. It was only just 8 am and a very cold Autumn morning in Melbourne. We bought tomatoes, nectarines, squash, capsicums, eggs, and of course chocolate!  All were either grown by the sellers or were Free Range in the case of the eggs and the chocolate was Fair Trade and organically grown. Farmers' markets are very popular and common around the state.

Finished!

Using all sorts of hand dyed cotton the bag is now finished. It's fully lined and with batting for strength, as the cottons aren't very strong, and being such a big bag it might be carrying some weight at some stage. The front panel is 35 cm square and the sides are 13 cm across, so it's going to be a good handy sized bag. I even managed a pocket in the lining for a phone or note book.

Using the Stash.

 One of the groups that I belong to was given several rolls of narrow different coloured bias tape, all ready with the iron on glue applied. We decided to use the tapes by each making something with them, so I decided to make a bag with a feature panel using the bias tapes.

 What a wonderful way to use up some of my huge stash of hand dyed fabrics, I even managed to incorporate some leaves that I made by sun printing They hadn't worked very well as sun prints, but for this use they were just right.

                                                This is the finished front panel of my bag.

Now for Something Completely Differeent....

Whilst sorting out some files and folios to make room for a big heavy old book press, I came across a collection of prints that I had made some time ago.  They were made by dropping different coloured metallic paint onto a sheet of black paper and placing a sheet of glass on top of the paint. When the glass is pulled off the paint turns into the lovely marks seen above. It looks like some wonderful under sea coral garden to me. Maybe I need to return to this type of art work.

Back to the Gelatine Blobs.

     After being away for a few days, it was fun to get back to the gelatine printing experiments.
This below is the second background piece, although I'm now thinking that it's a bit dull compared to the first one. Still, they needn't actually be seen together, so a comparison is probably not necessary.

                  These are the next batch of prints stamped with the home-made gelatine circles.

    I've used most of the stamps that I have carved over the last few months to make the impressions.

It's amazing how many variables there are in the process, the thickness and viscosity of the paint, whether it's the first or second print and of course how the stamps are placed on the gelatine.

Lessons Learned.

 The first thing that I realised was that the best size for this work was in fact to use the smallest circular plate. The medium sized one was O.K., but I didn't even use the biggest one as it was just too big at 9cm across.

 Then I learned that double sided sticky tape does not hold a piece of gel onto Perspex, it just falls off. How I can attach the gel to a backing is going to be a series of experiments.

Finally I found that each plate had to have more than one imprint on it for the best effect, as in the middle image here. It was fun trying it all out, but I have a way to go before getting prints that I can use.

New Possibilities.

 I saw on this Blog that Gelli Arts are now selling Gelli plates in various sized circles, with some interesting prints being made from them. Of course I had to have go at making some to try out. Pie dishes and the bottom of an Altoid tin seemed about the right sizes, so off I went.

As you can probably see in the top photo, one tin has the manufacturers name and the word Australia on it, which of course will show in any print, but the tin was the right size! Apart from the fact that the gelatine slopes up to the sides, the printing surface looks good, and of course I have 2 sides to choose from. As suggested in the blog, I'll try and attach the circles to some Perspex.

Seen Through a Glass.

 It was a beautiful Autumn day today in Melbourne, so we ate lunch outdoors at a small local café.

I rather liked the pattern of froth on the inside of my glass after drinking my café latte, particularly looking through the glass at the grass under foot and the path beyond.

                                The ridges in the glass made some interesting shapes too.

A Touch of Pink.

I decided to add a little watercolour to the Ti Tree flowers, but I should have done it before I added the stamens not after, as they smudged a little bit. I might try it again and add the stamens after painting. This was computer printed onto cream watercolour paper, but I think that the contrast between the pink of the flowers and the cream of the paper isn't very appealing, although the cream doesn't show up in this picture.