New Stamps.

 After a break of some weeks I have eventually got back to carving the stamps to add to the little book that I started making some time ago. Having printed all the backgrounds on my gelatin plate and added the vegetation using the same medium, it's now time to move to stamping bird and insect images onto those same pages.

Although these stamps are almost finished, I can still see some minor details that need fixing, and I want to carve a lot more too. It's a good start!

More Beetles.

 I've always loved photographing insects, especially beetles and butterflies. The 3 beetles below are all specimens that I've found on my bush walks, however the blue spotted weevil is the only one still alive.

                                              Here some ants are making off with their prize.

You would think that a beetle would try to camouflage itself, but this one clearly wanted to show off!

Close up and Personal.

 A couple of years ago I bought an inexpensive set of 3 clip on lenses for my phone, but apart from a little bit of playing around at the time I haven't really used them. However this morning I listened to a Zoom presentation on macro-photography and marveled at the prices people could pay for their lenses and extension tubes these days. I sold all of mine quite some time ago, as I didn't think that I would be using my old SLR cameras and their multitude of lenses again. I have bought several Point and Shoot digital cameras since then and have found that they do all that I want to do at this stage in my life. But just for fun I had another play with the phone close up lens and was quite amazed at what it could do. Below is picture close up and personal of a beetle's face, which I think is really interesting, even though not all of it is spot on in focus.

Fabric?

This gelatin print above was made using hand cut masks and stencils based on potato masher designs and a rubber 'thing' that I found while out walking. I carved a couple of rubber stamps too to add to the effect. Someone took one look at it and immediately said 'kimono fabric'. I hadn't thought of that, but she's right, it does look like a design for fabric.

This one I called Cosmic Lights, and again I worked it on a handmade gelatin plate.  I made a texture board using a piece of cardboard and the splashes of orange were added later with acrylic paint.
 

Blue, Purple & Orange

Above is a latest print on the gelatin plate, using my hand carved stamps, masks and stencils. I found an odd rubber 'thing' when out walking that was the basis for most of these shapes. It might have been a rubber base for a walking stick to prevent it slipping, but it has provided a lot of inspiration for printing.The shape at the top right is based on the end of a plastic potato masher!

Above is a texture plate that I've just used to print a background. I thought that the paint on the textures looked very interesting, an artwork in its own right perhaps.

Sunrise from a bedroom window. We are in our 6th lock-down here; luckily it is winter so that the temptation to stay outside for too long isn't very appealing.
 

White.

The creek bed is full of foamy water where the creek flows over the rocks and churns into bubbles.

                                                  More foam with varying sized bubbles.

                                White on the gelatin plate, daisies and leaves from the garden.