Book Cover.

Having made a paper template, I can see that I have enough squares to make the book cover. It's now a matter of carful placement to avoid having similar ones together.  Unfortunately this photo shows them all either pink or blue, when in fact they are shades of mauve. No matter what I do I just can't get an accurate colour range in a photo.

Colour Variation.

 The colours of today's photos are really odd, very pink! I set out to print some of the little 3 inch squares onto fabric, starting with an old piece of cotton that I had treated with Bubble Jet set some years ago. There result above is awful, too pale, too pink and too blurry. Maybe it has a shelf life!

 Here I've tried the same photo on commercially prepared fabric for printing, so much better, but still much too pink. After lots of manipulation in Photoshop I just couldn't get the colour range that I wanted, so I went ahead and printed several sheets anyway.

 Here I've used the darker print in the middle and the paler versions of each one around the sides.

The one in the middle of the left hand vertical row was done in reverse by mistake, never mind, it adds to the variety. These will eventually be used for a book cover, so not too many to make over all.

Centimetres and Inches.

 I scanned in my recently made flower stamps and turned them into all the Photoshop brushes that I needed. I wanted them all to be squares for a particular project, but I got confused and made them all 4 cm squares instead of inches!

 I then had to resize them all and as I did so I decided to make them smaller anyway, just 3 inches square. I also found that I didn't have enough of my own hand carved stamps. so I used a few brushes that I had made from actual flowers and leaves as well.

 I wanted all the squares to be of a similar colour, although a few have turned out a bit pinker than I planned.

 I want to print them all onto fabric which will change the colour anyway, so I'll need to do a bit of experimentation.

Melon Magic.

 In the supermarket this morning I spotted a display of Rock Melons that looked a little different to the usual melons. The patterning on the skin was amazing, but try as I might I could detect no smell of ripe melon. I would have bought one had they been ripe, but having decided not to by one I settled for taking photos instead.

 No one asked me what on earth I was doing, so I snapped away happily at the most interesting skins.

I don't use a phone camera at all, so I was glad that I had my Panasonic Lumix safely in my hand bag as usual.

Stamp Play.

Having made quite a lot of hand carved stamps recently, I decided to scan copies into Photoshop and to make 'brushes' from them. This is just a fun little garden using the Photoshop brushes that I made.

Salt Dyeing.

 While I was away with a group of stitching friends last week we tried out some salt dyeing using Genesis Liquid Radiance Dyes. Here  These  dyes which are made in Australia, don't need a soda ash pre-soak  and are very easy to use. The techniques used in these samples,( not mine unfortunately), are variations on using salt and various forms of scrunching and folding. The one above used a trail of fine salt crystals to make the curving pattern.

 This flame like piece was made by wrapping the cloth around a thick cord and dyeing into the folds.

                                 Another piece with random placement of rock salt crystals.

            Again fine salt was used and the fabric was folded and the edges dyed in the pink colour.

                                                 Larger salt crystals and folding used here.
                             A whole day spent exploring the use of dyes and salt, what a luxury!

Four New Stamps.

Having spent a few days away from home, I managed to find time to carve some new stamps for an on going project. The flower on the left is a sort of Chrysanthemum, but the leaves are more imaginary. The flower and leaf on the right are carved with the actual Passion flower and leaf right in front of me. The leaf turned out well with it's wrinkly edges but the pistol of the flower is a little too big for the petals. Not to worry, I'll use it anyway!

More Birds.

            This Wattle bird was enjoying the nectar from the newly blooming Japonica flowers.

 These King Parrots were enjoying a little bit of seed on the deck while being closely watched by 2 Crimson Rosellas. The male birds have the red heads and bodies and the females only have the red trousers.

Another visitor to the Warburton deck was this young Kookaburra who was quite happy to take cheese from an outstretched hand, while the adult bird was a little wary and stayed in the nearby tree.