Fungus and a Nest.

 When I first saw this fungus at the base of a tree stump I thought that someone had negligently dropped and left a piece of red plastic on the ground. Closer inspection showed this extraordinary bright red fungus. It seems to be very soft and has grown around a stem of grass and over a couple of leaves. What a colour!

Equally extraordinary is the choice of this place to build a nest. A spare electrical cord hanging in the garage seems an odd place to make a nest, but it would be hard for a predator to scale the metal walls and the corner of the garage is relatively quiet for most of the time. It's probably a wren's nest.

The Grey Version.

Now that I have quite a few new stamps to play around with, I'm having fun working out different ways to use them. I rather like this grey version with the single red flower. The vessels need something to stand on however, so I'll need to work out what looks best. A table, tablecloth or just a pattern.

Return to the Small Jug.

 After making all the other jugs and pots into two stage prints, I returned to the original small jug and carved an outline version of it to be combined with the earlier solid colour one.

 Here are the 2 stages. I had forgotten that I had made some attempt to carve the markings on the jug.

Now combining the two stamps together this small jug fits with all the other stamps. I rather like the way the  markings on the original jug show through a little. The two stamps aren't quite lined up properly, but I'll work on that more carefully later.

Yet More Foliage.

 With the first stamp having a very definite bend to one side, it was obvious when I used it twice in one piece, so I needed another similar one with a bend to the other side! Done.

   Here are the two leaf stamps bending towards each other, with two different but similar flowers stamps.

                                                          A bit more playing around.

Stamp Play.

With a bit of time available for play I combined all my recent stamps to produce this colourful  image. Not the final version of course, but I'm getting an idea of how I need to progress.

Leaves & Flowers.

 I don't usually have time for such an output of stamp carving, but Melbourne's winter weather just keeps going on and on, although we are now officially in spring, so the outdoor activities have been put on hold yet again. When carving stamps from the size blocks that are available, there are always masses of small off cuts left over. These make small stamp blocks and I always feel very virtuous using up the scrap material rather than starting a whole new block. Here are 3 small flowers that I made this afternoon, the one on the right didn't turn out very well, so I'm not sure that I'll ever use it.

                       Using the foliage that I have just carved with the new flower stamps.

 More foliage needed, so here is the beginning of a more complex stem and leaves. I have left the tops of 3 stems ready to have flowers added to them.

Although this works quite well, I don't like the flaring ends of the stems, so will perhaps trim them off eventually. I had envisioned flowers at a side angle to go onto the ends, but these 'full frontal' flowers don't quite fit.

More Foliage.

                                                    Another carving in the foliage series.

                                              Not too bad at all for the first couple of prints.

 I had hoped that all the foliage stamps could be combined to create bigger and more complex designs, and this one looks as if it will be very adaptable.

                                          Here I've added a tiny flower stamp just for fun.

A Quick Bit of Foliage Carving.

 I need more leaves and foliage in general for a project that I have in mind, so here I'm starting to carve a small 'sprig' of leaves.

                                                                     So far so good.

                 Ooops, a bit clumsy with the central rib, it's missing some bits as it gets thinner!