Lino Rooster

 With very little time available just now, it's taken me a while to start refining my rooster lino cut. I've added the tree to one side, and the foliage at the top

and generally cleaned the print up a little, but it will take at least another session to remove more of the 'noise' of the carving. Here I've tried out a bright colour red on the bird's comb, but it's too bright now, so I'll revert to the darker red in the final print. I also tried out some iridescent blue on the tail feathers, but it really didn't turn out very well, so I probably won't continue with that idea.

Lino Cut

It's a long time since I did any lino cutting, but I took the plunge this week and started to work on an idea that I had for a particular exhibition. This is the first printing from the plate with the addition of a little red and yellow paint, but there is a long way to go from here.

Spider Webs.

I don't seem to be able to walk past a spider's web without photographing it! They are all so different and so amazingly constructed. This one above has a "leaf Curl" spider in the top section of the web, and was photographed in the bush with the sun shining through the web.

This one is on my letter box, filling in the space that the newspapers would normally be put in.As we don't get home delivery of the papers, the spider can hope for prey to fly or crawl into the web.

                                             Another web in the bush with the sun behind it.

            This one is low down in the grass and looks like the classic spider's web that a child might draw.

Either something flew into this web but managed to escape, or the spider had an off day with her spinning!
 

New Prints.

 After a number of weeks of not being able to print any images,  I have at last 2 new prints hot off the press, well gelatin plate anyway

The weed that I chose to use in the print above did not print very well, the leaves were too thickly clumped together and although the shapes of the stems were good, the overall print did not really work well.

This one is much better, although the leaves of this weed were so fine and brittle that they broke off and stuck to the gelatin, so I had to remove the worst of them with tweezers. I then threw out all the rest of the sprigs, which I may regret!

Trees

 Although I have walked past these trees in my local neighborhood many times, I've never photographed the beautiful bark before. The colours are stunning when seen in close up without the distraction of the whole tree.

                                                           An Australian Paper Bark tree.

                                                                  A species of Eucalyptus.

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                                                                      Another Eucalyptus.

                                                         This is probably a Spotted Gum.

                                                     And a non native tree, a Cyprus I think.

A Few More Pages.

                                     

                                           Here are a few more pages from my insect book.

Finished!

 After many months and lots of various forms of art work, I have declared the Insect Book finished, although there are still some pages that I am less than happy with.

Here is the front and back cover before binding, using some of my hand dyed fabric and computer printed images

Each signature has a double page spread in the middle, so here they all are, again before binding into the book. Each page throughout the whole book has a gelatin plate print as a background with various hand carved stamps and small screen prints added to the different plant prints.

           On some pages I have added the insect names, but in these middle pages I mostly haven't.

Trial and Error!

Each signature will have a slightly smaller page between the 2 heavier weight pages, with tiny screen prints of various insects on top of a gelatine printed background and with quotations related to insects scattered throughout. However, this one was a disaster, the last step was to add a screen print of some Kangaroo grass on one side, and it smudged! There was no way to clean it up sufficiently to use, so it was back to square one to make a substitute page.

This is the inside of the  extra page with gnats, flies, ants and grasshopper prints, plus some quotations.

                                                       The flip side is vegetation gelatine prints

               So I started from scratch and made 3 as near as possible copies of the messed up page.

They weren't all as good as I hoped of course, but there is one thank goodness that will be usable as a substitute for the messy one. Pheeeeew!