Beating the Heat!

 With the temperature over 40°C today and almost as hot in recent days, the poor garden really suffers. Shade cloth is a must for some areas and it requires quite some ingenuity to adequately shade the different areas. This above is a corner of the front garden that has some tender plants in it that require protection. Note one of the 6 water tanks on the property, which are now all empty!

                                                          Part of the fernery under cover.

All the vegetable garden beds are enclosed to protect the crops from the possums and birds, the rats however still manage to get in and eat a lot of produce unfortunately. With the beds being raised and enclosed it makes it easier to cover them with shade cloth when the heat gets just too hot. In past years the tomatoes have actually stewed in situ on the plants!

Last Piece?

 With almost all of the components of the proposed image finalised, I decided that I needed one more piece of foliage and flowers slightly bigger than the earlier carvings. A quick drawing directly onto the rubber and off I went.

 After cutting away all the excess rubber, it was easier to start removing all the smaller unwanted pieces.

                                                        All ready to go for a first printing.

Not at all bad for a first try out. I'll tidy this one up and carve a few more tiny flowers to colour red, or probably pink, as I think all the wild briars are in fact pink. Almost everything ready for a trial print of the 'real thing'.

New Stamping Project.

 These images may seem a little out of character for my usual projects, but one of the challenges of art is to work out of the usual comfort zone, or so I've read. These new stamps are to illustrate a poem that I chose from a collection of contemporary poems that the printing group are working from. We each chose a different poem to illustrate, and these stamps are the components that go to make up my ideas from the poem. I can't reveal any more just at present unfortunately. Here is the first impression from the 'armless' angel stamp.

 The poem mentions a briar rose in a cemetery, so here are a couple of pages of briar rose illustrations which I will use to design my stamp, seen below in the first printing. Lots of jaggy edges there to tidy up!

 When in Scotland a few years ago we were looking for the graves of ancestors in a graveyard not far from Glasgow. I took a photo of this Celtic cross and now I'm using the basic design for my next stamp.

                I wanted the cross to be slightly tipping over, so hence there sloped base.

 The intricate design on the original cross is just too complicated to carve into the stamp, so I have simplified it a lot! I haven't tried to depict it in 3D either, as the whole design is fairly graphic and not at all realistic.

With a little bit of careful colour application, I can give the briar rose coloured flowers and green foliage. With all the other images being in black, the rose will eventually be too, but I'm thinking of making a couple of rose flowers on their own that can be easily stamped in red or pink over the black.

Printing the Collograph.

 Having waited for a few days for the shellac to be properly dry, I grabbed a couple of spare hours this morning to try out a few prints. Here's' the plate inked up and rubbed back ready to go.

 I was just using odd bits of printing paper, which isn't ideal, as each type prints the plate differently.
The one above has lovely details in the right hand large tree trunk, but it's mostly a bit too pale.

                    This I think is too dark, but again, there are bits that I'm happy with.

 The trees on the left smudged a bit unfortunately, otherwise I rather like the contrast in this version.

Another one that is a bit too light.  I plan on adding water colours to some of the details in the prints, so it will be interesting to see which ones look best with added colour.

'You Must Remember This' ?

 I wonder who remembers this fantastic Apple Mac computer. This one was pulled out of the cupboard yesterday, plugged in, and it was as if it had not been out of use for decades.

                                  Even the wonderful passing fish screen saver was there.

             The top view still looks modern and even 'space-age' today.................or rather yesterday.

New Collograph Plate.

 Having been in the bush for a few days, I've collected up a number of natural materials for collagraph plate making. I've got tree bark of various types, lichen, grasses and leaves.

 Here is the start of a new image, with pieces of our native Paper Bark forming the basis of a whole tree. There is pressed lichen around the base of the tree and various pressed seed heads for the more distant vegetation.

     I want to convey the idea of a river or maybe a swamp with rocks, trees and grasses around it.

After 3 coats of shellac, I'll now let it all dry for a few days to harden before trying a print from it. I'm really experimenting here, as I have no idea if the thin bark that I used will have sufficient texture to suggest rocks, or if the idea of water will be evident. Even if the whole scene doesn't print well, I'm sure bits of it will be salvageable.

Lichen.

 Still on my bush walk, I noticed these lichen covered branches on an old dead tree. The 'flower' above is like something seen in a rainforest, rather than the dry material. Click to enlarge to see a slightly larger version and appreciate the beauty in something so small and desiccated!

Tiny Spider.

This strange little beast is a Spiny Spider (Gasteracantha minax) and is only about 9mm in length. I spotted it while out walking along a bush track and I just had to try taking a photo, tiny as it was. Given that I had to get down on my knees and shoot up under it, I'm very pleased with the result from my little point and shoot camera.