Seaweed Stamps.

 I'm starting to carve a collection of seaweed stamps, with five finished and at least one more to go. The large curved ones on the left are very distinctive, so it would be good to have a couple curving in the opposite direction.

                                                           My messy looking test sheet.

Return to the Stamp Carving.

With a dead line not that far away, I have returned to my Leafy Sea Dragons project, and just carved a second Dragon. I thought that I'd look through my old stamps for some vegetation that might double as sea weed. Unfortunately only 2 were suitable and a little too small for the size of the paper that must be used, 30 cm x 40 cm, so I'll use them in conjunction with some bigger new ones that I want to carve very soon..

Antennae.

The butterflies now all have antennae, and look much with them. I could actually have made them longer, but once the pen has left the paper there is no going back and adding more on. At least I didn't completely mess them up as I feared would happen!

Shaped Plates.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see how this collection of shaped collagraph plates printed out to day. The markings on the wings aren't really definite enough, but printing isolated shapes worked well.

 This above was the first one in mono-colour. Obviously the antennae will have to be added later by hand, which will be nerve wracking, as it will be easy to make a mess of that and ruin the whole piece.

                   Here I've introduced a second colour to the hind wings, which looks O.K. I think.

                                        The same green added to the fore wings this time.

Another two colour print, this time a little paler than the first one. No other colour combination appealed today, but who knows I might print in red and black perhaps!

Separate Elements.

I thought that I'd try something new, a collagraph consisting of separate elements all printed together. I've never done this before, so I chose something simple, my own carved butterfly stamp. As you'll notice, the wings aren't symmetrical, a quirk of a free hand drawn image. I've printed the butterflies onto cardboard, cut them out and painted the different areas with gloss or matt medium. Each should wipe off differently, should being the operative word! I wonder how they'll look, but being an experiment, it just doesn't matter, as I'll learn something in the process.

Multiple Collagraph Techniques.

 In this new plate I have used gel medium through a stencil for the wall, dried grass for the trees, pressed lichen for the foreground vegetation and sawdust for the lowest area. This one above shows the various elements, but is overall too dark.

                  This one is better I think, but the sky is too scratchy. Another try tomorrow!

Meet Luna.

                    We have a new Grand-Puppy, named Luna for the pale blaze on her chest.

She is a Groodle (Golden Retriever x Poodle), very fluffy and very self possessed for such a young puppy.  Happy times ahead for all the young ones in this household!

A Quintet of Little Angels.

 While in New Plymouth I visited the Te Henui cemetery, the most beautiful cemetery imaginable, with masses of flowers growing on the old tomb sites and trees full of blossom everywhere. I really liked these little angel statues, but of course they were on the tombs of children which is just so sad.

 This is perhaps one of the few with two complete arms, and she is more like a real child than the stylised children seen elsewhere.

                                                          This one has two missing arms.

                             I just love the way this one is holding out her skirt full of flowers.

                               This one has two arms and a delightfully simple little dress.