Printing.

 These photos are of the prints that I made from the various collagraph plates that I made using different medium textures. The one above is using the crackling medium plate, which should make an interesting background for further printing. As it is, it looks like an underwater or rain forest scene.

 The medium applied through a stencil worked well, leaving a blank space to the right for further printed elements.

             This is an enlargement of part of the crackle medium plate, printed with 2 colours.

                                                 A two colour version of the stencil plate.
                    I did about 14 prints in all, but I'm not sure how many I would call successful!

His 'n Hers.

 On the left is my hand made sour dough rye bread and on the right is his machine made whole grain loaf. What a contrast in size and weight, but they both taste wonderful.

The sour dough rye bread is very dense and flavoursome, but we only eat a couple of slices between us a day, sometimes none at all, so I always cut the loaf in two and freeze one half.  The whole grain loaf is much small and lighter, so he makes that every few days for his sandwiches. There's nothing like the satisfaction of making art....................and making bread!

Background Textures.

 I've just constructed 4 cardboard background texture plates for a new collagraph project that I'd like to try. Each plate has texture using a different medium and each has an area with less texture than the edges, as that is where I plant to add images, either stamps or much smaller collagraph plates. All the plates have been sealed with shellac on the back and the front for ease of cleaning.

 This above is a close up of the top left plate, which is made using a texture gel containing blended fibres by Liquitex. There were lots of sharp pointy bits after this had dried, so I have sanded quite a lot of the plate.

              This is the top right plate made by spreading moulding paste through a stencil.

 This is moulding paste again shown in the lower left plate, but with a rubber stamp of foliage pressed into it before it dried. The impression is vaguely of foliage, but it's also of bubbles and other impressions made by lifting the stamp off the wet plate.

 This one, which is the lower right is made with crackling paste. I covered the plate in a very thin coating at first, but the texture was a bit too subtle. However I left that area in the middle  and added a heavier coat around the edges of the plate. The plate crackled nicely when it dried for the second time, although it did warp a bit, but nothing that a night under a heavy book press won't cure!

Another area of the crackle plate, which looks like an aerial view of a city to me, with lakes or open spaces dotted about.

Rush of Blood!

I had a rush of blood to the head yesterday and finished my Beetle for July! Once again I have used my hand dyed cotton as the background and a hand carved stamp for the beetle. I used some leftover leaves from the previous fabric piece and touched up parts of the beetle with some metallic turquoise paint.This piece is a little different to all the other beetles that I've done this year, as it's applique because the background colour is so dark that I couldn't make a stamped image show up enough on it. In the picture above, the colour appears a lot lighter than it really is.

Anthology.

 This lovely little newly released book is a collected anthology of poetry written by members of the Dan Poets group who meet weekly at the Dan O'Connell hotel in Melbourne. There are some 60 poems published in the book, some of which are illustrated by members of the Firestation Print Studio, also in Melbourne. In 2018 members of the Print Studio were given the opportunity to choose a poem that appealed to them and to submit their illustrations to be included in the book. The cover of the book is a lino cut by Jan Liesfield and the first poem in the book is called ' 37 ° - Thunderstorms Predicted' by Laura Brinson, which was the poem that I chose to illustrate.

     This above is the actual page in the book, the very first poem and illustration on Page 2 !

This above is a picture of the image that I made with my hand carved stamps before I rubbed out the frame guidelines and and submitted it for publication.  I am thrilled to be associated with this collaboration between poets and artists. 

June Beetle.

This is my beetle for the month of June.  The colour that the group chose for either the beetle or the background was of course green. Once again I used my carved rubber stamps for the beetle and for the foliage on my hand dyed fabric, with just a simple outlining machine stitch around the stamps. I painted the beetle even though it was stamped with colour as the stamp ink didn't show up very well. It was sufficient for the leaves however. The colour for next month is indigo.

Finished.

After another morning's work, I think that this piece is finished. Now called 'Fallen Fragments' reflecting the broken leaves on the forest floor, it has come together quite well, although there are some things that I'd like to change, the right hand bunch of gum-nuts for one. It's a bit too dark in comparison to the other two, but I think that I can live with it.

Moving Right Along.

With another grey, wet and dismal day in Melbourne, it was an ideal opportunity for some more stitching. I've added more leaves along the lower edge of the panel, horizontal lines in the top half and I've started to stitch on the bunches of gum-nuts at the top.