Bits and pieces

Pepper the cat is making himself completely at home, he kept trying to catch my pencil as I tried to do some sketching - unsuccessfully (the sketching that is)!

I'm really a dog person although until 10 years ago I'd always had both, but Pepper has such a personality I find him endearing. My previous cats were called Theobalds 1, 2, 3 and 4 (pronounced Tibbles) and I find myself calling Pepper Tibbles or Mr. Tibbs which reminds me that he IS a he! I know now for certain I won't have another dog; a cat is so much easier and as my life is now I don't need the responsibility of a dog.

Some work in progress, I'm enjoying making this wall hanging using screen printed fabrics, some I printed last year. I'm considering some more machining maybe, which you can't really see in this photo!.

I'm part of a mini print exchange that Lesley http://printedmaterial.blogspot.co.uk/ has organised and have enjoyed planning a small piece of work; of course I'm not going to show what I'm up to!!

The grandchildren continue to delight. We took Barney to Standalone Farm in Letchworth, he's not usually shy in front of the camera!

Having fun with water, making tea I think!

Brother William is growing fast, now 9 weeks old and weighing quite a bit more than Barney did at 4 months; being full term makes life much easier.

Last week a friend and I went to The Bramble Patch in Weedon to join a Stephanie Redfern 2 day course. We had a lovely time and my next post will be all about it; I've not had time to finish my piece yet. Day 1 was printing/ painting fabrics and papers, great fun.

Happy cat

My new house guest, Pepper, is making himself very much at home, trying out all the best places to make himself really comfortable....

...on my patchwork fabrics here! These lovely fabrics are for a quilt for Barney's bed, blacks and reds.

More lovely work from my class at the weekend....

Mavis printed a delicate allium head,

Jenny with a prickly teasel

and Rebekah with cute reindeer...

ready for next Christmas. The results of another fun, busy day.



A bit of this and that......

A couple of weeks ago 3 lovely people came to my studio for their second lino day. Again we achieved a lot in a day, all making progress with some of the further processes that are possible with lino printing.

Jane is brushing off loose pieces of lino before inking up her tulips, using a rainbow roll of 3 different reds. A strong, graphic design which worked very well, as you can see.



To achieve the 2 colours of Louise's jug we cut the lino block in 2 parts, using a scalpel. I forgot to take a photo, but here Louise is inking up the jug part of the block with prussian blue.

The yellow tablecloth part of the print was inked up as a separate block and printed by carefully placing the block over the jug print. A really lovely print.

To achieve what Nettie wanted, she needed to print some backgrounds first, using a round stencil to mask out the moon. Difficult to over print in a day, due to drying time but we speeded it up with a hair dryer. Ideally you would leave a print to dry for a couple of days but it can take even longer.

 Nettie is about to place the inked up block on to the background before putting it on the press; here we have the lovely hare print.

Pepper, the latest arrival here slept most of the lino day, so far this seems to be the favourite chair in my studio.

Pepper is my one of my daughter's 3 cats; he had been a naughty cat at their house and has come to live with me. So far he is behaving and I'm enjoying having a cat around again. Our family cats were always tabbies and my last one died some years ago aged 17; the same month as I had to have my 15 year old labrador, Gypsy, put down. While I was working I felt I couldn't leave young animals on their own for long days so have been animal free. I've decided that now a dog would be a tie, so a 5 year old cat is ideal. I'm hoping he won't catch, or put off, the birds in my garden. After the print day there was a sheet of blue ink left on the table drying - Pepper investigated and left his mark as he wandered across the table!

                               

Luckily they were just example prints waiting to be printed over and can be cleaned off this piece of lino! I will need to get used to a cat in the house!!