I love it when I feel like stitching...

And today I did. This has been sitting on the workroom table for about a year now and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Today I just sat down and stitched what seemed to come naturally.

Here is the front of the book cover.

And below is the back.

The machine embroidery is basic but effective. I really love the Aussie motifs and plan to use them again in further designs and in different ways than the few that are shown here. More fun coming soon.

Printing the bottle tree design

Shirley asked how I printed the block on to the fabric so here is a tutorial. It is a very simple and straightforward process.

Step 1

Here is the carved lino block. I drew the design on to the block with a biro and then carved it with lino carving tools.














Step 2

I use a small paint tray and a sponge roller to apply the paint to the block. For this print I have used Cadmium Red acrylic paint straight from the tube.













Step 3

The paint from the tube has a nice sticky consistency and that helps it to adhere to the lino block. I did find that the Cadmium Red didn't print as readily as the Australian Red Gold I used last time. This could be because of the consistency of the different colours of paint or it could be because it was cooler last time than it is today and the paint may just have dried too rapidly today. I will have to experiment further to determine the reason.




Step 4

Place the lino block face down on the fabric (or paper) and press firmly with your hands.










And here is the printed fabric all done! It really is that simple!

A lot of catching up to do...

I've been struggling for the past month. The university year was over and I was so looking forward to doing lots of art and being in a relaxed and carefree mood. And... nothing happened.

I planned to list some goals here on this blog but, I just couldn't find any enthusiasm for art of any sort and the frustration grew. Finally I got my results from uni, having been very concerned about them, and found that I got much better results than I expected. A great relief and it seemed to open the flood gates. It is strange how something can affect me so much that I was frozen completely where art was concerned.

Since then I have been enjoying the 'holidays' and have had some fun experimenting with some artwork. There are several goals I would like to achieve and they are:

1. Complete two bags that I began earlier in the year. Machine embroidered, hand beaded.
2. Complete a pastel drawing of a scene from my time in Norway.
3. Carve and make lino cuts of the bottle tree design I created a while back.
4. Work this design into a major piece of textile art.
5. Begin work on a long planned wearable art outfit.

A while back I posted some drawings of a bottle tree that I abstracted. Yesterday I carved a lino mat ready to print and this morning I tried it out. Here is the paper test I made first of all:

I printed this in my journal to see how it would go and it turned out quite well. I love the texture that lino prints create.

Next, I tried it on fabric. The fabric is some hand dyed cotton I have had in the cupboard.
I first printed one copy and then wondered what would happen if a series were printed together and here is the result. There are some interesting patterns in the centre between each design. I will now work on it with stitch, but possibly not today as I stitched yesterday and it caused me a lot of shoulder pain so I need to take a break today.

And here is the other item I finished yesterday. I began making this bag almost a year ago and just didn't manage to complete it until now.
And here is a detailed shot. It doesn't photograph well, or should I say the photographer doesn't photograph well!