Nice people share!

As I kept reminding my daughter during her early years, sharing is a nice thing to do. So here I am, skillsharing merrily with 5 lovely, local, would be printers.The remit was to create a Christmas card using one lino block and chine collé. We had 3 hours to cut and print. Everyone was a novice relief printer and I was really impressed at how quickly everyone adapted their designs and produced the cards.
First up we see Barb creating a christmas elf being squashed by a bauble. Hurrah!

Then Sasha did a cute wee robin.

Sarah did a partridge with Matisse overtones. Her lovely assistants are Orianna and Tilly.

Here is Emily's take on the partridge.

Libby also went for a cute wee robin but then she does like cute wee Robins.

Here they are hard at it.

Out of the Blue Christmas Art Fair

One rule I normally set myself before setting up a stall is 'DO NOT BUY ANYTHING YOU ARE HERE TO SELL'. But these little ceramic goats were dangled opposite me all day and by the end I just had to have some. The stall holder was Sigrid Pederson and I hope they are there next week cos I might have to go and get some more.

It was cold in the Drill Hall on saturday but I had a lovely day. Mostly thanks to the fine company of
Alison whose prints you can see in the foreground.

My Christmas cards were well received and are available on

Folksy you can also buy them locally in Cove

Cards

A big thank you to Roseanne at Urban Igloo who prompted me to get some cards printed. All are availabe at Urban Igloo.

Rockcliffe Jetty - the final cut?

Oh dear can't decide if I am happy or not. Not pleased with the far shore, too green? not green enough? too dark? too light? I am very pleased with the jetty. I used Somerset satin and velvet which creates different effects. I might have to do another colour to fix the far shore.

Nearly there

At this point I always get very nervous with a print and this one is no exception. All I can see are mistakes or opportunities missed. However I will grit my teeth and hope the final cut redeems.

Bass Rock Revisited

So here is my latest offering. It is a view of the Bass Rock from the John Muir Country park at Tyninghame. I have been mulling over a 'pebbly' scene for a while. I love how the pebbles have turned out.

I started out using a blend of brown, blue and greys to set the background. Then I set out the Bass Rock and highlighted the breaking waves with the green. Next came the brown and blues of the rocks.

The first 2 proofs used a dark blue on the base Bass Rock but stopped after the first 2 as I wanted the Rock to receed more.

Piggy!

So I had booked a studio session this morning to finish off the groyne picture but I knew it wouldn't take very long. I spent ages yesterday mooning about trying to find inspiration for something else to do.

I sketched a wee piggy on a lino block but then decided it was daft. My husband found it later and said he loved it. So I cut it out and am very pleased with the results. The image shown is a rough proof done last night in the add break on grand designs! My inability to remain monochromatic led me to create a background block.

It was so much fun to do. I kept giggling to myself in the studio each time I made one.

So here is that tree print finally printed up on lovely Fabriano paper using oil based ink.

Reduce, Reuse ,Recycle

So here is the fruit of all that kitchen floor cutting that went on earlier in the week.

I had the tree silhouette left over from a reductive lino cut. It seemed a shame not to use it again, so I recreated the back ground using 3 different blocks.

The first block i have cut in half and jigsawed together so i could do the sky and path colours in one go. I love wee cheats like that. The sky is created using blending which gives a nice graduated effect. The second block is the green, then third is brown. I think this one is too dark and I would use a more yellow colour next time. Lastly is the trees in a dark brown. The final print is good but I think i will head up to the studio and try and do it properly with oil based inks. I haven't quite got the hang of the water based inks and doing it at home.

Marvelous marmoleum

Today I am cutting up the remnant from my kitchen floor. As you can see I have already used a bit for the Grey Mare's Tail print.

Chine-collé

I had booked a session in the studio but finished my Renvyle print earlier than expected. So with nothing else to do I beavered away at cutting out this image of the Gray Mare's Tail. I love love love the spontaneity and speed of using chine-colle and think it really works for this image.

Hollyhocktastic!

Here is a print I have been fiddling with on and off all summer. Normally I use the reductive method of linoprinting which gives a certain frisson of russion roulette to each cut. I decided to experiment with creating 3 separate blocks for each colour. The benefit is that I can experiment with colours and fix mistakes, the down side is the difficulty in registration of the different colours. I am really pleased with the results and will definitely pursue this method.