The Last...

...of the recent batch of monoprints.  Well, not the absolute last: rather, the last of the monoprints I can hand stitch.  Those that remain, have too much paint on them to make hand stitch comfortable, so will be machine stitched.   

I think this is my favourite of this current batch.  More colour variances, and varied texture and marks.  The stitch is pared back to allow those things to show through.  The blanket stitch is perhaps a bit heavy handed...though it looks better in real life. 

Coming to the end of a cycle of work is always problematic...what to do next?  I've started a small creativity group on Facebook, based around a monthly prompt.  I have a few ideas around that, so at least that's something.  However, they're mostly around paint, and I need to have some bits and pieces to do by hand on days when I'm sofa bound...so that needs to be thought about.  I've got a few bits and pieces tacked up and ready to go, so perhaps one of them.  They need a bit more thought, though.

Meanwhile, given I'm set up for paint... I wanted to experiment with Lutradur XL and paint, so, while I was monoprinting, I used some of the excess paint to put a wash on a piece that had been part of a larger book, but cut away when I changed my mind about it.  I then added some machine stitch.

 It's effectively the same colour, both  sides, but with different thread, plain on one side, variegated on the other.  Yup, more landscape... one of my defaults.  I think what this one wants, is to explore the idea of weather, and the changes in light, and therefore colour, that there are when there is a change in the weather.   Which doesn't exactly fit the bill for hand work...but hey... you do the work you have in front of you.

Watercolour...

...isn't something I've worked with in a long time, but playing with Cara using Granny's Magic Crayons at the weekend inspired me to try them out on Lutradur XL.  I'm not a huge fan of acrylic on lutradur, because, unless it is thinned down to the nth degree, it blocks the little holes, which give it its transparency, in my view, its greatest asset.  Besides, it does unpleasant things to the hand of fabric, and I'm not overly keen on stitching through it.  By and large, I stick with transfer dyes for lutradur, because they do none of these things, and were designed specifically for colouring polyester.  But hey, a girl can try other things... and it's tiring, by my standards, to work with transfer dyes, because they have to be painted onto fabric, then ironed on.  Great results, and fixed, to boot...but needs must when the devil drives. 

So...I wetted out the lutradur with clear water, and started adding colour direct, mixing it on the cloth.  I chose red because there was some red dye already at the corner of the lutradur, so I wanted to work with that; watercolour wouldn't have covered it up, of course, being transparent.  The risk of doing that is that you don't like what you get... and I didn't... so I took a monoprint of sorts from the wet paint. 

I didn't bother to unscrunch the paper, hence the white tree shape to the left hand side, and the crackle texture of the print in general, which I rather like.  It got rid of a fair amount of the paint, and I was able to continue...and finally made this...

This was taken while it was still wet; it will dry slightly paler, but hopefully not too much.  I'm planning to add another wash to the reverse side, so that this can become a book after stitching.  No, you're right, it's not particularly interesting at this point...but it has lots of room for stitch...and possibly some applique... we'll see.  I then went on and played a bit more with a block of lino and some paint, to make a selection of monoprints.  I don't have enough energy for lino cutting, so that seemed to be the best way of using the block...

I did some prints on paper, some on lutradur, the last image is the one I like best, but, like the painting, it has plenty of room for stitch.  Should keep me out of mischief for a while...

Notes To Self.

1. Don't try to work when you're overtired; it's going to end in tears.

2. You can never have enough clear workspace when you're printing.

3. Sometimes good things come out of bad stuff.


So... printing....  Seemed like a good idea.  Was narked about an online conversation I'd been having (should know better, really), and thought, I'll go play a bit.  I ignored the fact that I'd already brushed and washed the kitchen floor, which had taken most of my energy.  Yes, I'm an idiot.  Yes, I should have asked Robin to do it.  Yes, it looks better.  Just every so often I like to prove I can still do this stuff.

Had already looked out the stuff I wanted to use, so... and that was my first mistake.  Really, there wasn't enough room on that table top... but being me, I Just Got On With It. 

Mixed up the ink, new to me, printing ink for fabric... got sort of the colour I wanted, eventually, but mixed far too much... sigh. 

The palette knife came from a pound shop; the glass I'm working on is an old fridge shelf....it's an ideal size for the kind and scale of  work I do.  Did a test print on paper... which gave me a clear indication that this particular block is fine for printing.  I grabbed the first bit of paper I could find, some watercolour paper.  It was bone dry, so the print quality isn't great, but since I don't suppose I'll use it for anything, so who cares.

Reader, I rather liked it.  So I decided to use it to print on one of the hand made books I've made recently, which I'd been mulling over.  The block is slightly narrower and somewhat longer than each page, but hey, I thought, it'll be fine.  And it would have been, had I followed points one and two, above.  First page printed, no problem.  In order to print the second, I had to move some stuff...and realised that I'd dipped the first page into the ink, inadvertently.  What an idiot.  Fortunately, it didn't look too bad, and I simply extended it along the rest of the pages...but it could have been a perfectly decent book, written off.  I really am an idiot. 

So... printed, it looks like this.  Because Lutradur XL, like all the lighter weights, is semi transparent, you can actually see elements of the other side. 

Stand it up against the light, and it's even more obvious

I'm really pleased with this.  Not bad for a handful of scraps and a printing block...

I did a bit more printing, which I'll show you tomorrow, swathed the remaining ink with cling film and hoped for the best.  Should be okay til tomorrow.  What did strike me is that I need to start using my press if I want even printing results.  I like the way this has turned out, but it won't be appropriate for every project, and I'm not getting enough pressure, sitting down.  You live and learn.  And now I need a sleep.

Pride Cometh...

...before a fall, I know.  Amongst the goodies in Heather's bag were three long strips, two of fabric, one of paper.  Wrapping, I thought.  Definitely.  So I folded a book using Lutradur XL.  First mistake.  Yes, it folds.  No, it doesn't hold well, so it doesn't like standing up, and it's not easy to handle.  It really needs to be pressed into shape for a while before you use it, for a book anyway.  Won't be doing that again in a hurry.  And then I wrapped it.  Looks okay, I thought. 

Reasonable balance, lots of space within the structures, not sure about that first page, but otherwise...
And then I turned it over.

And discovered that the fabric was not lying flat...looked awful.  Puckered, too.  In the end, I realised that the problem was tension (in art as in life, sigh).  The strips were too long for me to keep a consistent tension on them, so what I thought was a good thing, actually wasn't.  So I had to dismantle it, leaving the blue paper strip untouched (it would have torn if I had tried to remove it, and I like it where it is, fortunately.  This is version two, where I've wrapped and cut. 

Am I happy?  Not with that bit on the left hand page, where two pieces of fabric converge, just doesn't work, need to do something about that.  I think that's always going to be a risk with wrapping, need to be careful with how I deal with the ends.  And whilst it doesn't seem to matter how long the paper strips are, fabric strips are problematic if I make them too long.  Otherwise, though, it's better.  I like this simple, graphic approach, but in this case, I think it might be too simple... watch this space...

Sorting

Sorting is a wonderful word.  It can mean either fixing something, or bringing order to something.  I did a bit of both, yesterday.  First, the back of 'Purple Rain', which now has text: definitely fixed that; it feels like a definite improvement.

,

A visit from the postman brought a large padded envelope from my friend Heather in Norfolk.  She sent me this little lot, which I was more than happy to sort through....

I oohed and aahed as I did so; there's quite a variety of things in there.  I have to say that I got sidetracked very quickly.  I was intrigued by some organza with shreds of newspaper stuck to it (got to do some of that with organza, and some in light weight lutradur; it would be interesting to burn it off in places...).  I found several small pieces that seemed to want to go together.  Sometimes, all you can do is respond to what you find; here's my response to three different elements  They are pretty much in the condition they were when Helen sent them, with the exception of the organza, which was attached to a larger piece, so I cut them apart.

The circles are light card, and I suspect they're die cut.  The vertical strips were combined as one strip on a larger piece, but as they were attached with sellotape, I was able to remove them (I have plans for the larger piece, but that's another story for another day).  Running along the bottom is a strip of that organza I mentioned earlier.

For reasons best known to my unconscious mind, this makes me think of Scandinavian forests in summer.  No, I've never been to Scandinavia...but hey... the position of the circle suggests the sun, travelling through the sky.  Unfortunately, there were three circles, but four pages.  Five pages would have given a better visual balance,  but I think what I've got works well.

The book is made from Lutradur XL.  So far, I've only got one this one side completed, and, whilst I had contemplated making something similar on the reverse with my own fabrics, I think it might be better to paint and print on the reverse.  No stitch.  This is a crisp image; stitch would clutter it up.   I have no idea what else I'll do with the treasure trove Heather sent me...but I dare say, over time, I'll think of something...

Nothing Is Ever Wasted.

It's what I tell people, when they say, that didn't work out, or, I don't know why I wasted my time doing x, or some variant thereof.  No experience is ever wasted.  At some point, you will use it, even if it isn't directly.  So, when I found this very small silk piece and thought, is this actually worth working on, that should have been the thought that went through my head.  I'm ashamed to say it wasn't.  I very nearly put it in the bin.

Admittedly it doesn't look terribly prepossessing.  Habotai silk, hand dyed, tiny slivers of pale blue tissue paper that I coloured somehow, long stitches with knots either end... whilst it looks better in 'real life', it certainly needs a good iron.  It's one of those sketches, I think, that I've been talking about over the past while.  And it's so small, and so delicately coloured, that additional work won't make it into a silk purse, as opposed to the proverbial sow's ear...  And yet...  So I put it aside, and have been glancing at it for at least a week.  I'm a great believer in putting time into a process, particularly when there seems to be nowhere left to go.

And here's the upshot of that invested time.  I have quite a few strips of Lutradur XL, which I want to turn into textile books, but with no place to start, I've been avoiding them.  Perhaps this piece is the start.  It might not be in this current incarnation, certainly, but scaling it down into a repeating motif over a book would bring out the best of its delicate nature.  I have more of that thread, though not of the tissue...but I could recreate that, if I felt it was necessary.  Now, all I have to do is get on with it. A way in, at last.

I'm sure you've heard me say 'trust the process', more than once.  I just want to add something to that.  Add time into that process, when all seems lost.  Let your unconscious work out what to do.  It always knows.

Decisions, Decisions...

Back to the bags of scrap; one bag, in particular, offering two options for elements I have paired.  Sadly, the images don't do this justice...but bear with me.

I've got a lovely rectangle of hand dyed linen, which is frayed on all four sides.  Firstly, I've paired it with a roughly postcard sized piece of Lutradur XL:

I love the texture of the frayed edges, but it looks pretty boring by itself.  What I wanted was something that made the eye travel across the piece, and I came across this piece of lutradur 30, which I think fits the bill...

I think it has been the last of several prints; I like the eye to the far right.  It doesn't show well, here, but there is also pale green in the mix.  Combining the two gives this...

This isn't working at all... I wanted to show you that positioning in this kind of work is everything.... if you move the print across, though, you get this :

This suggests that the dark brown of the cloth is travelling across via the lutradur.  I rather like it, but I do want to be sure.  So I tried it on a larger square of Evolon :

That changes the balance of the piece, but not my intentions; I still want that idea of brown travelling across to the other side of the piece, so that lutradur needs to come into play again.

This time, you see much more of the lutradur and that elusive eye print... and it's decision time.
For me, though, it's a no brainer; the first one wins.  Why?  Because of what I said my original intention was; to have the brown travel into the right hand side of the cloth.  Yes, it does do that in both pieces, but in the second piece, I feel that what ought to be a detail, a suggestion, is in fact dominating the piece. 

So, we're back to this :

I quite like this: it's a sketch, admittedly, not an important piece, but it will be interesting to see what happens when I add stitch to it.  Looking at the image again, I think that the very long bits of thread hanging from it are a distraction, so they will go.   Then a lot will depend on the choice of thread and the type of stitching.  I'm not going to stitch through the XL, however, as I'm likely to use hand stitch, rather than machine, and stitching through a heavy backing is tiring...so I'll use a lighter lutradur, and fuse it to the backing later.  Given that the stitching is likely to be intense, I'll probably make it a bit bigger than the backing, to allow for shrinkage. 

So...what would you have chosen? 

I shouldn't be allowed...

...to write blog posts when I'm feeling sorry for myself, my apologies for getting a bit maudlin yesterday, and my thanks to the kind people who responded.  Since I have so much work floating about, and not enough room to keep it all, I'm listing some of it on Etsy at what I think are good prices; I want them to Move On Out There, and keep other people happy.  And, of course, letting me buy more wool, to make more felt... it's a virtuous cycle.  (Well, okay, that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

This is the first of them; Dreaming The Butterfly.  I love making felt, and hope to spend more time doing it in the near future.  This piece is made from hand dyed wool tops, hand stitched with hand dyed perle threads, and then mounted on transfer dyed Lutradur XL.  I'm pleased with it.  It's a small piece, about 8" by 6.75" all told.

I also want to make more work associated with butterflies.  Butterfly is one of my totem animals; it represents change and joy (read more about it here if you're interested).  Butterflies seem to have been following me around this year.  For some reason, I spent most of the summer encouraging them to get out of the conservatory, even though there are no flowers or tempting things for them in there, or anywhere near it.  And the garden has been full of them.  Next year, I'm going to plant flowers for them; I've already added a buddleia to the border at the bottom of the garden.

In this particular piece, though, the butterfly is still in its cocoon (the only bit of wet felting in the piece), and is dreaming, under a hot red sun, of what its life will be like as a butterfly.  We can all dream happy dreams about the future now and again...I hope this piece will remind someone of how important positive thoughts are...