kitchentableprintmaker

doorstop and Lotta Jansdotter

2012-02-17T15:15:00.003Z

I made this doorstop following a pattern in Lotta Jansdotter's book "Simple Sewing". I didn't print the fabric, it's an African fabric I bought in Dalston Market.

I like Lotta Jansdotter's work and have 3 books of craft projects by her. She makes printed textiles, and you can see a good demo of handmade printing, "Stencils and Yams", by her with Etsy on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pnu0AsoPJb0

I like the simplicity of Lotta Jansdotter's prints and her sewing projects are also easy to follow. It didn't take long to make this doorstop, which is just what I needed in our new house, and is made up like a saggy box - 4 sides, a bottom and a top with a handle, all stitched together, and I filled it with rice for the weight.

You can see Lotta's work on her website, and she also has a blog which you can go to from the link on her website: http://www.jansdotter.com/

house print

2012-02-12T15:20:00.004Z

I made a small lino carving of 2 houses and tried printing it today. I'm not happy with the result, but I might try carving houses again and see if I can improve the design.

button purse

2012-01-28T13:13:00.005Z

I made a simple button-fastening purse, using my shell block-printed fabric.

First I cut out 3 pieces of fabric - for the purse, the lining and the button catcher. Then I sewed the bottom of the fabric and lining together and pinned the button catcher upside down on the top of the right side of the outer fabric.

I folded the bottom of the fabric to the height that I wanted the purse to be (the top with the button catcher pinned on it will be the flap), then folded the bottom of this fabric into an M-shape, with the lining on top of it, to make the purse wider at the base. Then I folded the lining fabric on top again, up to the button catcher and sewed it all on 3 sides, leaving a gap to turn it inside-out.

I turned it inside-out and top stitched across the gap, and finally added a button by hand.

Thanks to http://www.liaspace.com/2010/05/tutorial-simple-lined-pouch.html whose online tutorial I adapted the instructions from.

Kiran Ravilious

2012-01-18T13:43:00.003Z

While surfing the internet recently, enjoying looking at hand printed textiles, I came across the inspiring artwork and blog of Kiran Ravilious.

I think it's not allowed to reproduce people's online photos without permission, so I can't show her work here, you'll have to visit her blog: http://blog.kiranravilious.com

Kiran hand prints lino blocks onto textiles and sells cushion covers, bags, children's clothes etc. on Etsy. The lino blocks are beautifully carved designs which seem to take inspiration from organic forms. I also like her post about her studio in a lovely shed in her garden. Check it out! As I mentioned - very inspiring!

clasp pouch

2012-01-12T18:54:00.002Z

Well, I finally got around to making a finished clasp pouch, as I learned on the bag-making course at Morley College last autumn (I made a couple during the course but hadn't quite got it right until the end and didn't have time to finish off the final pouch until now). I had the pattern pieces for 3 bags, and now have finished one completely...

First I cut out the pattern and marked on it where I was going to sew, using the clasp to check where to stop sewing the base of the bag together.

I also sewed the lining and a piece of calico together (the lining is a thin muslin so I backed it with some calico)...

... and mitred the corners of the lining and bag material.

Here's the finished pouch.  It's about 6 inches wide.  Aside from help in the bag-making course at Morley, I also followed the guidelines of this great online tutorial to make the bag:

http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2006/12/purse_frames_de.html

I haven't included full details here of how I made this clasp pouch, but if you go to that tutorial, it has great guidelines.

box set edition

2011-11-22T16:58:00.002Z

Every year at East London Printmakers, we make an edition of about 50 prints (42 this year), which we then divide into boxes with sets of one of each of the 42 members' prints in each box. Here is how I made my edition of 50 prints...

I decided to make a linocut and print it at home. I made a two-colour print - the background is a blend of red and yellow, and the foreground is a landscape of a churchyard (based on a photograph I'd taken). The prints hanging in the window are test prints (not the final edition).

We just moved house in October, hence the stripped walls in the background of this photo. I'm printing at the table and hanging the prints from a clothes horse to dry.

I printed the lino using a baren (a flat disc designed for printing by rubbing the back of paper on top of an inked block), but you could use a wooden spoon. Two handy hints I learned from Nick Morley for printing with a baren: put some greaseproof paper under the baren to stop the paper from moving as you rub the back of it and also to prevent scuffing the paper with the baren; then, 'lock' your elbow to make a strong straight forearm to rub the print with pressure. It's impossible to reproduce the effect of a press when transferring the ink by rubbing the back of the paper by hand, but I got some decent (though varied) prints among the edition of 50!

shell block prints

2011-10-10T17:03:00.000+01:00

Last week I printed some more of my shell-design block print fabric, to use in making a clutch purse.

The small area of printed fabric on the right, I printed about 2 years ago, then the new green area is the first layer of my recent printing, with the lino block for this first colour sitting on the fabric next to its printed mirror image.

On the back of the lino block I have marked an arrow so that I can see which end is the top when printing, and two small lines halfway up the block because I want to print this design as a half drop design, where each block starts halfway down from the top of the previous image. I just line up the marks with the top of the image next to the one I'm printing. The half drop provides a more flowing pattern than if I repeated the images side by side.

I have a blanket on the table so that the fabric absorbs the ink when pressed, and it doesn't bleed out of the sides of the block due to the fabric being pressed against a hard surface. Then I'm printing the block by rolling textile ink onto the lino with a foam roller and just applying pressure with my hands to the back of the block. Results of printing by hand pressure can vary with different fabrics - it's a matter of trial and error for me - but it prints well on this pure linen fabric.

After printing the green layer, I printed a pink layer and finally a brown layer from a block cut to define the outlines of the shell shapes. I separated the three colours of my original design, and use a different piece of lino for each one.

making bags

2011-09-26T18:18:00.000+01:00

I started a 12-week course about sewing bags 2 weeks ago, at Morley College in Waterloo, because I want to make the fabric that I print into small bags and pouches. Here are some sketches for bag designs that I drew in the last class:

I'm going to use material that I printed previously. Here are 2 photos of a make-up bag that I made 2 years ago, using fabric that I printed with an autumn leaves design, using screenprinting and discharge binder to print the lighter mustardy colour of the leaves onto the dark blue linen.

I only made two of these pouches 2 years ago - one for myself and one for my mum. Now I'm doing this bag-sewing course to learn to sew and finish the projects properly. I just taught myself how to make this make-up pouch, using a pattern from the internet, and although it came out well, you can see that the zip insert and the lining could be done more beautifully.

I also have some of this block-printed shell-pattern fabric left (not as much as in the photo) that I printed 2 years ago, and sewed up into a simple tote bag as a present for a friend:

I have used up almost all of both the autumn leaves and the shell fabric, so I need to print some more to make into the new bags. The shell print is simpler to make, as I can do it at home with the lino blocks, so I will start with that first of all, and hope to make up some lovely professionally finshed bags soon!

tobias and the angel

2011-09-02T11:41:00.000+01:00

Last June (2010) I went on a great block printing one-day workshop at Tobias and the Angel's workshop in Surrey. They have a massive range of print blocks which they purchased from Yately industries for the disabled, and they now use to print their own hand block-printed cloth and products, and to teach workshops with.

On the day, the workshop participants chose a dye colour and we were shown how to brush it onto a felt-topped dye pad, stamp the block onto the dye-pad and print it on the cloth using a mallet to hit the back of the block with pressure.

We also used a weight on the fabric, to start printing at one edge of the fabric and move it away from us as we printed, ensuring the inky area wasn't touching the printer and the fabric didn't slip off the table.

The blocks I used had repeat designs that connected end to end, and I was shown how to mitre the pattern at the corners using a folded piece of paper to block off the print in the correct place in the corner.

I really recommend a workshop at Tobias and the Angel. I was very satisfied with the print I made and the learning process, and the workshop is in beautiful surroundings with inspiring equipment and people.

printing on fabric with flocked lino

2011-08-24T19:56:00.000+01:00

I experimented with glueing flocking powder onto a lino block and printing onto fabric with it.

The reason was to get a stronger print because the flocked surface should hold more textile ink than the smooth lino surface.

You can buy ready-flocked lino for textile printing, e.g. from heart-educational.co.uk, and I have tried printing with this. The problem with it is that it is difficult to carve the flocked lino with a lino-cutter. If you cut out solid shapes with this flocked lino it prints well, but it's hard to carve lines or detail into.
That's why I thought I'd apply flocking powder to a block that had already been carved.

William Morris used to apply velvet flock to the large areas of his wooden printing blocks, and when I went on a one-day block-printing workshop at Tobias and the Angel a couple of years ago, we used lino blocks coated with wool-flock, and these printed well.

I used an old lino block that I carved a while ago as an example for a card-printing workshop. First I rolled textile ink on it and printed it without the flocking powder, so I could compare the difference later of prints with and without the flocking powder.

I applied PVA glue to the block with a foam roller then shook flocking powder onto the block through a sieve, and left it to dry.
Then I inked up the block in the usual way I do for fabric printing - by rolling textile ink on it with a foam roller. I printed the block just by applying pressure onto the back of the block with my hand.

The result... Well, it didn't work very well! In the above photo the bottom half of the fabric shows the prints with the flocked block (and the top half shows just the inked-lino prints). The flocked block did print a stronger image but lost some of the detail of the carving (the flocking powder had filled in the crevices), or if I pressed more lightly it just didn't print well.
Plus because I'd just used PVA glue to adhere the flock, when I washed the block the flocking powder and glue washed off as well as the ink, because PVA is water-soluable.

I'd like to try it again though, as there was some more intensity with the flocked lino block. Next time I'll use a waterproof glue, and apply a thinner coverage of the flocking powder to try to avoid losing some of the detail of the carving.

dreams exhibition in the Freud Museum

2011-04-10T12:10:00.000+01:00

Here are my 'Flying and falling curtains' in situ, in the Freud Museum, north-west London.

dreams exhibition

2011-02-21T18:03:00.000Z

I have been making a piece for an East London Printmakers' group exhibition, 'Dreams', which will be at the Freud  Museum from next Thursday 3rd March.  My contribution is 'Flying and Falling Curtains' - block printed and screen printed figures, embroidered onto lightweight muslin fabric and hung as curtains in the museum.

I printed the block print lotus design by cutting my design out of a piece of lino, rolling some textile ink onto the lino using a foam roller so that the ink doesn't slide off the lino (as it would with a hard roller and runny ink), then just pressing the lino face-down onto the fabric.  I used different tones of pink for the lotus prints on flying figues and overlapped the flower images.

After I'd printed the figures, I embroidered them onto the muslin with a sewing machine - I embroidered an outline all around the flying figures in gold thread, and the falling figures (on other curtain, not pictured) are embroidered around with outlines in red thread. See the East London Printmakers website for more details of this group exhibition.

t-shirt print

2010-10-07T10:09:00.000+01:00

This one was not at the kitchen table - I printed it at East London Printmakers - you could print this at home, but would need some equipment to prepare the screen. This is a t-shirt I printed for a birthday present for a friend who likes meditation and motorbikes. I made the print by scanning in the cover of the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence, printing out the scanned image, coating a screen with photo-sensitive emulsion and exposing the stencil onto the screen using a uv lightbox. I then printed it in a bright blue colour on the t-shirt.

linocut greeting card

2010-09-22T14:33:00.000+01:00

I taught a class last week on making greeting cards using linocut stamps. I prepared an example by cutting out a traditional design from the copyright-free pattern book, 'Sarasa Woodblock Patterns', and carved it out of a small piece of lino then printed it by rolling ink on the block and pressing hard on the back of the stamp.

press printing and potato printing

2010-09-10T10:09:00.000+01:00

I did some quick tests for community art classes that I taught this week. The first method is polystyrene press printing. It's a nice simple introduction to relief printing. All you have to do is scratch your design into the polystyrene tile using a pen or pencil, roll some block printing ink onto the tile, then print it by placing the tile face down on a piece of paper and applying pressure with your hand or by rolling it with a clean roller.
You can get polystyrene tiles for craft use at www.homecrafts.co.uk

Next I did some potato printing to get ready for a 'Crafts for Families' class that I started teaching this week. Again, a simple but effective way of making a quick print. I printed the heart stamp onto some plain cotton and then sewed it by hand into a little drawstring bag. Parents can do this activity with their children - if the parent cuts out the potato, the kids can do the printing and then the parent make it into a bag for their child to carry around their toys, slippers or pyjamas.

thistle print 2

2010-09-07T09:08:00.000+01:00

I didn't do much on the thistle print last week as I had a cold and felt like I had no energy, but went back to it briefly at the weekend. This print isn't really working out for me - I'm going to leave it for the time being and work on something else. At least our cat, Trumpet, enjoyed the print table!

thistle print

2010-08-24T14:07:00.000+01:00

Tried this print today, with one lino block mirrored, for the thistle design I'm working on. I want to print it in a greyish colour on some pale green linen that I've got, and add a few flecks of bright red in another small pattern between the 'thistles'. This design is intended for cushion covers.