Play!

I had fun recently printing a picture for the East London Printmakers' summer exhibition, "Printathon"...

The exhibition is Olympic-themed, and I made a print about monkeys riding bmx bikes on a snake.  I used a stencil, bicycle tyre, block printing, screenprinting and embroidery to make the picture.  I started off creating a texture by using a stencil and a tyre from my bicycle to print with:

First I practised on this bright blue polycotton to see whether the bike tyre would work as a print, then later I printed it again on a pale turquoise linen for the final print.  As you can see, I printed it on the kitchen floor (perhaps my blog should be "kitchenfloorprintmaker"!), with my baby waiting patiently in his standy-thing while my husband took these photos.

 

After the stencil-tyre print, I block printed bmx-tyre marks on the snake, then screen-printed the monkeys, and machine embroidered then hand embroidered on the textile.

Here are some sneak previews of the final picture, which I called "Play!"  If you want to see the whole piece, it will be on display at East London Printmakers "Printathon" exhibition from 8th June-1st July at Foreman's Smokehouse Gallery, E3 2NT (see www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk for details).

berries print

I carved and printed a new design recently, of berries, made up of 2 lino blocks...

 

Camellia card

 

I made this stencilled Camellia print as a card for Mother's Day recently.  This was my process...

 

I photographed then sketched a Camellia plant which was blooming in the garden of our house.

 

I separated my sketch into 4 layers, by choosing the parts I would print in different colours.  Then I traced each layer onto some stencil card and cut out the shapes with a craft knife.

I stencilled each layer onto card, using a sponge and some fabric inks (produced a bit of a blobby effect, rather than using drier paint, e.g. acrylic, and a brush, but I had some nice colours already mixed in the fabric inks, and didn't mind the slightly blurry outcome).

Here are the printed cards (not yet folded) drying on a clothes horse...

...and here's the card I sent my Mum:

Indian block print

My friend Philippa gave me an old Indian wooden print block last Autumn, knowing my love of hand printing.  I went to visit her last weekend, so I used the wooden block to print onto fabric and made it into a clutch purse to give to her.

 

 

 

 

I inked the block with a bright pink fabric ink I had mixed up, rolled the colour onto the block and then stamped it onto the green lined fabric that I had cut out already to make the purse.

 

This is the finished purse.

doorstop and Lotta Jansdotter

 

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

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

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.