It’s time to start blogging again. Recently I’ve been bringing my allotment back from overgrowth ready for Spring, which has included editing the bed sizes and replacing rabbit fencing.
In the studio I’ve been experimenting with gel plate monoprinting, a process I was introduced to by a friend recently. Pat was using botanicals (mostly leaves) as stencils, which led to my using pressed flowers and leaves that had been my mother’s and that I rescued when she died last spring. My mother used to make cards, she made thousands of them over about 50 years and recorded every one she sent (what, who and when) in a series of notebooks. I decided to make cards too but in a different way and without the rigorously detailed documentation! I also resurrected some stencis I cut several years ago. I had taken a rubbing of a Victorian drain cover in Heligan Gardens and used some of the stencils to screenprint onto aprons I’d made. I have been using what was left for the monoprints. They are mostly made with 3 layers, leaves/flowers in one colour, Heligan stencils in another and strips of paper for a third. I’ve really enjoyed being surprised by the different colour combinations as they are revealed.
I’ve also been making pots, trying out new sgraffito decoration of trees,(or maybe tributaries) ,on mugs and vases. I wanted to channel the woodland I walk in every day and also the sea that I swim in less frequently. The glaze colours I had previously used, copper (green), cobalt (blue), manganese (brown) and iron (honey) seemed too harsh for these things so I mixed some together and now have a gentler, more natural palette of colours to work with over white slip. Also knitted a patchwork blanket for our new grandson born 2 days ago!
In the studio I’ve been experimenting with gel plate monoprinting, a process I was introduced to by a friend recently. Pat was using botanicals (mostly leaves) as stencils, which led to my using pressed flowers and leaves that had been my mother’s and that I rescued when she died last spring. My mother used to make cards, she made thousands of them over about 50 years and recorded every one she sent (what, who and when) in a series of notebooks. I decided to make cards too but in a different way and without the rigorously detailed documentation! I also resurrected some stencis I cut several years ago. I had taken a rubbing of a Victorian drain cover in Heligan Gardens and used some of the stencils to screenprint onto aprons I’d made. I have been using what was left for the monoprints. They are mostly made with 3 layers, leaves/flowers in one colour, Heligan stencils in another and strips of paper for a third. I’ve really enjoyed being surprised by the different colour combinations as they are revealed.
I’ve also been making pots, trying out new sgraffito decoration of trees,(or maybe tributaries) ,on mugs and vases. I wanted to channel the woodland I walk in every day and also the sea that I swim in less frequently. The glaze colours I had previously used, copper (green), cobalt (blue), manganese (brown) and iron (honey) seemed too harsh for these things so I mixed some together and now have a gentler, more natural palette of colours to work with over white slip. Also knitted a patchwork blanket for our new grandson born 2 days ago!
| | |
RSS Feed