I tawt I taw a puddy cat...

Collage cats.

Printed cats.

 

Stitched cats.

Cat cards galore for blupaisan as part of the June Birthday swap on Craftster. I especially like the collage cats sitting in the windowsill looking at the birds.  I always knew there was a reason why I keep scraps of paper!

Bunny!

Let me introduce you to Mr Rabbit!

This was made for jo_mama in the Craftster June Birthday Swap.  The pattern is Henry's Rabbit by Sara Elizabeth Kellner.  I used some aran wool in my stash, and it only took a couple of days to make.  Along with the knitted rabbit I printed on a tote bag, using a freezer paper stencil.

And off it went bunny hopping over the Atlantic!

There's a Narwhal in the Whirlpool...

...No seriously there is.  Look:

More narwhal themed Christmas goodies for MrCrafty.  The t shirt is actually the maroon colour in the first picture, my camera wants to make it a brighter red for some reason.  I used the freezer paper tutorial from MAKE.  I am quite happy with this as my first attempt, and now want to start stencilling more things, especially as I have a whole roll of freezer paper to play with!

Playing with my food.

Last week I heard someone say that if you can get to do the things you enjoyed as a child, when you are an adult - then life isn't too bad. With this in mind I did some vegetable printing!
Inspired by Geninne's fantastic wrapping paper, I attempted to make some paper for Mr Crafty's presents. In hindsight I probably cut my celery too close to the base, but I had to make sure the beasts were fed! And possibly blue paint with gold glitter isn't the most festive thing ever - but hey-ho, it was fun to do!
Things I like this week are: an article on Glasgow Yarn bombing, Twisty Foldy photography exhibition at the 13th note and festive dancing goats! Merry Christmas!

Printing & Partying in Edinburgh

An invite over to Edinburgh meant an excuse to check out some galleries. Off we went to Edinburgh Printmakers - a working studio, shop & gallery.
The exhibition was entitled 3D 2D: Object and illusion in print, from the centre for fine print research in Bristol. With 3D printing it seems the possibilities are endless, structures can be created that would be near impossible to create with other mediums. This film was being shown which explains the processes of printing 3D. The beautiful thing about this gallery, is that you look over the workspace below.
After this we popped along to The Royal Scottish Academy to look at New Works.
I particularly enjoyed the Health and Safety video by Anthony Schrag, taking urban climbing to its peak in Huntly. Getting in to the Halloween mood, we stopped off for a refreshment at the Jekyll and Hyde, cue playing with the food menus and admiring the bottles of strychnine.
After all this frivolity, it was time for some good food & some not so good dancing!

Pastels, spots and splashes!

Following on from my kingfisher painting, I decided to have a play with pastels. I remembered that I'd recently brought a black pad, and used this for the background. I think this makes the colours stand out more. However, it did make it difficult to photograph!
The posture of this kingfisher reminds me of a hummingbird. I don't think he is quite chunky enough to be a true kingfisher.

Trying to think more abstractly (and waste time on the computer!) I found a photo of a kingfisher and imported it in to paint.net. Using the pipette colour picker tool I transferred some shades of its coat to some random spots. I quite like how the colours work together. Would you have known it was inspired by a kingfisher?
And using a polystyrene pizza base I attempted to create stamps replicating kingfishers feather patterns. I printed them on a sheet of blue acetate, lakta paper and shiny blue paper. I like the contrast of the warm metallic colours and the backgrounds.

Fallingwater Clincher & Card

Following on from the previous Fallingwater samples I used mistyfuse to add merino wool tops and clippings of threads. This produced a delicate wispy effect.
I then painted some tyvek with acrylics, ironed to create texture and sewed to cloth using seed stitch and french knots. I think it looks like the earth from above.
Then whilst I had the paints out and was eating shop brought pizza, I used the polystyrene base to print on the surface of the cloth. Pizza definitely has a purpose!
I then had a look at all my samples to create a piece of my own. I chose a waist clincher/belt/under bust corset/thingy... The front is made from 4 panels, 2 printed with the pizza base (again!) and various dilutions of bleach (this really stripped the colour well), wisps of wool tops added with mistyfuse and lightly stitched; and 2 panels manipulated into a honeycomb effect. The back is plain green cotton and is linked with corset hooks. It is intended to can be worn with red ribbon wrapped around, to bring it back to my original sketch... remember?
Finally, my friend Paul is moving away from Glasgow, so in honour of many a night drinking in West - the only brewery in the UK to produce (intoxicating) beers to German purity laws. I made a cross stitch card, inspired by a pattern found in a charity shop bargain book Cross Stitch Year by Jo Verso.
After all this hard work, I think I am in need of a holiday ;)

Assignment 2 Finished!

Hello, things have been quiet on the blog front recently. I have been busy trying to finish my second assignment for my OCA Textiles 1. It finally went in the post yesterday - hurrah! After spend the last few weeks trying various printing & painting methods, its nice to see the dining table again! Above is a mix of printing using a stencil, and then covering with satin stitch, and below is my first attempt at silk painting. I really like the vibrancy of the colours!