How is it?

How is it that very small people who are off school ill can quickly chip out a lino design, edition it and wander casually back to the sofa despite being too weak to possibly walk down the road and learn something?

...meanwhile in the same period of time I haven't cut out and editioned a monster (and her friend), but she's getting there and seems quite content to wait until next week to fully emerge.

cards in Etsy shop now

I have finally got round to listing some cards in my Etsy shop.  It is very hard to organize as I am sure you will appreciate - photos, typing, pondering, packaging - a never ending list.  But it is done and they are there, ready and waiting for someone with a spider lovers birthday coming up or a camera fan who is about to move house...

life outdoors

We've been doing a lot of this lately....it's lambing time, hooray.  Nothing beats cuddling a warm, woolly lamb to tell you that it's spring.

Time to start allotmenting and lining up seed packets, planning all the yummy veg that we will be transporting home by the wheelbarrow full later in the year (always good to be optimistic in the spring, don't you think).

Every time I have passed a packet of squash seeds through the winter I've found myself at the till, 'investing' in another variety, because we really love to eat them and now I find I have enough seeds to start a squash plantation - never mind the other veg. that I'm going to have to squeeze in around them.

It's also hard to see much printing happening over the next few weeks as the call of the soil has started, although I have signed up for our local arts trail and various other projects over the coming year and probably can't put the same pictures up as last year, can I?

Printing week

I cleared my diary of all my usual exciting social engagements and decided that this week would be 'Printing Week'.  I would stay glued to my roller until every space for drying prints was taken and my print boxes were full again...

I have managed to do a lot of cards, but somehow 'things' have managed to get back into my diary and I'm now going to have to squeeze printing week in around them.  Right now I'm off to Cardiff to see the lovely people at Oriel Makers, which will be great fun and I'm sure I will return inspired to print late into the evening, with a glass of something and some good music to work to!

coming soon...

I'm teaching a couple more lino printing workshops at the fantastic Papervillage soon...

'Beginners' and 'Improvers', both on April 1st.  These have been such good fun so if you are in the Bristol area and fancy a try, or have done it before and fancy a refresher get in touch with Papervillage and come along.  You could even be a beginner in the morning and an improver in the the afternoon!

I'm hoping that we will have some great multi-coloured prints by the end of the day, and it's such a good, versatile technique for home printing without lots of equipment too.  I am slightly biased and obsessed...

Just look at the concentration.  It's a serious business.

choosing pictures for Sheffield...

It's really hard to choose which pictures to choose to send to galleries when they leave it up to me!

The ones I love the most aren't always the ones that sell the best (and sometimes the ones I love sell not at all!) and different things sell in different galleries.  How does it all work?  Oh, and they have to all work together in some way, as a kind of 'set', so that the selection is interesting to flick through in a print browser.  The best way of choosing seems to be to spread them out everywhere!

This time they all also have to be images that are the size of a £20 note or smaller too.

These pictures are going to the Cupola Gallery in Sheffield for a 'Miniatures' exhibition if I can ever settle on which ones to send...