lots of printing, it's Autumn and two new stockists - phew

It's time for the Autumn flurry!

I've been printing and printing and printing.  Lots of packages are going out to galleries and online customers and it's all getting very exciting, because that means it really is the end of summer and it really is time to get on with it and stop thinking 'La la la ages and ages to do everything, la la la too sunny to work...'

I will update my list of stockists properly really really soon, but two new ones this week are:

 Dotty Dog Gallery in Shrewsbury, who are having their big official Launch Day on Sun 27th Oct (but they are open already so don't wait if you can't) and they have got some great printmakers showing as well as 3D work, so very excited to have work there...

...and West Yorkshire Print Workshop in Mirfield have got a set of my prints too - hurrah - how I wish I could pop in, but alas too far to manage it this month, I will have to send other people on my behalf, so go now please!!

I've also topped up several of my regular galleries and have a couple more to go in the next couple of weeks, phew.  Then I can play in the leaves and drink hot chocolates all day.

our house on a wet Sunday...

Today:

-Fighting the quails for elderberries - they love them & it's very funny watching them eat them & it must be good for them as they start to moult, but we want them to make Elderberry Rob...
-Cutting out the last two crows on a block of lino that now has forty eight crows, finished, yipee.
-Teaching a beginners lino course, indoors, out of the rain with hot tea and coconut slices.
-Drilling holes in walls to put up all the things that needed holes drilling.
-Playing card games about geography, yawn.
-Not seeing the ISS because it is cloudy AGAIN, will we see it at all this month? We really want to.

Must be Autumn.

Printing with leaves - it's autumn you know..

I've been printing fabric with blocks made from oak leaves from our local park and it is just such fun!

First, leaf collecting is compulsive - finding the perfect specimens (not too crispy, not too mushy, similar size to all its friends...) and it is really hard to decide that you have enough and should stop collecting now.  Picking them straight from the tree is not permitted, some would say that it is cheating, this is an Autumn leaf project NOT an any old time of year thing...

Second, gluing them all to make printing blocks - that is fun too, do I need to explain?  Gluing leaves to card, theraputic, satisfying and you get to peel all the glue of your skin at the end, keeping you occupied while the leaf blocks dry out.  Maybe have a cup of tea while pulling the glue/skin layer off?

Third, rolling ink all over leaves - this is art all by itself isn't it?  The leaves were a really good colour already but I do like green and making my very own leaf green was a good thing (my picture makes these look greeny black, but they aren't in real life, they are zing green, my very own shade)

Fourth, printing on fabric - good fun, great results and very hard to stop.  How many metres of leaf fabric do I NEED?  But look, every print has subtle differences, little nuances so I must continue all day until the leaves have had enough and I have enough fabric to upholster a tree or maybe a whole woodland.

Fifth, return to woods/park/wilderness to collect more leaves....