Lino Printing workshop in Bristol

Do you like to be spur of the moment and be creative at a seconds notice?  Great, then this is for you!

I'm teaching a beginners Lino Printing course tomorrow at Makers in Bristol - yes tomorrow!  Is that short enough notice for you?   There is a space left, so if you are in the area and ready and waiting for a creative challenge follow the link for booking details here.

It's going to be intensive. In just three hours we will have designed, carved and printed pictures and greetings cards but then you will have the rest of your weekend free to recover, whilst gazing with a satisfied air at your editioned prints.  What a great way to end the summer and kick start your creative Autumn...

Romans and holidays

Here's a little test print of a Roman image I'm doing as a commission (which handily is the same size as a greetings card, lets not waste any time here...).  Have you tried cutting fake mosaic in lino recently?  If so let me have your hints and tips please.

This is based on an Orpheus mosaic found near Bath many years ago and the rest of it is filled with great shaped animals, dancing to the wonderful music Orpheus plays, which I'm really looking forward to doing (in a pixelated way).

We've just got back from a great week away too, and I thought that this photo summed up the holiday pretty well - look at the weird mix of footwear that our little group decided on for a summer walk in the UK - we were definitely expecting and getting every type or weather that day!  Can't beat a week living in a field, washing in a bucket though...

allotment day

We're spending a couple of days at the allotment this week, catching up with the hundreds of little jobs that were ignored through the sunshine, because really, no one is supposed to work when it is sunny, are they?

This year has been amazing for flowers, berries and veg on our plot, and we are seeing so many bees at the moment (50% of growing space is covered with self seeded borage which may have something to do with the sheer numbers of bees - that borage gets everywhere) especially early in the morning on a sunny day.

It all looks pretty lovely - which is why I never take my camera...

Today I had a brain wave though, look, I've scanned in some beans to show you instead.  And I've scanned in a courgette too, which slightly messed up the focus.  So now you know what beans look llike, but are still non the wiser as to the look of our vast borage plantation.  Oh, well...

The Naked Hedgehog Project

Photos by Lou


This is your chance to join in with a fun summer project - The Naked Hedgehog Project.

We've printed lots and lots of hedgehogs, but they need your help, they don't have prickles...

...you can make prickles any way you like - sewing/painting/printing/sticking/college - the choice is yours and then you can make your little hedgehog into a toy/cushion/clothing/bunting/a bag/anything else you can think of...we've made ours into little hedgehog shaped cushions...

In the Autumn we are having a window display of hedgehogs at Papervillage in Bristol as lots of regulars to the shop are joining in (as well as a local Brownie pack) but there is also a Naked Hedgehog Project Facebook page and it would be amazing to have a collection of hedgehogs living there together.

If you fancy having a go and joining in you can get hold of your naked hedgehog here (they are £3 each) or if you are in Bristol pop in to Papervillage.  

I'm so excited to see what everyone does and can't wait to have a Naked Hedgehog Project Facebook page populated with lots and lots of happy, prickily hedgehogs!!

Would you like to join the Naked Hedgehog Project??

summer

The hardest part of my week this week has been thinking of things to do with black currants.  We only have two bushes.  That should be just right for a family of black currant lovers.  This year they have been in bumper, berry overdrive.  Which is good.  But now the freezer is filled with frozen berries, there's a line of jars of jam in the cupboard and a bottle filled with yummy black currant cordial in the fridge.  And there are still berries on the bushes... oh, and the red and white currants too...Can I open an urban pick-your-own farm?

In other summer holiday news I have already spent a day sitting in a 'playbarn' for about 2000 tedious hours with my arms sticking to the top of a plastic table.  My plan - get it over with on day one and then force the children to potter about in nature for the entire rest of the time, or if there really has to be an alternative to nature we could make something out of paper and glue and glitter.  We have done the 'playbarn' already this summer and so do not need to return.

the squirrels are coming...

I've had a great run of commissions recently, this one was fun and I really want to visit now.  It's on the Isle of Wight so in this glorious sunshine it would be a fantastic little outing for me.  I had to include squirrels as the lucky owners of this house have red squirrels as frequent visitors to their garden - I hope you can spot them lurking in the trees...

If anyone else living in a beautiful/exotic/beach facing location would like to commission a lino print just let me know before the weather turns and I will be straight over!

Fabric printing - happy fish

Printing on fabric and then filling it with stuffing is very satisfying and also very distracting.  Other work I should be doing is struggling to compete with the thrill of stuffed animals.

I'm sure this fish is very friendly and to me he looks like a happy fish, but several people have commented on his very sharp teeth - it's not his fault and he promises not to use them on your fingers, he really is happy, you see.

I made him in one of those blurry moments of activity when you suddenly think "I'm going to print a bright green fish NOW, even though I should be helping my children with their spellings, and nothing will stop me, even a house with not one inch of clear space to work or the fact that there is nowhere to dry them...it will be done".

Because these are prints I can never stop at one, or even two and now I'm going to spend the rest of the summer sewing up the other members of the shoal (and all his hedgehog friends, we have a LOT of hoglets in our house at the moment - more on that later, because you can have one too...)

But for now I'm going to have to stop printing animals and get on with some REAL work, because the summer holidays are coming, (hooray, hooray) and I have two commissions to finish first. Maybe I'll just sew another fish first, because I have got some really nice watery fabric that will make a great back...