Armadillos!

Nine tiny Armadillos

Yippee!!  I knew Armadillos were the next big thing...the first flock are off to sunny Australia with a couple of other friends.

Just wait, 2014 will be the year of the Armadillo - cushions, tea towels, wall decals, bunting and matching slippers and you were lucky enough to see it here first....

New prints

 Gulp

I've had a bit of a flurry!

Lots of ideas that have been sitting in sketch books have managed to get out recently....

Nine tiny armadillos

I'm not sure why I wait until a really busy time of year to suddenly HAVE to do new lino cuts, but maybe it is to sub consciously remind myself that it is not all about packaging and wrapping and standing in a long queue at the post office, that the plan all along was to make lino prints.

Cat on its brain, it's going to rain, again...

I've listed several new prints on Folksy and Etsy, so take a look...

Now I can concentrate on the important things, like where to get some gold tissue paper from and whether the queue in the Post Office will take longer than the time left before school pick up (answer is always yes, however early I set off, is there a PO queue app that anyone knows of???)

Animal prints and tea towels

Spotters Guide

I've been doing lots of printing recently, ready for that busy time of year...

I think in the summer I assumed I was on top of it all and that I would be avoiding the quiet panic of low stock and ideas that really must be done before the end of November.  But a few parcels to galleries and some online sales and suddenly the pile of lino prints doesn't look quite as big as i would like...

That was last week though!
Now I am happily back in charge, prints editioned (some wont be dry until tomorrow, but that's ok), cards in cellophane and little bows happily tied around a pile of tea towels, gift tags printed up ready for packaging up orders and the whole house back to it's happy chaotic state, a sure sign that printing has been happening...

have a look in my shops here and here if you fancy some lino printed goodies...

Today I've used up the last of my big paper stash, so a restock is needed because I've only proofed a couple of new lino prints and now I want to print the rest...I'm sure there is time to fit it in and it wont turn into another last minute rush.

don't look if I normally give you a Christmas present...

I've been printing on fabric a lot this week --- I've printed a very large number of birds on my bedroom curtains, which has been good fun and as usual taken over a large part of the house as they've needed a big space to dry/cure for several days.    This project has taken precedence over all other activities as it is very important to have birds on curtains, more so than having meals at sensible times or somewhere to eat them.

Now the birds are done I've moved on to spider lavender bags and padded christmas decorations, which with rain tipping down and a fire in the stove are proving a very addictive way of spending an evening...

I know I've got a lot of paperwork that I should do some time very soon, but I've just got a few more spiders to sew first.

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....