Aritists book with print

This is the book which I made at the City Lit course in London over the last three Saturdays.

The images all relate to my drawings and photographs of the surrounding fields with bales of straw during the harvest.

The tutor suggested two ways to develop the images via print.Firstly using a plate rolled up and drops of parrafin and lavender oil dropped on. These were not really successful and I used one print for a slip cover for the book.

The second worked much better with some practice. It involved adding pva and carborundum to a plate made from drypoint paper. It was easy to rub away the gritty mixture when inking the plate, but the effect related to my drawings which were made by dropping Indian Ink on wet paper. We discussed various ways of adding the prints and I decided to use stitch , which was sort of appropriate for me.I would certainly recommend the course to anyone who lives near enough.

Fabric Printing

I’ve just been to a course at the City Lit in London, over three Saturdays the theme was Artists Books with Print Making. It was very enjoyable with a good mix of people. It was good to see their work and examples which the tutor brought along. More about that when I get round to take pics of my books. On the course we used polystyrene as one way to make relief printing blocks and I tried this method with fabric paint. I enjoy printing and finding out about some of the methods of interpreting marks, but it is frustrating to not have access to the equipment needed at home, which is why the polystyrene appealed.

I have been using some marks which I found in the snow, a boot print, which has the look of writing in some unknown language. I used this to make the printing block. The experiment was made into a small quilted bag which I have put on Etsy.

Nuno scarf

When I made the felt balls I also made a nuno felt scarf. I used a piece of muslin which I had previously dyed with procion as the base. I think it worked quite well but the difficulty was in having enough space to make it long enough, so it really is quite short, but as its not meant to be a winter muffler I think it is fine.

Merino tops being arranged on the muslin.Fibres being rubbed through a piece of net, using soap flakes and warm water.Rolling the felt between bubble wrap using a bamboo mat.Throwing the soapy parcel of felt on to a ridged surface; a CD holder from a charity shop.A good tip I found is to add extra wool along the edges to keep the shape. It takes a bit of time to get the wool to adher to the edges but works OK in the end.

Using leaves

This is a post for Things Handmade who asked about possibly including pressed leaves and petals in a quilt. This little box was made some years ago, after I recieved some fabric flowers as part of a Christmas present and was sort of challenged to do something creative with them. The box is made of vylene and the leaves and a variety of fibres, flax, silk ,etc were added using Super Mend powder. I then free machined everything in place. At the same time I made a hanging for Poetry in Action which was hung in a number of public places, hospitals and such. I don't have it now but blogged about it here , March 2006.

Its fun to do and certainly lasts a few years with no deterioration; obviously not heirloom material.

Another method is to place petals and leaves between two pieces of bondaweb (taken off its backing) and sandwich between a piece of paper or material, with a sheer on top. Iron carefully,i.e protect your iron with greaseproof paper or similar.