What a crazy few weeks I have had!

Started out in Brisbane where spring has arrived - upping the humidity and the sunshine, and making working in my tin studio equivalent to being cooked in a steamer.  It is very hard to see what you are printing when you are sweating salt into your eyes.  And the paint dries really fast, so, early morning and late afternoon are the best times to work.  I've been experimenting with screen printing  trees, fruit, vegetables, flowers and sushi images on both plain and eco- dyed cotton fabric and am quite pleased with some of the results.

I am also doing more screen printing on paper to increase my stock. 

("Winter tree"  Scrren print. $50 AUD plus postage and handling.  A3  size)

Inside the much cooler house, I have been incorporating eco-dyed paper, photocopies and embroidery to create some mixed media.

 

And knitting madly. This hat uses beautiful Noro silk, mohair and lambswool yarn, Silk garden, and a Sara Fama pattern called "Circle Squared".

 

And this one uses Ultrasparks alpaca and wool yarn and a Coloursparks pattern called "Peruvia Slouch Hat".

 

We also visited Eumundi Market on the Sunshine coast with a friend and got lots of inspiration from other artists.  Of course, I also had to buy these fantastic, bright, mismatched socks.  Much easier than knitting them myself!

Then it was off to Victoria, where I joined my daughter's family and some friends in Healesville for a great lunch in a restaurant which had this great display of boot planters,



 a play in the park and a stroll through all the craft shops.  It is beautiful in Victoria on a sunny, spring day, with flowers and leaves bursting forth.  We wore t-shirts, made daisy chains, and succumbed to adding to our fabric stashes, bemusing the men, who seem to feel that it isn't reasonable to add to to the stash when you already have so many unfinished objects.

I was staying in Rosanna, and went for an early morning walk where I discoverd this rather original postbox outside a house with a really interesting array of masks under the eaves.

 There is a great park too, heralded by this painted box

......... a long patch of bush in the suburbs to enjoy, alongisde dogs and their owners, little children and the local birds - galahs,  native mynahs, rosellas. 

Then, I collapsed with some mystery bug, and was nursed by my good friend, Derica, till I felt well enough to be driven over to Mt. Gambier, South Australia for a quick visit.  It was a very picturesque drive with the startling yellow canola crops in full bloom, cottage gardens bursting with colour, lambs butting at their mothers, llamas. 

My son's gorgeous wife, Jess, and sweetie pie, Dylan, showed us around Mt. Gambier, and Derica fulfilled her yearning to be a vulcanologist by exploring the lakes and sink holes, attending a show at the local art gallery, and reading every sign she could about the area. 

More knitted caps.  This one is made with Jo Sharpe Silkroad Tweed.



I had to make up the pattern for this bright little number as it is based on one I bought years ago, and it is made from Biggan Design merino.

Of course, spring in the south is always unpredictable, so we weren't surprised when we went from wearing strapless dresses to rugging up with jumpers, coats and scarves when a cold front, with gale force winds and rain blew in.  My lovely son drove me back to Melbourne and when we stopped for petrol near Ballarat, it was 4 degrees and freezing!  We picked up my husband from the airport and he suffered culture shock from the contrast with 27 degrees Brisbane.

Travelling to Bairnsdale, we watched snow falling on the alps.  Beautiful but Brrrrrrrrrr!

Turns out we had just missed seeing my niece, Jessie, and her daughters.  She gave my mother-in-law this charming portrait of her little baby:

Haven't finished my travels yet.  Wonder what I'll see next?!  And wonder what the weather will do?!

 

Some great ideas

When I first came up to Brisbane, I had this bright idea to dedicate different works to members of the family.  When I started with this quilt, I gave the heroine in the story my niece Lydia's name because it was inspired by her tattoos. These are some of the images from it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (I managed to do some Rob fish prints and some Darren bike ones, but I have a hell of a lot more family to get through!)

Anyway, some of you have asked me about the techniques I am using in my art.  Some of them I have learned on line, some I have been taught, and others I have worked out as I go along.  Here are a few that I have been asked for:

Printing on fabric using a home printer:

If you have a photo, drawing, text, or image that you want to print onto fabric.  You have a lot of choices.  The fabric can't be too thick, but I have printed on cotton, calico, muslin and silk using my ordinary home printer.

You can buy printable fabric sheets from Quilting Shops`and buy T-shirt transfer sheets from stationary stores like Officeworks.  I have even got transfer paper from Aldi's occasionally.  The nice thing about the commercial methods is that they have instructions and are fairly easy to use. You can print images and photos straight from your computer onto the fabric with the former, or on to special paper with the latter, which you iron onto your fabric.  They all vary in the texture of the print that you get on your fabric. The t-shirt prining method tends to be a bit shinier and more plastic in feel.

However, if you are printing a lot of images, these commercial methods can be very pricey.  I haven't had much success using Freezer paper which lots of people swear by.  Nowadays, I use copier labels ( from stationers, like Officeworks) and take the paper protector off,

 

then press it smoothly on the fabric.

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I carefully cut round each sheet of paper making sure there are no loose thread to catch in the machine.  And I print on it exactly as I would on ordinary paper - either from the computer, or from a photo/drawing/ writing .

The danger of course is that it isn't always colour fast.  Sometimes that doesn't matter since I don't intend to wash the piece.  But if it is to be washed in future, I seal it with something like Hydrotex Print paste.

Printing leaves

 

Which brings me to a brilliant way of printing leaves that my friend Elizabeth came up with.

She discovered that if you place your leaves on the screen of the computer and put light watercolour paper into your copier, then print in colour, you get a realistic image and texture to the leaves.  Then, you can cut the individual leaves out to use in your art work or simply hang on a wall.

 
I love the results - you wouldn't believe they weren't real!

I decided to print on fabric using the above method and it was just as good

I think these will be incorporated in my tree quilt.

Hope these instructions are clear!

The importance of community

I, like most people, I suspect, thrive when I am in a community where I can contribute to and learn from others.  When I came up here, to sunny Brisbane,  I really missed the stimulation and challenges that I used to get from my children and their friends in Victoria, as well as the older members of the extended family and our friends.  In that past life, I also taught Academic English and Literature to young adults, and I really floundered for a while up here without their warmth, excitement for life, stimulation and eagerness to question established views of life. However, in my art classes and workshops, I am glad to say that I have been lucky enough to meet people of different genders, races and ages, who help to fill the gap I at first felt.  As an artist, I have been priveleged to learn from others and be inspired into throwing away caution when approaching my art.

 

One of my fellow students, a very talented young man called Riley, was kind enough to let me use his  creation to screen print on fabric.  Isn't this amazing?

 

Last week our group took overhead transparency plastic which had been coated in black acrylic paint and cut it into strips.  We each scratched a design on a strip, and then placed the strips on an emulsified screen.  Once exposed to light, our pattern was fixed on the screen.  My friend Trish, who was taking some R and R up here, intended just to observe us printing from the screen onto material.  However, she suggested that I use some grey material which had a flower and leaf pattern that another Melbourne friend had given me, and I got her to do the printing with Nancy, and we were most impressed with the result.  (Mine is the fish skeleton).  I am always amazed at how each individual, using the same medium, comes up with different images.  And then, because we are a caring, sharing lot, we each get inspired by each other to create new images, not copy.  In fact, it is impossible to copy.  You can't escape your own personality!  and yet, when we combine the images, they work!



While Trish was printing, I fixed some images that I had transferred onto tracing paper onto another screen.  One of these images was a tree that I had photographed at Mt. Cootha Botanical Gardens.

This week, I decided to print it onto some of my ecodyed fabric:

 

(This fabric was dyed with turmeric and is much stronger in reality).

 

 

(This one is on onion-skin dyed fabric and was used to wipe up spills, and is also darker in reality).



(And this one is on commercial fabric).

I am going to use them on a quilt that I am working on.

 

Trish was very excited by what was going on in the class and got even more excited when we visited "Piece Together" a studio/workshop/marketplace, which is, unfortunately, closing down soon. We learned about this shop from a fellow artist and friend, Miranda, who is doing a bag knitting course there.   Trish bought some fabric from them and used some of my linocuts to print on it:

Apparently, this fabric is to be transformed into a skirt in Melbourne.  Photo when it is completed please, Trish!

Another friend, Elizabeth, suggested I take Trish to" Tangled Yarns", a fabulous wool shop with a great atmosphere because Trish is a great knitter.  This coincided with my darling son-in-law's request for a new beanie. I ended up getting some lovely silk, mohair and lambswool yarn by Noro and some lovely wool, cashmere and silk yarn from Jo Sharp.  Of course, I needed patterns then.  I had met  Astrid  Tedman from Garnshopen astrid in Jonkoping Sweden and she had been very helpful in translating her pattern  for Mossa i Tweed that I knitted for him  last year so,  because I couldn't remember what ply to use I emailed her, and she kindly wrote back with the information.   Trish and the lady in the shop introduced me to Ravelry and I got a few patterns from them.  And now, after swearing off knitting, I am clickety clacking away, have finished one piece and am on to my second!

Trish, Bob and I also explored Eumundi market last weekend.  Of course I bought a lot, and got inspired by the fantastic crafts there.  So did Trish!  Bob managed to keep control and contented himself with paying for it all.

  I  cut out some more images from lino while Trish was here, so this week I decided to experiment with them.

 

This one alternates pomegranates and quinces.

 

 

And this one overlaps them.

I am pretty pleased with my printing this week which is going towards a tree themed piece of work,   and adding to my Japanese inspired theme.  Thanks to Miranda, my ecodyeing on paper is improving and I am getting strong colours with the addition of more metal and rust to the brew.

But, I am still not happy with the results of my ecodyeing on fabric.  More studying of IndiaFlint's instructions needed, I suspect.........or, if I am lucky, somebody in my growing community will help me to get the perfect fabric!

Art journals and diaries

I adore travelling - preferably to somewhere I have never visited before, so I can explore a new culture, language, food, landscape......new anything and everything.  Whenever I go anywhere new, I take tons of photos.  I keep a diary and/or write daily missives home.  In latter years, I have started doing little paintings or drawings too.  Now, I try to create and diary/art journal of my experiences either during the trip or as a result of the trip, to remind me of my experiences and give me ideas for my art.

One favourite place to visit has been to Vietnam, with my friend Trish.  We have been hooked by the people, culture, food, art, shopping - everything about the country.  I am only an amateur photographer, but I reckon it is almost impossible to take a really bad photo in Vietnam.  And every time I get back from Vietnam, I make a journal/diary which gives me further inspiration to paint, sew and print.

 

This was my first diary.  I used a commercial visual diary, but made a fabric cover which incorporated patchwork, collage, machine embroidery and photos printed on fabric.

Inside, I wrote in silver ink and incorporated photos, drawings, lino prints.

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My second trip resulted in this diary.  I bought the little book in Vietnam and then wrote in it and used black watercolour  to record the images:

 

 

 

 

As a result of those two trips, I produced these pieces of art, among others.

 

 

"Buddhist nun"  Oil painting.

 

 

"Jungle woman".  Painting on fabric with Shiva paint sticks, printing, machine embroidery.

 

 

Patchwork, applique and machine embroidery.

 

I was lucky enough to visit Europe with my husband last year.  This is my fabric diary of Sweden.  I printed photos on the fabric and painted, drew, patchworked, printed, cut out and dyed the fabric  as well.  Then I bound it with cotton thread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made a little paper art journal as a result of the trip.  I painted, did collage, printed and cut out. Then, I bound it and decorated it with beads. Great fun!:

 

 

 

 

 

The fabric diary of Austria used the same techniques as the Swedish fabric diary:

 

 

 

 

 

 The Copenhagen stage of the European trip resulted in this paper based diary.  Lots of watercolours and cut out/collages in the one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the year, I am hoping to make it to Japan.  I am already thinking about the form my new diary will take!