Late Rush

There has been a bit of a late rush on the woodland creatures but never fear I have printed some more!

Just delivered some of my Woodland prints and Deer cards to the Edinburgh Printmakers.

I also dropped off an 'Eigg Sun' print

Out of the Blue Christmas Art Fair

One rule I normally set myself before setting up a stall is 'DO NOT BUY ANYTHING YOU ARE HERE TO SELL'. But these little ceramic goats were dangled opposite me all day and by the end I just had to have some. The stall holder was Sigrid Pederson and I hope they are there next week cos I might have to go and get some more.

It was cold in the Drill Hall on saturday but I had a lovely day. Mostly thanks to the fine company of
Alison whose prints you can see in the foreground.

My Christmas cards were well received and are available on

Folksy you can also buy them locally in Cove

Red Fox

And so here is the last of my woodland creatures!

Advent!

Inspired by The Crafty Crow and in particular Whatever Dee Wants I made my first every advent calender. I get a lot of deliveries from Great Art and they are filled with brown paper as packaging. I keep the paper, sometimes I even iron it, for pastel drawing with my daughter. It is ideal for making these wee origami boxes. Ideally the numbers would be printed but I couldn't find a good number stamp in time.

Come and see me on the 3rd of December at the Drill hall!

Edinburgh Printmakers Winter Exhibition

Edinburgh Printmakers are having an open day today and opening their winter exhibition which includes my Portobello print (proud).



Come along and try out some printing!

Portobello Organic Market

If you fancy getting your hands on a 'Golden Hare' or 'Red Squirrel' come along to Portobello Organic Market tomorrow.

The Swift Golden Hare Jumped over the Lazy Fern.... or something

'Do you do hares?' asked someone at a craft fair last year. Sadly the answer was no but now it is yes! I really enjoyed the squirrel print process so I have decided to try and do a few 2 block prints with Chine-collé for texture. As with the squirrel I have played around with a few different colours comments and opinions welcome.

Next up a fox....

Final Proof of the 'Red Squirrel' print

I am really pleased with how this has turned out. I love the byzantine quality of the gold tissue paper.

The Fridge of Indecision

Welcome to the fridge of indecision. I have tried various permutations trying to get this image right. I have printed completely on red tissue paper, then gold tissue paper. I reversed the light and dark to make the squirrel less insipid, I then made both layers dark, then piled on chine-colle in gold and silver. Tried thick paper and thin paper. Basically I have had a bit of a lark today! The Fridge of indecision awaits my husband and daughters opinions and anyone else who has tuppence to add.

Putting a Squirrel on it

So as the leaves turn golden and fall to the ground my mind turns to (coughs) Christmas cards. I had this idea of woodland with a small red animal (fox, squirrel, bird) nestling. I find chine-colle is perfect to adding a festive touch of colour. I am not quite there yet as the red tissue paper is a touch too vibrant. Will keep you updated.

Monologue

So many thanks to Laura who v. patiently showed me how to monoprint over my wood cut. The result is good. I am going to cut out a new block to recreate the effect above. I like the immediacy using the monoprint technique and it has definitely shown me how to rescue the sky in this print.

So a few more colours added and I decided to stop. The sky contrast has come out stronger than I wanted and I need to add more detail to the sand but am taking some time to consider how. I may attempt some monoprint on top next week. Any ideas?

Low Tide at Portobello

The shapes left on the beach by puddles at low tide fascinate me, little bits of broken sea trapped on the sand. As usual I am horribly nervous about doing the next layer.

Blue sky thinking

I have a bit of a love hate thing going on with skies. I love sketching sky but printing not so much. Hair and sky are my nemesis, I can't draw hair and I can't print skies to my satisfaction. So I have been practising various techniques before embarking on my next print which is very much about the sky.

Hi, I will be at The West End Craft, Art and Design Fair from the 11th-14th August. I am in the marquee so out of the rain!

Seeing my hollyhocks again in the garden reminded me of last years print so I have reprinted it in yellow this time!

Morningside Makers

Hi, I will be at the Morningside Makers Market this Saturday from 11-4!

...and the winner is...

Kathryn, who spotted that I had forgotten to flip Eigg and it was back to front. I probably should mention Kathryn is my sister and was only reading my blog cos I told her to.

Anyway I have corrected my mistake and it has worked out well and the new improved Eigg does look a lot more like it is meant to.

Spot the not so deliberate mistake

First one to spot it can have this print!!!!!!!!

New Print Brewing!

Just before Easter we has a flying visit to Arisaig in the North West of Scotland, a sort of scouting trip for our big tour of Scotland in July. We arrived on the most beautiful sunny evening and Eigg looked amazing.



My wee sketch is going to be the basis for a new print.

I have been wanting to do a more 'designy' type print for ages so much sketching and photoshoping later i came out with the above, which is going to be the basis for a small woodcut. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Cards

A big thank you to Roseanne at Urban Igloo who prompted me to get some cards printed. All are availabe at Urban Igloo.

Portobello take 2

Here is my latest Portobello inspired print.