Art, friends, food no wine yet!!

It has been a staggered process this year with my ladies group , they are travellers too and come home with good ideas to share. That's what it is all about for the five of us . No high expectations or pressure but plenty of encouragement when learning something new. I had never until I met them tried hand made paper making which was fun and led me to an idea which I have yet to put into practise, one day! maybe next year but plans have already been tossed around for 2017. Also tried alcohol ink printing for the first time and loved the vibrant colours.

                                              
Positive and negative and I will use them both in time and the negative as a stencil


                                              

                                                          
                                                            Hand Made Paper.

                                    

This is my hand made paper with strips of paper added while still damp but found had to be pasted down to use later.

Experimenting is a great way of learning as I guess anyone reading this would already be practising and this was an embossed leaf straight from the garden onto hand made paper while damp.

BOTANICAL THEME.

For the books we are making a botanical theme has been chosen for some images and here are some prints from nature using coloured paste(paste paper) leaves of varying types and we are progressing through various artistic styles, mixed media. At present we are concentrating on my first love of lino cutting and printing.

A coffee (actual coffee to tint the paste) with the same leaf in another medium.

Bringing another colour into the design and presenting another texture as well. None of this is planned before hand so very spontaneous work.

This leaf was sprayed with an aerosol ink as a stencil.

Still With the Coffee Colours.

Feathers were also used for comparison and I love printing with feathers. Some nice pages here and can be used as part of other images as well, collage etc.

Planning on newspaper before applying ink to leaves for printing.

This is a really nice selection.

Coffee, dark ink and even some white. Printed on paste paper background.

COLLAGE.

Each lady has the morning to demonstrate and "be the tutor" but we nearly always end up swopping ideas and putting it into practise.

This is influenced by travel.

More colourful and friendship is the keynote here.

RUST PRINTING.

I experimented before we used good papers and hubby's old camping frypan came in handy and added tea blended in nicely, as does coffee!

LINO PLATES AND PRINTS.

At present this is an ongoing process, yes some have been travelling, sailing and generally having a good time. Not all plates have been cut and this Thursday there will be more done so added later.

A small plate and since changed adding marks to the gumnuts and the edges cleaned up.

This one is planning a new plate of a lotus flower from her Sri Lanka holiday.

Last week we visited a friend and borrowed the use of a small printing press as an introduction to printing and how a press operates. I like this print but naturally coming off a press was greatly improved as this one was hand pulled and I 'm out of practise! The backgound will be changed in coming  weeks just as part of what you can do to an image. And of course  I will be stepping back at the next printing day and letting them set the pressure , blankets etc. themselves.

After the printing session we had a lovely relaxed lunch at a local club across the road and the ladies shouted myself and friend our lunch and drink in appreciation for the day.

Monstera Delicious Leaves and lovely large leaves for a beginner. 

An adapted image from a art deco colouring book.

First idea was printed over a print lifted from the glass mixing plate but is a bit lost on the lower left corner.

Printed it again in this lovely red and cut it out to place over the background, below which looks better but not yet decided if it will be the final decision.