Tidying up Loose Ends

I have just been meandering through my own blog and thought I should update an earlier piece.
A while ago I made nameplates for the grandchildren and have not told you how that started. My first grandchild Aidyn was turning two and I had some old canvas lying around and feeling a creative urge approaching I got busy. She was at the time into Dora the Explorer character and this is what developed.

The top is canvas with the lower half a nice Japenese Paper and a montage of the family.

 

This is her nameplate and I made them one each for their second birthdays.

 

 

The first grandson but second grandchild's poster and nameplate.

Cousin to Aidyn and Jordan.

 

 

                                                                               

 

 

And the final one for Jordan and it is not this grey colour but red, white and blue.
Due to the layout of his room we had a couple of choices of design and this looks nice at night above his lamp.I'm not sure what the next project will be for them.

 

 

 

Awards exhibition, Christmas wishes and Bon Voyage

This will be my final post for this year so a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone.

 It is also the printing groups award year this year and I entered a woodblock and lino reduction print. The image was taken from my own photograph of three ducks at Tamworth Gardens. It's not a large print and unframed is 28.5x21cm. The background(woodblock) which in the photo was the stand of trees they were resting under. When I pulled the print it looked more like water to me so decided to leave it alone and moved onto the ducks. I rearranged the centre duck to view it's head and to capture it's attitude better. The marking on the centre duck has been changed as well for artistic purposes but the two with the dark collars are genuine markings. These two were influenced by a family visiting our back lane about mid year and the colours are a deep emerald green turning nearly black in the shade against the white body. The positioning of the ducks is original apart from slightly moving the middle one and it was the perfect oppturnity to show the collar shape of the other two.

The foreground was handpainted with oilpaints, scratching and some drawing to enhance the grass.
I then cutaway the foreground and concentrated on the ducks using oil based inks and reduction method, handpulled on Fabriano watercolour 130gms paper.

 

"Duck Friends" 2012

 

The New Year will be exciting for me as I will be cruising to New Zealand with my sister for her 70th birthday. It is ladies only, hubbies keeping the homefires burning so to speak.

My very first cuise and visit to New Zealand  for two weeks with a few days in Brisbane with another two sisters , unable to make it on the return home. My camera will forever be ready to capture our wonderful experience and hopefully some nice prints in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                             

Secret Santa

Not only do my family do this but the art group I am with do it too so I'm not saying which one this secret Santa gift belongs to.
It's always handy to have a desk calendar sitting about so designed my own replaceable cover from two pieces of box board with a finer piece for the fold over spine. Rummaged around the left over materials drawer and found some nice printed experiment paper I had done a while ago and for the inside covers a couple of pieces from a friend which I have always liked so happy to pass it on in some way.
I guess the hardest part was working out how to attatch it all and still be able to reuse in future years should the receiver care to continue useing it.

As a bonus , or should I say necessary instruction on how to repalce calendar was included with a card and easy to follow instructions.

Outside covers with ribbon to tie shut.

 

The inside covers with pretty paper from my friend.

At this stage it was working out so well I was tempted to keep it and isn't that a sign of a good gift?

It has been said to me in the past if you buy some one a gift you would like to keep then it's a good one.

By keeping the wrapping on the lower half of the calendar with a bulldog clip it was easier to thread the ribbon through the holes . This is one of the instructions.

 

Calendar in place ready to tie off.

And ready to present with "instruction/best wishes card".

What I enjoyed most was matching left over materials and nutting out how to attatch it all.

 

                                                                         

Concepts by Two

I spent time sitting at the exhibition in the local library and rather a quiet afternoon so came home to a well deserved coffee. After all I do have other art related projects to attend to and unless you are involved with creating I don't think the general public realise how much time and effort goes into even just one piece. It's not as easy as having an idea and producing it.

So here are some photos of a few on the wall.Remember there are only 12 on the wall but more in the folio.

These are two of my prints with the one on the left some might recall from a previous post. Hand pulled print , both the print and background which was an experimental session one afternoon. I liked the colours together and the subject is one of my grandsons talking to the chooks we visit weekly.

The Bird on Lacy Wing is a remodel of a favourite lino plate with a precoloured background and the bird has been printed seperately and has cutout lace wings and glued onto the paper. I liked the bird shape and felt it had a bit more use left in the plate. Please excuse the reflections as hard to photograph with large windows behind which puts them on an unusual angle too.

 

This one is my "lino sculpture" or recyled plates. I developed this to hang on my back wall when the new balcony is finished and besides I liked all the plates and I did a post about them earlier. I am looking forward to hanging it in it's home soon.

 

 

I especially like this one of Di's print. It has a  delicate and simple arrangement to it as do her drawings some with just a touch of colour for emphasis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                            

Continuation of experimenting.

Next week is exhibition time for a short week at local library.This is the finish of previous post on something special I wanted to share. It was born from our  renovation of the back deck and the cream wall of the house and I sat there looking at this wall  and wondering what I could put there then the penny dropped . What does one do with old lino plates? especially favourite ones that I had enjoyed cutting and though I don't adhere to one particular "theme" this turned out to be botanical.

I cleaned or recut each plate and chose an old drawing board to recycle as this was partly the idea, to  make use of materials just lying around.

 

 

This was my test piece.Another old lino plate glued to a board with liquid nails after the "new" plate was inked and dry.    

 

Being rather pleased with the results I went ahead with the larger piece.

 

 

The handmade stencil.

 

Inking one of the stencils.

 

 

 

Finished stencil.

 

 

 

Layout for the larger piece pre inking,stenciling and gluing to the board.

 

I tried various layouts for each plate but always came back to this one.So now I have a recycled artwork I can enjoy for years to come which doubles as decoration. Four of the prints from these plates have been exhibited in a group situation and one other was a home exercise and the leaf design was taken from woodblock workshop, yes, Jill O'Sullivans I attended earlier this year and I extended the design to one lino with a change of direction for the leaves.

Now it's time ot move onto my next project which is a collobration with the printmaking group I am a member of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                 

Collaborative printmaking

Back in January 2011 my friend and I applied to be a part of "City of the World" puzzleprint. Maria Arango Las Vegas, Nevada,USA , MCPP Puzzle Prints . (puzzleprints.blogspot.com) is the lady with the wonderful talent of pulling this amazing piece of artwork together. "City of the World" was her third puzzle print and I kept my own journal as it developed.

Those who committed themselves to do this were sent a special size and shaped block of wood which we weren't allowed to change in any way apart from carving an image of our own choice. The mysterious part was naturally we didn't know where our piece fitted in the puzzle but I found as I think others did also that the actual shape of the block influenced the image.

Unbeliveably over one hundred artists, world wide submitted a block which Maria and her happy band of helpers assembled , which to me is mindboggling when I stop to consider the process. I was so pleased and could really appreciate their efforts as I created the journal through the stages.Maria , who has a wonderful sense of humour and so easy to relate with via the web also possess a never ending energy level.

From the planning stage of the whole image, buying of materials, organising helpers etc and keeping everyone up to date on the progress just shows a little bit of her enthusiasm and her love of printmaking.

I know I am so very proud to have been a part of this wonderful project and very willing to participate again. Only two prints are in my hometown.

My small block of wood, I was very keen to start and did a trial run on the reverse to test my tools and the texture of the wood. I was slightly struck in regards to the shape of the block resembling my state of Queensland.

My drawing on paper and I also did one with shaded areas to guide me through the carving stage.

This is the block ready to be returned . Maria asked everyone to include a sheet of our local newpaper. I thought that this was a brilliant way to learn more about each person.

And here is the print, all five full size papers which made it about 2.something meters long. I have yet to frame it but I do have a hanging position for it.

The framing situation will take a while as to protect it under glass won't be a cheap exercise and I do want to preserve it as much as possible.

I know this print will provide me with pleasure for years to come as each time I view it there is always a new "something" to find. There will be many hours spent admiring other's techniques and mark making.