A 'stitch free' magpie.

Another attempt to make an intaglio print from a mount board printing plate. I tried a few months ago, but wasn't particularly happy with the results, so decided to have another go today. If you look at the print below, it will give you an idea of how this one looked to begin with. However, I decided that this time, I would do a 'touching up' job, using the same printing ink, and I'm quite pleased with the result. I suppose that strictly speaking it isn't a 100% print anymore, but hey, artistic licence and all that, only thing is, I'm not quite sure how best to describe it! Maybe something like 'Embellished Print, or 'Hand finished Print' Any other suggestions would be gratefully received!

Above is the mount board plate, ready for inking up. Maybe I need to dig a little deeper into the card to make a deeper well for the ink. Oh well, I'm not going to give up this time, I'll be trying again very soon.

A small book of spring flowers.

Another paper cloth book I've been working on. You can see more here.here.

Paper Cloth Workshop

I was invited again this year to run a two day workshop for a group of ladies, most of whom belong to the Dorking Embroiderers Guild. They spend a week every August enjoying five days together, exploring new techniques, and it was my pleasure to be with them on Thursday and Friday, making paper cloth and stamps for printing, embellishing and stitching a concertina book. 

Thursday was spent getting all sticky and messy with some muslin, tissue paper, other bits and pieces, and bucketfuls of PVA! Above you can see some examples drying in the sun. During the afternoon, after cleaning ourselves up a bit, we concentrated on making some foam sheet stamps, ready for our embellishment session on Friday.

Friday morning, it was time to get really messy all over again, and out came the gesso, spray inks, paint and glitter, and the stamps that were made on Thursday.

Above and below works in progress, and considering that we all used the same materials, it's amazing to see the variety of colours, textures, patterns and end results. I must apologise for not putting names to each photo, but my memory for which pieces belong to individual names would probably get muddled, but you know who you are!

I love the tulip stamps on the piece above.

Lovely pastel colours above, they remind me of a summer meadow.

These two examples make me think of mountains and Alpine forests.

Some geese off for a stroll, and below, I just loved the wooly sheep stamp.

A close-up of one of those wonderful sheep.

These winter trees have been stitched so beautifully on a cool winter background.

Above and below, pages ready cut, and so wonderfully machine sketched with a whimsical seaside theme. 

The back is just as interesting as the front, something that will add an interesting contrast to the book when it is finished.

Some of the ladies were planning to hand or machine stitch their paper cloth sheets and to keep them whole, and frame them for the wall.

 Each result was unique, and more than worthy of being assembled into a concertina book, or put behind glass and into a frame. I hope the lovely ladies of Jill's Summer School enjoyed the two days as much as I enjoyed their company, and introducing them to paper cloth.