Printing

Thank you for all the birthday wishes and your lovely comments. I will reply to them all and of course find a winner!
The week has been hectic, as I had some people attend the first two workshops I had planned for my workshop program at le Triadou. There is still time to join if you would like to do any of the other workshops - creating a linocut and printing with your linocut, transfer printing and stitching ( working  with lutradur and free motion stitching ) or Trees Trees Trees. You can see the program here. You can join just one class or all- it's up to you. I am also planning some more workshops once i return from Chartres later in March and early April.

We did dyeing on Friday- and some lovely pieces were made. We tried different techniques- these were done by Nati and Frederique. And Saturday we printed.

Frederique combined different elements of the linocuts , woodblocks and  we had to create a garden scene- on the fabric she had hand dyed on Friday- it created a very whimsical effect on which I can see lots of fun embroidery and stitching! And even though the weather was drab and horrid- lots of rain and the dog was best not happy ( no long walks in the shadow of Pic St Loup) we created lots of colour and fun things.

It's got me all enthused about printing again, and because we were only small in number it gave me time to play as well. My woodblocks- that I had made in  India via the Stitching Project arrived on Thursday. I have had fun playing with the pomegranate block and the leaf shape that accompanies it.Combining opaque textile inks with  black and red

I have also been dyeing fabrics during the week after tracking down some Ditti fabric in Ikea. I sometimes use this fabric in Australia so I was interested  to see how it would dye here, as I presume the source is the same.I think I will be hightailing back to Ikea Monday morning because I am happy with the results!

And I have been printing life tree panels. They are for sale for $40AUS

plus postage. They measure 40 x 50 cm in size and have been printed on hand dyed cotton and because of the size of the linocut and because I am printing by hand they take quite a lot of work, more than smaller linocuts, because firstly you have to make sure you have good textile ink coverage in your linoblock, and then good even pressure to transfer the ink to the fabric.it takes a bit of elbow grease that is for sure as I used a small disc called a baren.

I am happy with the results and can't wait for some batting to arrive to get stitching! And last but not least I had to take the dog for a walk this morning, otherwise I think the dog might have gone a little crazy. I did take her out for a little walk the days of the workshops, but she just loves it when we do the long walk. We did a medium walk today as it was blowing a gale, cold wind from the Cevennes. So I leave you with an image of the Pic with cloud shadows- light and shadow like so much of life.