Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Tifaifai and Linocut

 

I want to wish everyone the very best for 2021 and keep safe and healthy. I suspect that 2021 is going to be a lot like 2020- pandemics don't just disappear despite vaccines which will be an interesting logistic exercise . I certainly don't anticipate doing any travel until 2022 so in the meantime I hope I sell a few works and people join my on-line classes.

I have been busy fine tuning and editing my notes for  the Tifaifai on-line Class starting on 14 January ( there is still time to join) and the Linocutting and Printing on Fabric  On-line Class starting on 21 January. It is a long process and you need to distance yourself from it from time to time , because your eye does not see little typos where words can have more than one spelling or where words look very similar but are in fact an entirely different word. You can find descriptions and  Paypal buttons for the classes on the On-Line Workshops page. There is stilll plenty of time to join. The linocutting class has been devised  for designing linocuts for fabric printing and the considerations are a little bit different to working with linocuts on paper. You will be able to make plenty of unique fabric for your  projects and quilts.



When I take a break from editing and fine tuning I have been working in some sketchbooks that I started in an on-line class I did with Laura Kemshall called the sketchbook Challenge in November. She shared lots of ideas and techniques to use in a sketchbook. Mine has been rather slow going because I have been busy with many things ( including my mothers fall and her recovery from that) but it is a welcome distraction  from editing. I actually started two sketchbooks as I was impatient waiting for paint or glue to dry. I chose to do totally different subject matters.  I am far from finished but the blank pages are disappearing  even if they are only covered by a coat of paint. I have had fun doing it and I have discovered I have a lot of water colour pencils which I have bought over the years but never really used until now. In fact the activity has taken over the spare room for the time being.







I had already started the sketch book when I thought- i should base it on the little Bushland reserve where I walk most mornings and have taken lots of photos and then banksias had to creep in , because well I love banksias. I am gearing up to do a more in depth sketch book on the Bushland Reserve- seeing it will be my distration this coming year. It has been lovely  seeing all the small changes form day to day and encountering all the creatures that live there



This is part of the Kookaburra track and as you can see summer is drying off the grasses. I think this is my favourite track in the whole reserve ( it might have to do with the fact that it is mostly downhill) Anyway back to editing!