Back in the swing of things...

I haven't had much time in the studio since returning, but grabbed a few hours to get down and do a few bibs and bobs.

First up I needed to do more swing tags for Barry.  I gather up scraps of paper and cut them to size (12cm x 4cm) and collect my ink and my pens and start writing.  Italics first, then the capitals, then the capitals on the back.  It always takes a good few hours but once in the swing of things, it generally moves smoothly - unless the paper reacts badly to the ink which happened a few times!

I had gifted a few sets of pebbles with the word "SHINE" on them to different women over the past wee while, and during the week received an order for a set; so I had to check if there were enough letters left.  There were, but it did cause me to go through my stash and update a few letters.

So I sat and wrote on the pebbles after doing the swing tags - a lovely gentle pastime.  I am now ready to spell any word that is needed!

And then with International Day of Peace coming up in September, and knowing that we will be away, I worked out I needed to print some weather grams - first to hang in our tree and second to share around a bit.

This year I have gone for simply repeating the word peace in small wood type. Of all the type I use, it is wood type that has the most character; and that has worn in so many ways during its life.

The heights are slightly different, the edges worn a bit and so it is never the easiest of tasks to set and lock the type up - especially when you use three different styles as I did here.

Still, I like the repeat of the word, with different typefaces.

There were more than a few moments when things went a little bit loose, and some running repairs were needed.

But we go there in the end.

I chose to use brown paper envelopes this year in the hope that they might last longer on the tree, so the hypothesis shall be tested!