Printing, stitching and tidying

I feel as if I am running out of puff a bit as we skid towards the end of 2020, and I find myself doing small manageable, tick-off-the-list type tasks.

But first up we had some young visitors to the studio on Sunday - they were in town visiting their granddad before Christmas, then heading home and then flying off to live in China for three years! Big adventures, and it was fun to play with Christmas themes in the studio.

Experimenting with inking up various colours - a base and then lines of decorations - created some fabulous gift tags. 

 

The proofing press allowed for some wood type A5 sized prints - and the gold and copper dust got a run as well. We enjoyed not re-inking and seeing the softness emerge.

And as ever, black created drama and a bit of magic.

When my head hurts and I feel heavy, I turn to stitching and so it was recently. This is the wee sampler pouch I made, and I have turned it into my sewing project pouch.

I am working on another small project - a needle case. And here it is halfway in and halfway out.

With the inside part I decided to pull some threads.  I really do love pulled thread work and nothing has changed my mind since I started this little one. More the worry is when to STOP pulling threads!

And so to tidying - I have that creeping feeling that things are not in such a great state of control and tidiness in the studio as they could be, and my sense was confirmed when I checked in on the book cloth that I was thinking of using for a new small book.  

Chaos reigned and they were rolled within rolls within rolls (so I couldn't see what we had); they were lolling all over each other, half undone and rightside out (and getting marked) so I just sat and re-rolled the lot of them, inside out and then cut a sample of the colour and taped it onto the freshly rolled cloth.  And now they sit happily in a box and I can see them all at a glance. Simple.

The amount of satisfaction I get from tidying up always amuses me - it calms me and makes me feel as if all is well in my studio world (for the time being only of course - there is plenty more to tidy!) and it's tickable off the list.