Serviettes

 Since returning we have been busy. No real surprises there,we knew we had a few things on and of course there is always the joy of catching up with folk and gathering and chatting.

I have been reflecting a fair bit on how to make sure that art remains a part of my every day. And my everyday.  I am working hard to spend time each morning as I write my To Do List to ask myself the question - what art will you do today? Or perhaps What creativity will you do today?

I have known for a long time that it's never just about making the art; there is so much support work and admin that goes with it. I think that knowledge has somehow been a blessing and a curse as they say. I have often found myself doing art admin things, and saying to myself that is what I did for my art today. And because I am who I am and how I am, I often prioritise the admin and the jobs and the chores, over the making time.

So I switched my brain a bit and have set aside time on Mondays for Art Admin. For all those follow ups, writings, ordering etc that might otherwise steal time from making. Monday is already our chores and life admin day and I am trying to add in Art admin too.

And so I have been doing bits of this and of that where and when I can. Mostly I have just been scratching the itch that is serviette making! Laugh. These things buzz into my head and won't go away until I do something with them and so I have managed to get to work on them this week.

Some of our sheets had come in these nice linen bags. I spent an enjoyable evening unpicking them, and then ironing them.

I watched a YouTube video about mitred corner serviettes with hem stitching and set about cutting out serviettes from the remnant bags. There were some seams remaining in a couple of them and I thought I would still give it a go to see if they could hem stitched.

The answer is that they could, but the machine didn't really like it and juddered across the heavier seam and stuttered and got stuck and I had to jimmy it along and so the stitching is rather odd in places. See last photo.

But generally speaking I did OK. I did a different stitch on each serviette. I have made a pair and there are two more in this fabric to go; and a few more to be cut from the grey bags, and two more ready to go in some remnant linen fabric from a dress, so I will be able to go along quite well when I have time.

In typical Fiona fashion, I forgot to attach the dissolvable stabiliser to the second serviette - too excited and enthusiastic to slow down and remember the steps! Probably because the linen was a mid weight, it didn't make too much of difference thankfully.

And here they are washed and ironed.

In all their wobbly, recycled glory.

And just because it has been a magical week for the moon - here are a few photos of where I found it in interesting places...

Flowers, threads, and moons

 It has been a bit of a hither and yon week - bibs and bobs this way and that as we prepare to head off for a while.

It is Spring here and the garden is bursting (as Barry's post earlier this week shows) and the house has been filled with flowers.

Whilst we were weeding down the back I discovered three different types of magnolia which was an unexpected delight.

And given there were flowers galore and the sun was popping its head out a bit, I thought I would try to solar-dye some threads using some blooms I hadn't played with before. Our neighbour joined in and dropped in more flowers, so we have tested quite a few.

White camellias, and snapdragons to the left; lots of pink camellias in the middle, and a purplish daisy and red geranium on the right.

The boldness of this red geranium made me very happy,.

 

And the blue from the purplish daisy was also looking promising.

As ever, things fade in the rinsing. This time I rinsed in salted boiling water, which didn't seem to make any difference. This pale flecked pink that remained was still lovely.

And the blue had softened almost to sage - also quite delicate and lovely.

The pink camellias gave a really strong, warm brown which will work well with the pink I think. So lots of fun has been had; with more to come with summer flowers I hope. 

And an almost full moon as we walked late last night. The sky was dramatic and rather wonderful.

More this and that

 Studio time is not producing results just yet, but I must say there is plenty going on!

Having said that, it is fair to say I have finished these wee cards. Once again Kindness, Care and Hope are feeling important and I have printed two sets using different typefaces. I expect there is another set yet to be printed, but at least these two are done.

They are a lovely way of using up paper scraps, and also just lovely to have, to hold, to pop in your pocket, to stick on your fridge, to give to a friend or to set by your computer.

If you feel you might need a set of these or would like to share them with a friend - just get in touch and I shall pop some in the post to you.

I enjoyed time in the studio with a fellow printmaker last week and she was doing some beautiful work with some lovely words.

As she printed we stopped and looked at the print, and notice one small part of one letter wasn't printing as cleanly as the others.  Looking at it inked up, it was hard to see what was happening, but we decided to swap out the letter 'u' out and replace it.

Good decision.

At the top you can see the new print, and at the bottom the original, where the tiniest part of the bottom of the 'u' was not inking or printing perfectly.

And here is the culprit - with the tiniest bit of wear to that exact point. Ink was in fact pooling in it as the press inked it up; but it was too low to transfer to the paper. So many moments of problem solving with letterpress!

Whilst she set and proofed type I did a colour swatch of my new watercolour paints. Yum.

And then you just have to love a coffee shop that has tables like this!

And this beautiful fragment of moon one clear night at dusk...

A week...

Last week was a good week of playing and sorting and prepping. Preparing for workshops always makes me dig deep again, practise, test and trial things to make sure I know what I am doing.  I know I do, but I do love to double-check!

And so in prepping for a letter and word cutting workshop I got to play with some different pieces of paper; a few different techniques; and generally just got lost in the play and fun which was great!

Here I was testing the BFK Rives grey paper - it is a warm, khaki-like grey.  BFK Rives is such a reliable paper for cutting; yet I had never cut the grey which is a bit heavier than the white/cream.  It worked well and gave some great contrasts, so yes, we will play with it in the workshop.

I looks so different when on the grey concrete.

Another technique I was trying was this random crazy wandering lettering all joined up. Clearly I am very rusty with this; but I think once cut it will look a whole lot better!

This is a good demonstration of the back and what really happens when I cut. I am being so careful that that I don't cut through an end point, I nearly always finish short. But that is a whole lot better than ruining your work.

This piece will become a template that I trace around and then cut from behind - always soooo much better.

And Nature was wonderful too.

Monday dawn - a wee sliver of a moon...

Friday sunset - a wee sliver of a moon...

I love how something (us or the moon) had rotated slightly by the end of the week!

And these small flowers always, always delight me.

And then I laughed. We had a cracker of a storm and some fierce rain this week. I smiled to myself that our new car has a sunroof - laugh! 

Prep, prep and more prep

 I have a few teaching engagements lined up in the next wee while; and as ever, the preparation take time.

I so often think making an art life is never just about the art - in fact so much time is taken up cataloguing, tracking down supplies, and in this case preparing heaps of pages!

This is a day long workshop making heaps of books, and because the group are enthusiastic newcomers, rather than do a difficult stitching or binding we have opted for a bunch of small books that they could safely venture into and make for themselves afterwards.

I like folk to get as much out of a workshop as they can and to this end, rather than spend a long time cutting pages and covers from large sheets of paper on the day; I have done all the cutting for them. Cutting takes time!

Here I have set out 20 paper bags and placed 5 covers on each bags (100 covers).

Each bag will have a few different colours.

A sample bag of sorts.

And then I added in the 20 pages each (20 x 20 = 400)

And because I do love a stack of edges...

And in this case a stack of openings too!

For another set of books I have cut Bristol Board. Each person needs 24 pages; so 20 x 24 = 480 pages.

Some better cut than others...but these are sample books for them to keep and refer to so I hope they can cope!

I have a couple of other book page preparations to go, along with instructions and handouts, but we are on track!

And yesterday morning early, there was this tiny morning moon...

Nevertheless...

There is plenty going on - still a bit all over the shop, but nevertheless here we go...

For the time being, I think I have finished with my feminist posters. We shall see!

I completed the final fourth one - a revision of nevertheless, she persisted and am happy with the series.

I have been stitching - March is almost done... 

The full moon was behind cloud for much of the night but dazzled nonetheless.

And then I started to follow a what if...

I went to get some PVA glue to seal a collagraph plate.

It had clearly been a while...

Nevertheless I persisted, and went with another idea; how about if the thick sticky glue could create the texture on a collagraph plate instead?

So I pushed it and pulled it and moved it around, and left it to dry.

And the next day it had dried and seemed to have some texture.  I ran out of time to play with it but that's another what if...?