《《 leaning into the afternoons 》》

⊱ overexposure ⊰

I go to the graveyard for Father's Day. I miss my dad. I lie on the grave and ask the sky why doesn't it swallow me whole and it opens white and wide and yawns it's reply.


Afterwards...


I stop my car open mouthed under a canopy of white boned trees. I ask a man on a tractor why this whole row of trees doesn't have any leaves and the gravedigger tells me it is a moth infestation. Every tree is covered in a webby muslin that flaps like plastic in the breeze. It sits so appropriately in the graveyard and is quite astonishing.

Mrs Haversham's dream, an overexposed, cling film wrapped film set. The moth larvae spin their beforebornness over the gravestones and grass..a theatrical sheen of winter white in the bright June day...

Supposedly the trees will return to normal after this cloaked strangled suffering. 

I imagine they will stretch towards breath and light like love in the morning

※ part three for your dear hearts ※

Some weeks it's like this in my head

fragile, fractured and foolish

And then it all leaps together like hares in the fields and I am done up again

Made again, right way upped and laughing high.

Making pictures, taking long looks and standing surrounded by air scribbling swallows.

I don't forget you of course and that we are on Part Three of Printmaking on Kitchen Tables, 

Garden Benches and even Ironing Board Studios.

I was fortunate and foresighted enough once to bid on a load of ink for 'small presses' on Ebay. I think it was about £2 for tubs and tubs of the stuff and the carriage cost me a lot more but here it sits in my studio gathering dust but never forgotten. A selection of colours too. I buy ink anywhere if it's a bargain. It seems to grow a skin and then beneath that waxy shell the ink stays perfect for years and years. I was tres lucky mon amies but you might too happen upon a delightful bargain. I probably strike fear into most printmaker's blackly beating hearts because I use all kinds of inks and mix them up a bit. It always seems ok. 
I am probably a printing pirate.
Ink supplies are available from 
http://www.lawrence.co.uk/
http://www.intaglioprintmaker.com/
and a recent find for me 
http://www.jacksonsart.co.uk
(they will deliver to Europe)
So, using a piece of glass, (mine is an old glass chopping board) or flat non-porous surface squeeze or scoop some ink onto your surface. I use old kitchen knives for this task; 
no need for spatulas or special tricks.
And begin to roll...you can use a cheap basic roller. But if you fancy this printing lark for more than five minutes, invest in something more charming, more seductive.

Spread your ink, smell that oily gloop and remember to come back to the moment.

Roll over your lino block in all directions to make sure you have inked up every little groove and turn.

Then carefully place a clean piece of scrap paper over your inked lino, use a lovely old spoon to burnish the back of the paper and transfer the inked design onto your paper. Try to use a regular circular motion and do it for quite a bit longer than you think you ought.
Keep the paper still.
You want a good strong deep print. 

Old spoons are best as you don't end up bending them under pressure.

And you know they don't make spoons like they used to.

Then carefully peel back your paper and admire your handy work. At this point you can note what may need tweaking, trimming or readdressing. I know I want to remove all the excess lino from around my design because I only want to cake stand on a white background. But this was just a test print to see where I was. It's easy to get lost.
Sometimes I think it might be easier to move into one of my best friend's gardens 
and live in her little caravan.
Just enough room to breathe.

↑ part deux (onwards & upwards) ↑

It has been the busiest week...I have been having a b-a-l-l

I think the sunshine brings out the best in me and everyone around me. I popped to London in the week and I could have sworn I was in a village, all good-natured banter and helpfulness. Chatty bus drivers? Whatever next?

I saw some brilliant work at my old college/uni/place of divine learning

The degree shows are here again and I love going back to my old London and checking out the action.

BA Photography at LCC at The University of the Arts was very visionary.

BA Book Arts in the same venue was, as always, thought provoking and I have seen the future of books!

{I'm not sure I understood it all but I got a momentary glimpse & a couple of Eureka moments}

BA Sound Arts debuted this year and I was blown off my plimsoles with it.

W.O.W

Kinetic sculptures & noise at unbelievable frightening, disturbing levels.

Freaking Amazing.

I was almost speechless if I could have heard myself think.
Head down to the Elephant & Castle for the action.

I'm almost pretty certain that the introduction of the odd French fried word in my vocab these days is down to the visitations of a certain Frencharian to my blog. Go see hers ici  It must really suck to live in France on croissants and romantic breathy films whilst being drunk on joie de vivre. 

Meanwhile back in lino cutting heaven, back to the ranch and we are debuting too. 
With the cutting.

The first cut is the deepest and all that

Bon Chance Mes Lovelies Bon Chance

Guiding your blades around your outline is a good way to establish the boundaries of your design. Think of it as carving a little moat. You'll revisit and add details later. Maybe even after a test print. You can always cut more away later but not add to it so take it easy with the process. It's so easy to carry on cutting because of the therapeutic and meditative qualities this process invokes. Reign it in mes enfants. Reign it in.

Cut and carve with your blades {a scalpel can be very useful at this stage} Some of the more fiddly details can 

be drawn with the blade and then lifted out with anything 'pokey'. I love my etching needle for this.

Remember the flat part of lino that you take away from your design will not print. 

I want all the 'holes' in my cakestand to be holes so I have very carefully and painstakingly removed them.

And I am still here. I didn't swear.

I made like a yogi printmaker and adored the fact that I was alive doing this.

Next time, which will be a lot sooner then this time I shall show you the inking and printing process.
Any questions? Post them as comments so everyone can see. 

∽ the post that keeps on giving ∽

I've been working on this post for a while. Born out of requests...I add to it whilst I'm doing other things. I think they call that multi-tasking. It takes a while but if I keep all the plates spinning then I get somewhere. I've been doing some lovely commissions and took some pics on the way, so although you don't get to see all my finished things, you get to see the process which I much prefer anyway. Warts and all.
And so I bring you the first instalment of Printmaking for Beginners. I would love your opinions on whether you find it clear and explanatory and if it whets your appetite to create and well, any old thing you want to tell or ask me. 
Here begins a tutorial on making a single colour lino print using the most basic equipment available and quite easypeasy jackanesaylemonsqueezy to complete without a press and other hugely expensive stub your toe on machinery.
I like to think of it as 'kitchen table printing'. 
Revolutions have started with less. 
Click on all images to see them better/bigger.

Regular lino, it's okay, great for beginners but it has a tendency to crumble and isn't quite as well behaved as it should be. 
B- in the school report. 
But as it's more than likely what you will start with and so I am going to use it for this tutorial. 

Japanese Vinyl and other gorgeousness available from various printmaking suppliers including http://www.intaglioprintmaker.com

http://www.lawrence.co.uk

Beware of print and art supply shops, enter with your eyes fixed only on what you require.

Preferably wear your blinkers and tear out your tongue so you can do no more than weakly purchase your requirements.

Go one step further, take only your change purse, not your plastic.

I am not responsible for your art supplies habit, now or never.

↑I highly recommend these as a beginners selection and you'll have them forever↑

                    

This is the very first set that I used at college. I still use them and still love the way all the blades fit into the handle. Such style and panache. I've never seen them since and I don't know who made them. They cost about £3 then.

Find an image that you want to make a print of. I am working on a series of prints for a cake suppliers and cafe. I took this snap with my iPhone. It's perfect as a study image. I drew the wire cakestand on a piece of paper and then traced the drawing onto tracing paper. Then place the tracing paper, pencil side down onto your lino and rub the back of the tracing with a pencil and it will transfer onto the lino. The joy of this is that you do not have to draw onto your lino in reverse. Everything needs to go backwards onto your lino in order to print it the right way round (incase you are thinking of using text this is especially important)

A picture does indeed say a thousand words

coming soon....starting to cut.

ϕ Me and May ϕ

❍ pillows talk ❍

▧ gates and entrances to entrance ▧

India and gates and iron and steel work. Endlessly fascinating to me and responsible for eating up quite a lot of my camera memory. Every house in and around Mysore in India seems to have such interesting entrances. Like the titles of a book, they were the unique and creative titles of the property. 

(Dreaming of lotus flower gates at home)

In a book shop in India {hours and hours spent in the air con deluxe environment}

I found this delightful book. A reference book for gate designers and makers. 

Screenprinted (quite badly which only added to it's appeal) in red with the odd page printed inexplicably in black or blue it has become my favourite thing that I bought in India.

♒℉ishy business♒

Don't take to the smelling salts just because I am back within the week. I meant it you know. I'm a woman of my word. Which works against me sometimes but that's another looooooonnngggggg story.
It's been a productive week, lots of coming and going, toing and froing, huffing and puffing.
A quick peek-a-boo at some of my moments...

I gathered all my rubber stamps together and made this as a promotional piece. It's all the rubber stamps I have carved recently for various projects. Using my quite ridiculously large collection of inks. (it's one of my cheaper habits)
When I was a porous, diligent art student at The London College of Printing or the LCC as it is known by these days and I extended my printmaking skills, I felt as though I had come home. The thoughtful, meditative quality that comes with printmaking was a great soother to me in those (when I look back on it) quite troubled times. But printmaking is a process requiring equipment and it means making a mess and although I can quite easily manage both of those; the simplicity and ease with which I can quickly carve a stamp is increasingly seductive.
A block of rubber, my trusty lino cutting tools and a selection of ink pads and almost instant results. I teach the basic techniques of this at The Make Lounge.  Everybody can do it once they know how. A few points in the right direction from an experienced maker saves so much time and wasted materials ;-) And we achieve quietness and concentration in class there. Printmaking weaves a spell of contemplation. A yogic focus. If I had a bit more time on my hands I would take a few of the other classes there myself. They all look amazing. 


Here's a few cards I made earlier with some offcuts from book projects, painted watercolour circles and fish and seaweed stamps. I haven't got around to folding them yet, will come back and pop them in the press later when they are dry. It's coming up to lots of birthdays and I love sending cards, HATE buying them.

And in my quieter moments I wander field and woods trying to walk off excess rhubarb cake and keeping the dog happy. It's Spring you know! 

love what I do⏅do what I love

It is time to get my house back in order and reattach myself to this sharing caring blogging process. I had a crisis of faith about the whole thing since coming back from India. My creativity has been tocking away like a metronome & I've been working away like the shoemaker and the elves. 
But didn't want to share it *how mean and shellfish of me* 
I think it was the whole process of looking inwards and not being sure that I liked what I saw and thinking how frivolous my image making and making process is compared to the bigger picture of our existence and blah de blah blah...sometimes introspection is terrifying but I have now realigned myself to .this.is.what.I.do and acceptance is at hand and I am looking at using this 'gift' to change something about my approach to the universe. Sounds complicated right? Jeeez, you wanna stand here for a while. It's a cacophony of voices and ideas and on the verge of madness but I'm harmless enough. 
I just wrestle with why I do this and how perfectly everyone else seems to do it and to be honest how airbrushed it seems when the life I know is messy, dirty, smelly (that's the dog, not me), hyper, critical, argumentative and sometimes just like a box of fireworks that someone dropped a lit match into. 
Fizzing and squibbing into a blackened collapse.


And then I look at some of the creativity that is out there and I have to reattach myself to the community that is more honest than most of 'art' and say, "can I come back in now, it's cold outside?"


India and I, it's love. I miss it but actually it's great to be sparking off with stuff here and blogging and I? It's love too and although I can't share too much 'work' with you due to contractual constrictions here's some snapshots of life behind the hedge at the moment.