Leo Campbell

I have just got back from five days in Melbourne, visiting my new grandson - isn't he gorgeous?!  Pretty good photo - that's what you get when Mum is a professional photographer!

And lo and behold, an article today in the Daily Mail, welcoming new baby Leo Campbell - what?? - turns out that is the name of Jimmy Barnes' new grandson, born last week - amazing - I never thought Barnesy and I would have something in common!!

I have just realised that it is a month since I updated this blog - that isn't because nothing has been happening - on the contrary.  I am now back at work part time, so we divide our time between the coast and Canberra - so  not so much play time.

This past weekend we copped a huge storm - winds of 130kph -  it was like a cyclone - rather scary in fact. 
We were without power for 36 hours - because of this - a very large gum tree on the power lines opposite our house.

Far more welcome was the arrival of grandson number 2- Leo Walter Campbell - welcome to the world little lion.

A new day...

We get some spectacular sunrises here - I have never been what is known as a 'morning person' so sunrises aren't normally something I can wax lyrical about, except in abstract terms - but down here I often wake early enough to witness it - especially now that we are off daylight saving.  It is far more interesting when there are clouds to bounce the light off and create extra colours and shadows.

Interestingly, these photos are all of the same susnrise, taken over a period of  about 15 minutes.  They inspired me to get out my fabric paints and try some sky painting.  First attempts were a disaster - I was using the  liquid radiance paints I got when I did the Helen Godden class back in Dec.  Trouble is, they are very liquid indeed and I misted the fabric first so I just got puddles with all the colour migrating out to the edges of the puddle.  Then I remembered that Helen likes to paint on cheap as chips nasty unbleached calico full of sizing - as the paint stays exactly where you put it.  That's true, but I found that the yellowy undertone of the calico messed with the colours of the sky.  I tried some ordinary white undyed quilters cotton, without any misting, and things looked a little better - but I still need to minimise the addition of any further water - am still trying a few ideas, so will report back when I get a satisfactory result.  I also tried the Setacolour translucent paint which are thicker and got better results, but I am nearly out of them, so only had limited colour to choose from.  One thing about living here is that it encourages you to make do with  what you have, as there isn't anywhere to buy supplies.  Of course there is always the internet.....if I get really desperate!!

Breakdown printing results, and, rust dyeing

Here is the result of the breakdown printing I did from the screen I prepared a couple of days ago.  I am somewhat underwhelmed by the outcome. 

This piece started at the drop cloth under the screen while it was drying.  Then I printed over it with the screen.  Again, fairly underwhelming.  I like the idea of this style of printing, and I have seen some wonderful examples -clearly it takes time and planning to get good results, although I also understand that part of the appeal is that you can't plan too much, and there is a significant element of serendipity and surprise.  I guess right now, I am looking to focus on things that will help me produce the sort of work I have had in my head for a long time - and right now, this technique isn't going to help me achieve that, so I am happy to put it aside.

I did however get to try another one of those 'must give that a go sometime' things - rust dyeing using iron sulphate, tannin and lye.  There is an excellent tutorial here, which I followed (more or less).  If you visit, follow the links to Lynda's (Purple Missus) blog where she tried it too - lots of wonderful photos.

Here are my results

This piece started off as a failed early attempt at breakdown printing using thickened dye - just about anything would make this look better, so I had nothing to lose.

This was the hand dyed piece from yesterday that I monoprinted on from the last of the gelatin plate.  It was already dyed in blue/orange, so this treatment just enhanced those colours.

This piece started off as a traditionally rusted piece which was a bit eye-poppingly orange for my taste, and the contrast with the stark white background was too much.  I much prefer this version.

I need to go and buy a cheapo iron so I can iron this lot - I only have my good one here - the other one is in the apartment.

Tomorrow's activity - some more rubber stamp carving, I think.

Gelatin plate

I forgot about the gelatin plate, and when I opened the fridge, found this.  It had shrunk to almost half its original size and cracked a lot more.  I should mention that we have a spare fridge in the laundry for dog food, fish bait, dyes and booze - the gelatin was residing in there, not my kitchen fridge!

 I did a monoprint and liked the door shape. I mixed some black and white textile ink to get a charcoal and applied it to the gelatin with a spatula.  Printed onto plain white fabric.  I was rather pleased with this.

So I did some more....

I wondered how it would look on a lightly rusted background

.

and finally, on a hand dyed background.

I like this gelatin plate printing - there is an element of the unpredictable, especially once the plate starts to break down, but it isn't completely random and unpredictable.speaking of which, I printed off my deconstructed screen - it is batching now, so will post about it tomorrow.  I don't think it is going to be my 'thing', based on my experience of it - more on that later.

It is Anzac Day - I am remembering all our servicemen and women who have fought for and died for Australia.  I am especially remembering my friend Prue, who died a year ago today in NZ on her way to an Anzac Day ceremony.  And this morning the tragic news that three people were killed in a helicopter crash in NZ, while taking part in a rememberence ceremony.

Lest We Forget.

More mark making

I have had an instructive and occasionally frustrating couple of days playing with various mark making techniques. 

I tried deconstructed screen printing - or breakdown printing - once before with fairly disasterous results. I now know that the paste mixture I made up was far too thin.  I had another go and although I got better results, they still didn't meet my expectations.   Again, the paste wasn't thick enough to hold the impression - it gradually oozed back to fill up the gaps as it was drying and I got virtually no impression.  I tried again, with something that made deeper impressions - some bubble wrap, and at least got a result.  I checked Claire Benn and Leslie Fenton's book "Breakdown Printig"  and found some really good, simple instructions and recipes.

I have now made up a new batch of thicker paste, and have followed their instructions to turn the screen flat side up, glob the paste on, then impress the objects you are using to create texture and leave until nearly dry (which by my guestimate will be at least a day or two), then remove, so the paste can't settle back.  Here is the screen set to dry.  Intuitively, this seems more likely to work than the method I  followed for the above piece which was to place the object (bubble wrap in my case) under the screen and squeegee through the dye paste, then remove the bubble wrap straight away and let the screen dry.  We shall see.....

We upgraded to a new computer when we moved, and I took the opportunity to get Adobe lllustrator, which I have been wanting for a while.  It is a steep learning curve, but I  am having enormous fun working in tandem with Photoshop, turning the pictures I have been taking on my daily rides into black and white illustrations which are then burned into Thermofax screens.   Here are some examples:

Photo of some grasses.  Here I used Thiox to discharge the image onto some commercially dyed black fabric.  It came out a light lemony colour, and the image isn't as distinct as later screens, as I didn't have the consistency of the thickener right - too thin, again!

Here I screened black textile ink over  an earlier screened image of a tree in gold, on hand dyed purple fabric.  You an just see glimpses of the gold here and there - click for larger image.

Again, I went over something else that didn't work.  I had previously screen an image (which I will show you next), but it came out blurry, as I used Setacolour paints and they are a bit too runny to screen well.

The underlying image was taken from this photo, of the seafood shop at Narooma bridge.

I cropped  and edited the photo in Photoshop, then converted it into an illustration in Illustrator, and made a screen.  This time I used proper textile screen printing ink and got a much cleaner image.

I was sitting in the car waiting for Karl the other day, when I looked up and saw this image of barbed wire against the bright blue of the sky.

I gave the image the same treatment as above, and got this - I am quite excited at the possibilities of turning my own photos into images that can be used in my textile art - I have been wanting to do this type of thing for ages, and just haven't had the chance until now.

The barbed wire was around the local gardening centre.  In one corner of the carpark I spied this pile of discrded pallets

I turned these into a screen too

As well as messing with screens, I made a couple of stamps - a simple leaf, and the negative of the same image.

 A new - and obviously temporary sign appeared in town the other day

This was an obvious candidate for a screen, which I printed using thickened dye (having finally figured out the right consistency for the thickener).

And what, you might ask is a Fish Auction?  not sure I know, but I think it might be a charity thing, where they hold a fishing competition, then at the end of each day, the catch gets auctioned off to raise money for the marine rescue volunteers - but don't quote me on that - Karl and I are going to hop on our bikes and pedal into town a bit later to check it out.

And finally, for now, I used the very last of the thickened dye at the end of the day to stamp, and draw on fabric, using a syringe - another little activity that has been on my 'must give that a go' list for some time!  I batched these rather than steaming - of which I am not a fan - and I must say that the thickener is a devil to get out of the fabric.

Right - still lots more experimenting to go!

Gyotaku

You can read about the art of gyotaku here - look in the sidebar on the left.  One of the things I uncovered in my printing/mark making box of goodies was this fish I got a while back (I remember when it arrived in the mail, AQIS, the Australian quarantine people had a field day, tearing the package apart and stuffing it full of dire warnings about the penalties for importing wildlife illegally!).  But when they realised it was only a rubber fish, they let it through.

This one was done with silver Lumiere paint on some hand dye.

I did some more gelatine plate printing - I have decided I don't like the first print as much - where you get a negative of the object - it lays down too much paint - I like the second print.

On my bike ride I saw this stately fellow fishing in the inlet - or, more correctly, hanging around where the trawlers come in, hoping for a free feed.  While I was stopped admiring him, I got chatting to a lady who was with a tour group and who was obviously also enthralled by the sight.  She told me that she was Aboriginal and that the pelican was her mother's  totem - it obviously meant a lot to her to be so close to them.

And finally, adding to my sign collection from around town - it is hard to get the scale of this, but it is on the side of a two storey building.  The restuarant has been closed for years - at least as far back as1996, when we first came here.  It has been on the market for many years too.  It's main advantage is that it is right opposite the beach and in whale watching season has front row seats.  I suppose someone will eventually snap it up, if they are seduced by the marketing!