Baskets

I've been learning how to make baskets. Here is my latest effort, which started out as half a gourd, with small holes evenly pierced around the top (cut) edge, then twisting bundles of rushes and securing with raffia threaded through a large needle, I ended up with this:

The shape more or less created itself. It reminds me of making coil pots from clay, and also of some of the pots we'd seen in Australia, created by the Aborigines. I'm sure it's a technique that stretches back into the mists of time. It's so flexible, and self supporting, I wanted to continue coiling and coiling, but ran out of rushes!

Christmas trees

I've been very slow at updating my blog.... not helped by a new PC to replace the old one which has all my photos on it, and then behaves in strange new ways which leave me baffled. So here are some attempts to get back up to date!


For Christmas cards, I'd been thinking about a simplified Christmas tree motif for a while, and couldn't find anything that satisfied me....until I cut off the corner of an old lino block I found on the shelf and voila! It's perfect!
(sorry - having real problems with new PC Windows 8 - can't find where to rotate photos!)

 

I've set up a mini production line on different shades of tissue paper. I like the quality of print I get on tissue paper, and the imperfections and wrinkles that naturally occur from using such fine paper.  And I knew I wanted to vary the ink across the surface, so no two prints are identical. I like that!

And then when I mount them on card, they look quite jolly!

 

Then I used the offcuts to make more trees (same non- rotational issue!)

 

 

So that was my bit of pre-Christmas creativity......



 

Lino prints

I started cutting a lino block way back in the Summer, when my courgette plants were young, and the first fruits were forming on them. But I didn't get round to printing from the block until recently (the start of some damp Autumn weather). I'm doing this in stages - I think it's called reductive printing. Here are some of the prints. After an initial yellow/orange print, I cut out some more and printed in leaf green:

For the third print down I dabbed a bit of red ink straight onto the lino before printing. I like the result, but don't want to ruin it by printing over it, so it may stay as it is...

I want to make a virtue out of the fact that I can't get perfect prints without a press, but you get more texture in the areas where the inks are thinner. I'm hoping that after several more overprints the layers of ink will still be visible beneath the final one.

Now the third stage of cutting and overprinting.  I also wanted to try printing on tissue paper. The finer the paper, the easier to get a print. At first I thought I'd go for dark blue/green:

This print was directly onto yellow tissue. I hope that there's enough detail there not to miss the earlier under-printing.

Then something told me to try a lighter, more turquoise ink:

 

 

I'm pleased with these. Just one more layer of colour to go...which I think might be a rich purple, but then again I might change my mind....

Pastel Peppers

Here is a drawing I made in my sketchbook. The peppers had been lurking in the fridge for a while. They needed eating, but I wanted to record their concertina wrinkles before we chopped them up.

There's something very rewarding about drawing a still life of fruit in soft pastels. There's some affinity I find between the rich colours of both, and their textures.

A cot blanket for Albane

Some more baby knitting:

Audrey had started knitting a baby blanket, but didn't have time to finish, so I quickly and happily volunteered to help out....

She'd made a section of garter stitch, which needed to be valued, but I couldn't continue that for the rest of the length, so I added some rows with holes, then I thought of making patterns with holes, hence the date of birth and name, finishing it off with another row of holes and a pink ribbon.

Not the kind of thing I usually do, but appropriate for the task and hopefully will keep her warm as the nights draw in....

September painting week

It's taken me ages to get round to blogging, but better late than never....

I went up to Ray's for a week of painting in early September, and here are the results:

My first painting was of the sweetcorn flowers against the frame for the vine behind. We'd been talking about how to depict space and depth..not my forte!...but I was pleased with the forms of the drooping leaves and the composition of the crossing stems.

Here's a photo of the painting as I worked on it, in Ray's beautiful veggie garden:

And this one is unfinished. I was looking at some of David Hockney's landscapes and decided to try and work in heightened hues of flat colours, and I was pleased with the way this was coming along, but ran out of time...now I just need to finish it! (Same old story!)

Something for a little baby

A friend has just had a baby, a few weeks early, so she's very small, but healthy and happy. I wanted to give her something..and this is what I knitted for her:

It's only about 10cms long, but looks huge next to its new owner!