Back again

I have not blogged for nearly a year, and  I have found that I was not as productive, partly because I was not blogging, but also because the Tangled Textiles Group finished.  I tried lots of challenges and workshops, but found that it was impossible for me to stick to anything, especially if it was an every day commitment because there are periods where I am not at home. for the next few weeks, I will try and go through some of the things I am doing.

My last posts here were about journal quilts and I have attempted to keep doing these with the help of Kate Bridger, who is hosting a Made on Monday five inch square challenge on her site.  I have been absent for a month or so, but am hoping to join in again.  Participants also post their work on the textile arts facebook  page.

Here are my first seventeen contributions

They are all on my favourite theme of leaves and use a variety of techniques including free motion embroidery, hand embroidery and thread painting and a wide variety of fabrics including hand printed fabric.

Hope you enjoy these and I will be back with more as I do them

Layered Gelli Printing

I have been doing a few courses and posting in facebook groups lately, and a few people in the gelatin printing enthusiasts group asked how i did my layered prints.  For those who are familiar with this, my video below will tell you nothing new, but if you are new to gelli printing, the video might be of some help.  Unfortunately, my voice over is a bit soft, so if you are watching, turn your volume up.  I will try to be a bit more outspoken  if and when I do another one.
For those of you who just want eye candy, here are the prints I did

And a few other prints I did at another time

I have been posting the leaf prints in a challenge group, 100 Artworks challenge, also on Facebook, but I embellish them first.

Here is an embellished one.

And now, my imperfect video

Happy Creating!

And now for something completely different

Or maybe not so different if you have known me for a while.
Today, I decided to have a day off and play with my Gelli plate.

Here is my gelli plate and palette and space for cleaning off my brayer.

And behind me I have paper set out in piles and I also have Joan Bess' Gelli Printing book open.
I planned to go through the book page by page.....

These are bits of card that I covered with excess from the gelli plate.

These are baby wipes from cleaning up.  I can never bear to throw them out!

And a drying rack covered in prints!
As I said, I intended to go through Joan's book technique by technique, but I only got to the third technique!

Here are some of the prints.

These were very basic prints with the exception of the second last, leaf shape print.  the leaf print showed what I spent a lot of time on - painting onto the plate!

I painted this with a credit card.  For all of the painting on the plate, I added glazing medium to the paint to give it more open time.

This was my first effort with a paint brush.

And my second.

And my third.  This one I did after lunch, being inspired by a yellow tailed black cockatoo which we saw (and heard) out the window when we sat down to lunch.  It was very freeing to have to work fast instead of putting lots of detail in as I would in a painting.

So I had a very creative day!

I even got my stitched square done for Art Every Day Month.

Happy Creating!

Fascinating Frida

Today is T for tuesday over at Altered book lover.  I haven't been very consistent about joining in, so today I am including a vintage cup of tea from The graphics fairy.

Hope  you enjoy your cuppa!
As some of you know, I have been doing Studying under the masters, hosted by Jeanne Oliver.  This week, we are studying Frida Kahlo with Jane Davenport.  Today I felt like doing a sketch of Frida, so this is my daily drawing and my Art Journal journey offering

I am also participating in Art Every Day Month, with a daily stitched square.  Here is today's

Generally, all I do for these is grab a square, grab some scraps that go with it, spend a few minutes arranging, then stitch them down and add some embellishment.  I am really enjoying finishing these.  It is time to sit quietly and just stitch.
Now Art Journaling.  I felt like a change today and got out my gelli plate and did some gelli prints, using some bamboo sprigs I had picked.

Then I used the prints, to create a stencil and some masks

I considered these my warm ups for today, because then I used the stencils and masks to create the art journal page.

I don't consider this finished, but I am love with this as a beginning.

Happy Creating!