ice blue

Sometimes you've got to go with the idea of 'less is more'. Even though the over-printing on the snow gum print was working out I decided that I wanted to have a single print of this design on linen as well. So I mixed up a nice ice blue this morning as an experiment. Then a printmaker on twitter, @meganjmcpherson, suggested that the coolness of the blue against the warmth of the linen worked because it does in nature. This was the image she used to make her case:

which kind of makes sense to me. So it's listed here in case it takes your fancy.

what's on the shelf?

A little while ago I got all nostalgic for the small shelves of bowls and cups I had in my wee kitchen in Japan. They were tiny and sat just above my sink but had a window behind them so the light came through the back of all that lovely pottery. It was very pretty to look at in the morning. Nostalgia is a funny thing.

So out of a natsukashi moment came this illustration-come-giclee print. It's available in green and blue, my two favourite colours at the moment. Almost any shade of green or blue is likely to come from my fingertips these days.

I have a good kiwi friend who lived in Japan when I did. She emailed this morning talking of the sorrow they are going through post Christchurch quake. My heart goes out to you NZ.

blue

And then there was blue.....
But screen printed this time. Once again on 100% flax coloured linen tea towels. I cut a stencil by hand and modified the design just a little so it could be screen printed. I've decided to call this design banksia pod because it was inspired by some ink paintings of pods I did last year. M just told me these work really well with our kitchen colours. But I am letting them go: if you fancy them they're in the shop now.

shots of blue

Sharyn Cairns creates the most beautiful photography, many shots infused with gorgeous hues of blue. The pics above are mine where I've tried to apply a similar idea. They're not a scratch on Sharyn's photography but were fun to play with. The Design Files has a story on Sharyn and some of her work, including some of her exquisite photograhy from Inside Out. Take a look if you're in need of a shot of inspiration.

in blue

It never ceases to amaze me what a beautiful piece of software Photoshop is. I don't even know a fraction of what it can really do for me but the fact that I can take some rough hand drawn patterns like these dashes of mine and then make a variety of repeats in different colourways like this just fills me with joy. Is that nerdy or what?

There is a birthday in our house today. If I'm organised enough there will be a Jamie chocolate tart for dessert tonight. Got to get my skates on!

blue when it moves

Have you ever noticed the way dragonflies, when they move really fast, seem to have this blue-like blurry colour hovering around their wings and bodies?

Or is that just my imagination running a bit wild?

The Japanese word for dragonfly is "tombo". The Japanese often refer to this lovely creature affectionately as "tombo-chan" - "chan" being a cute tag attached to a friend's or child's name. This print first started coming together about a year ago when I was studying gardening books and books about insects. I love all those lines that insects have. The prints itself is now its 3rd incarnation in the blue form. The others have been smaller and brown or grey in colour. I'm experimenting a bit with the layering of colour at the moment and made a print of this on a bigger sheet of paper with a larger brown tombo over the top. It looks better on thinner paper in the bigger version for some reason but this little one above turned out quite well on this lovely hand-made thick paper (above picture on left) from Japan (and, alas, not in stock any more according to my friend Miki in Japan this morning!).