hanabi print tea towel

Screen printed by hand on cotton/linen blend fabric in bone. I even made the tea towel! Now that was a lot of fun. It didn't take long for my teenage memory of sewing to kick in again once I put my hands on a sewing machine. The tea cup in the first pic is one of my favourite pieces from a pottery village called Shigaraki near Kyoto.

Hanabi means fireworks in Japanese. Thanks to hiki-san for the name suggestion.

blossoms and dragonflies

There was a good frost on the ground this morning but despite the cold wattle trees everywhere are still managing to push out their lovely yellow blossoms. At this time of winter there is nothing more cheerful than seeing this piercing yellow colour all over trees in the streets. I think they're getting ready for spring. Or maybe they're just a little early?
Like these dragonflies. They're definitely early. All sketched up on drafting film and waiting to be cut out for screen printing on fabric. Which will happen this weekend with a bit of planning and luck.

in the grey

I love the subtlety of working with grey. When I look over my work I realise I incorporate a far bit of it into my printmaking. It's such a gentle, shy colour and that's what I like when working with organic forms and botanical shapes. I've never been a shocking pink kind of girl. Speaking of greys check out what Jesse is doing with these prints of hers.

Design Made Trade is on in Melbourne at the moment and I think I might go tomorrow. I'm particularly curious to check out the work of in-sync design who make jewellry inspired by botanical and geometric drawings.

illustration + animation = pure loveliness

If you enjoy illustration and animation you'll really love watching this clip to Sarah Blasko's song 'no turning back'. Such sweet illustration talent flows from the fingers of Melbourne based artist Celeste Potter. Oh and the music is pretty amazing too! Thanks to Frankie for reminding me her new album was released yesterday.

If you get sick of the way blogger chops off part of the clip (the right hand side) go watch it here.

chocolate and teal

While I was printing particles in chocolate brown on fabric last weekend I decided to also print some cards for the shop. I printed some in single colours and others with two colours: chocolate and teal.
My beloved favours the single coloured teal ones whereas I prefer the cards with two colours. What do you think?

I plan to print on fabric again this weekend but this time with a different design. I picked up some small fabric samples during the week which should be perfect to use. And I'm so so so tempted to buy a second hand sewing machine.

particles in chocolate brown

For a long time now I've been wanting to put part of a screen print design I did a months ago on fabric. And yesterday I did! Introducing: particles in chocolate brown ink on natural Indian cotton. I don't have a professional set up at home so this was quite a challenge. Since my previous print on paper had been made with a hand cut paper stencil that had the lifespan of just that one printing session I had to hand cut the stencil for particles again. Mixing the ink for the exact shade of chocolate brown took longer than I expected. These pics make the ink look black but it's a delicious, dare I say very edible shade of chocolate brown.
And because the Indian cotton I printed on is in a lovely natural shade I'm quite excited about how well the chocolate brown sits on it. I printed about 2 metres of fabric using the placement method of screen printing which took a while as I had to take care not to smudge wet ink I'd just printed. I'd like to use the fabric to make a shirt for summer based on the design of one I already have. Or even some simple serviettes. Now if I only had a sewing machine and could sew!

sculptured loveliness

Cross Poly-nate by Emma Davies

Generations by Annee Miron

I've had a funny couple of days. I'm blaming my strange, foggy mood on the winter solstice. Thank goodness the days start getting longer in our part of the world from tomorrow onwards. I don't mind winter but I do mind how late the sun rises at this time of year.

So to try and shake the winter funk out of my mind I went and submerged myself in sculpture. The top pic is a gorgeous piece by sculptor Emma Davies who works with found polypropylene, mostly in the form of discarded woven vegetable bags, creating the most incredibly beautiful forms. Her work is currently being shown at Craft Victoria.

And yesterday at the Yarra Sculpture Gallery I happened upon Annee Miron's installation/sculpture (pic 2) 'generations'. Made from beaten metal, it shimmers as it hangs along the old warehouse wall. Jackie Ralph also has incredible sand sculpture of a giant horse in the same gallery. Go see.