Museum in the Park

On Wednesday of this week I was meant to be helping a friend in the Forest of Dean stitch some cushions together, but she was not well and cancelled last minute.  It was such a nice day that I decided to drive myself to Stroud to visit the current print exhibition at The Museum in the Park that I have been trying to get to for the past 2-3 weeks.  I was not disappointed. This lovely piece of vintage embroidery was on display in the general part of the Museum and it just demonstrates that you do not have to look far for inspiration when you are stuck!!

Sue Brown's piece of work was inspired by this drawer of moths.

Lots of different methods used to produce her prints onto silk - Eco Printing and Gum Arabic Transfer amongst them.

At the rear of the Museum there is also a calm and peaceful garden which is well worth a visit.  The borders are full of dried seedheads and Michaelmas Daisies at the moment. Alas the exhibition ends this weekend I am afraid.

Gum Arabic Birds

This was a piece of linen fabric I had previously used to transfer two separate images onto using Gum Arabic and oil based printing inks.  Think the colours were Sue Brown grey and gold.  This week I overprinted it with a pencil sketch image using the same method but a blend of Prussian Blue and Red Oxide. I now need to add some discreet stitching to lift the image.

This second image of a raven was sent to me by a friend who wanted it putting onto some pieces of her own fabric. I took the opportunity to add it to some snow dyed fabric I had lying around and am really pleased with it.  Looks like I shall have to get on with some stitching soon!

More Fun

Have been printing sheds and beetles over the past few weeks ...

An ordinary collagraph print

A viscosity printed version of the same print

A collagraph print with Gum Arabic transferred beetles on top

Playday

This last week I had managed to get myself in a bit of a panic as I had to prepare some fabric collage plus some black and white images for the Solo Printing class with Sue Brown as she had decided we would have a playday with Gum Arabic Transfer.  The fabric collage took me forever to get my head round and the drawing was a last minute thing using a dip pen and a bottle of black ink ... here are some of the results

A scrap of linen, a photocopy of a pencil sketch of a shed from my sketchbook, plus the blue tit below reduced in size and reversed before transferring.

Full size sketch but printed in Raw Sienna onto a scrap of calico I had in my box

This one is the piece that took me the longest to prepare. It is A4 and not only did I collage it, but I also did some machine and hand stitching onto it in preparation.  If I wish (or have the time) I can now add more stitching.  Scanning the work really shows how cockeyed I got the fabric!

Hot and Sticky Day

It was the last printing class this Wednesday until September and we were putting Gum Arabic Transfers onto our prints and into our sketchbooks.  It was very hot in the afternoon too and I noticed it was 29 degrees when I drove home at 4 pm.  The little beetle above is from a drawing in my sketchbook which I had photocopied and reduced in size.  The oil based ink is silver and was printed through an etching press onto a piece of calico.

This lovely chap is also a photocopy of a drawing from my sketchbook and is inked up with Prussian Blue and printed on a piece of nice linen fabric. Very, very pleased with the result and he may yet become a patch on something.

Finally, this was the aim of the exercise.  I added a Gum Arabic Transfer of dandelion leaves to an existing silk aquatint print I had done in a previous week.  Again the printing ink was silver and the image was taken from one of my photographs.

A Bit More of the Same

Another page from one of the small booklets I produced.  The flower head is Gum Arabic Transfer using Raw Sienna oil based ink.  The bee flying off the page is also Gum Arabic Transfer and I think it was Silver ink. Lots of drawing ink, Quink and bleach on top of white acrylic paint.  A small picture from a magazine has been transferred in the centre over some white acrylic.

Two pages from my concertina sketchbook.  The lefthand side is just me playing about with layers of white acrylic, waterproof drawing ink, Quink ink and bleach. the right hand side has two Gum Arabic Transfers on it.  The first was some cow parsley in Raw Sienna overprinted with tree branches using silver.

A Sticky Weekend

If anyone needs their spirits lifting I can highly recommend a weekend workshop with Sue Brown at The Yard Art Space in Cheltenham.  Last weekend I went to her Gum Arabic Transfer two day workshop and had such a wonderful time.  Not only did I learn new techniques but also spent time with some lovely and very talented people.

I managed to complete two small booklets, printed onto various types of fabric and also completed several pages in the two A5 sketchbooks I had taken with me. A massive achievement for me.

Above and below are some of the work created by other people on the course. The paper threads on the booklet below were the left over pieces trimmed to make the pages square.  They were so beautiful it was such a shame to put them in the bin.

These are two samples of fabric using the Gum Arabic transfer printing technique. The one on the left was transferred using the back of a wooden spoon and the right hand one went through the etching press.

Two more pieces of fabric using gold and then silver oil based printing ink and photographs of wild garlic flowers that had been manipulated in Photoshop to make them into black and white images.

A two page spread from one of my small booklets.  The bees were added using the Gum Arabic Transfer technique and the coloured picture was a piece of magazine placed face down onto wet white acrylic paint and then left to dry before damping the back and removing the paper by rubbing it with my finger. A bit of bleach discharge too, plus indian drawing ink and quink ink washes.

This A5 concertina sketchbook was very useful and kept me occupied whilst waiting for work to dry.