Made by Hand: Mystery Project

Playing along with Made by Hand again this week... Pop over to Christina's to see more.

I've been working on a mystery project... actually, there's no real mystery, more of a I-can't-
believe-I'm-actually-making-one-of-these moments ;) 

Here is the story... 
It was my Aunt's birthday and I, with no idea what to give her, asked if there was something 
she wanted. She said that she's been looking everywhere for 'something' without luck, and 
would I be able to make her one? Of course I said yes...

She wanted it in red and grey, so I started by block printing the base layer of the design...



Then I did an overprint in the red so that it would stand out...



I sewed some layers of backing to the pieces because they'd need a bit of structural integrity 
to fullfil their purpose...



And embroidered some red around some of the motifs to give it a bit more 'pop' :)
These aren't really clues, are they? Well, I can tell you that it's rectangular 3D shape...



It also needed a little 'handle' at the top so it could be lifted off... so I guess the second clue 
is that it's purpose is to cover something...



I'm sure the excitement is just too much, so I'll confess that, yes, this week I actually made a 
toaster cover.......... you don't see them much these days ;)



I hope my Aunt likes it :)

Golden Penda meterage

I had a commission to print up some meterage of my Golden Penda design. I was a little 
worried about how it would turn out as the base layer is rolled on with a brayer - there's no 
precision in this process, no repeatable pattern. This was my worry, but I dived in anyway 
and here is the finished result...





You can compare it to the original patterning here... what do you think? 
I'm actually preferring the meterage. I think this new one is more subtle. 





Anyway, it's another blue-skied, sun-basked winter day here and I can't wait to get back 
to my work bench! Have a great weekend :)

Made by Hand - Layering

I'm playing along with a new creative meme hosted by Christina at A Little Bird Told Me... 
it's called Made by Hand... and my contribution this week is a little project I've been working 
on to do with layering.



I've been working on some mixed media artworks and have also had ideas whirling around 
my head about layering and mixed media for textiles too. 

It started with some brayering...



And then some screenprinting...







And some more layers of screenprinting...





It's not finished yet... obviously the mixed media part will be the layers on top of the surface 
patterning base. I don't know what I was thinking making it a tea towel... it's not exactly going 
to be usable once I've finished, but anyway... just playing around I guess ;)

Pop over to Christina's to see more Made by Hand :)

By Hand - 'Oasis' in meterage

I've had a customer order to print up my Oasis design in meterage... oh my what a job! Yes 
it's finished and hopefully she'll like it. There's something so satisfying about printing these 
up - slow and tedious if you're in a rush, but it can be such a rewarding meditative process if 
you tweak your mind to a good attitude :) 





I really love the idea of 'made by hand'... and when you're talking about block printing, with 
a single block and having to re-ink for each impression, it really is a labour of love. It rates 
very highly on the job satisfaction scale I think ;)  Having said that, economic realities also 
bite and I admit that I've been looking into 'outsourcing' options for getting my designs 
printed in meterage - if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate hearing about them :)