Care Mail and handmade books

Our local council is asking for notes or cards which can be forwarded to care home residents to help cheer them up during this lengthy period of isolation.

As well as some of my printed cards, I am sending a couple of artists' booklets.

This one is a little wild - a while ago, I had the urge to completely fill an A3 sheet of black paper with my handmade floral foam stamps, then wasn't sure what to do with it.  Hopefully it will brighten someone's day.

Cover - 4" x 6"

Gesso, acrylic and metallic ink

The other was a prototype for my garden pop-up book (final version here) - this just needed some coloured pencil added to the pen illustrations to finish it off.

You can find my cutting guide for the booklet in this post.

3" x 5" folded from one sheet of A4 paper

Another paper cast

Another card using a painted paper cast from my last lino cut.  An optical illusion, the scan makes it look as if the print has been impressed into the card base whereas, in fact,  the paper cast is quite chunky and is glued to the card.  I think I used about 8 layers of tissue on this one, perhaps a bit over-kill for a card.

Paper cast on A6 card, painted with gesso,
fluid acrylic, Inktense pencils and gel pen

Lino prints - trainers

Nearly a year ago I produced a lino print in response to the subject of our art group's evening workshop - Boots and Shoes.

The original post can be seen here.

During my current tidy-up (which seems to be a never-ending task), I came across some of the prints which hadn't been finalised.  I had printed my trainer image on different coloured papers (some on scrapbooking pages and others on hand painted papers) with the idea of cutting out and collaging two contrasting patterns together.  Needless to say, I got side-tracked from the task in hand and decided to complete the set.

Print and collage (each shoe 5" long)

Now, what am I going to do with 8 mis-matched trainers?

Collaged concertina

Crafting Handmade Books Facebook Group - May's challenge - a book which incorporates collage.

Encouraged by the bold colours of my recent lino prints, I decided to use several of my collection of home made stamps and lino cuts printed onto black paper, then enhanced these with acrylic inks, coloured pencils and gel pens. These were then cut out and collaged onto the background sheet (135 gsm Frisk black paper). I had planned for a simple concertina structure, but some areas were now 3 layers of paper thick, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to fold it successfully.  My alternative plan was either a scroll or cutting it into four and remounting the sections on another background.  In the end I managed the folds with only a couple of areas to be re-glued where the collaged elements had lifted.  

Frisk black paper (135 gsm)
Closed size 4" x 4.5"

A little lino concertina book

The results of my recent lino printing session.  This black paper has a mind of its own - or perhaps it is just influenced by the curves of the design!

Lino print experiments

I have frequently used this print block on the left in my book projects and I decided to extend its use by adding another design that would link with it.

Height 4"

The blocks were printed onto black paper using white gesso and, after drying, coloured with washes of acrylic ink, coloured pencil, gel pens and gold ink.

A couple of extra prints of the new block were used for greeting cards

... and this one is a paper cast, sealed with gesso
and painted with acrylic and gold inks

More stitching

Embroidery - something I haven't really done in ages, but on my grand tidy-up I found this small piece with only the large central flower started.  Some 20 years ago I had booked myself on a day course which involved using fabric paints to transfer our own design onto our material, using that as a guide for subsequent stitching.  I had imagined the course was going to be more about the painting so I lost interest and put the work aside.  However, with lock down time on my hands I decided to pick it up again and found it quite therapeutic to spend the occasional hour with needle and thread trying to recall the various embroidery stitches I once used.

Now it's finished, I am not sure what I am going to do with it, but it has renewed my interest and there is certainly a vast range of unusual and inspiring work being done by textile artists today.
This site has a wealth of information on the subject.

Approximately 6" square

Flower studies

No virtual venue set for this month's local Urban Sketch group, but I promised myself I would set aside some time to draw.  A sunny day and lots of colour in the garden, so flowers it was.

Hahnemeuhle cappucino sketch book -
pen, watercolour, gouache and a touch of wax pastel

More stitched leaves

I have spent a day and a half attempting to tidy and reorganise my art room - although there's still way too much clutter and "stuff" I have saved which "might come in handy one day"!  I've found bits I'd forgotten I had and re-read cards and letters too special to throw away.

I have not finished the spring clean yet but I did snatch a few minutes to try out some more stitched leaves.  This time I used old book pages, the machining was done first, then I washed over them with acrylic ink; as I wasn't keen on the slightly plastic appearance of my first attempt, I added the Modge Podge to the reverse this time, making sure I covered the stitching as well.  I brushed a little water outside the stitching lines which made the tearing easier.