Christmas Printing

I've had a busy month printing some Christmas products for my Etsy shop. I have been wanting to put some Christmas designs together for some time. I must admit that once we are out of the Christmas season I don't give it much thought until the next Christmas, by which time the selling season has passed and there's no way I would be able to get anything completed in time. This year I was determined to sit down and get on with it. I would really love to include the amazing wildlife I keep seeing around us, but for the moment I have been satisfying myself with a few basic Christmas 'themes' for example the striking Nordic theme and the Christmas Robin. 

Cutting the designs in Lino

The red print on these tags has been so pleasing to produce that I have started think about a card design ready for next Christmas. It certainly has been a strange experience thinking about Christmas through out the summer months. I have had to question myself drawing out Robins in blazing sunshine.

My challenge for this coming year will be to go out with my sketch book and start drawing what is around me.....but I'm getting ahead of myself...…back to this Christmas!!

Gift Tags strung and photographed

Nordic Gift Tags detail

My squirrel lino is slightly more in keeping with my art work. Originally he was intended for a range of nature cards. Now I'm thinking more in the way of a Christmas card but I feel he needs some kind of festive background or decorative design to make him a bit more fun! Its an idea I will have to tinker with as I'm not sure I will sort it out in time for the Christmas shopping season. He may also appear on some oversized Christmas Tags...or notebooks......oh my goodness, the ideas are endless!

Squirrel linocut printed in black ink to check the cut

In the end I had to make a decision about what I was to focus on so the classic Christmas Robin won the day. I did  a series of test prints on different card stock with different layouts but in the end I went for a central design with two colours, again the classic red and green. 

Robin Linocut with some design edition

So here we are, finally I have completed a Christmas Card fit for selling! I made up a jig to line up the two colour printing and away I went. I did try out a version with silver stars but decided it was a little too fussy. I am quite pleased with myself as its been endless months of trying out ideas, but finally I have something satisfactory in my hands.

I am busting to get back to my painting but hopefully over the next six months there will be a few more Christmassy designs that come to life now that I've started the ball rolling.

Test print for this years Christmas Card in my Etsy shop

A Busy Etsy Update

What a busy month! I have finally updated my Etsy Shop, which has been on my jobs list for probably over a year, and launched my hand made notebooks while trying to be patient over my new studio roof.
It's been very exciting learning the book binding process. It is something I have wanted to try for some time and was so pleased with my first attempts that I have launch a few straight into my Etsy shop. With still no proper studio set up its also been ideal to make in the house as I can bind a few in the evenings without making too much mess!

Folding and cutting the book blocks

Sewing each block by hand

Using my own textile prints for book cloths has meant that each notebook is totally my own design.
I still have some way to go before I can develop my textiles into fabric based designs but they are serving very well as book covers. Of course now that I have started working with the materials I am thinking of a range of designs that I can try out. There's always some idea ticking away in the background!

Using my textile prints as book cloths

Colours have become incredibly important when putting each book together. I have suddenly realised you cannot just fling odd bits at one another and it will look OK. This may sound like the most basic idea in design but I suddenly found myself rummaging through boxes looking for the exact coordinating colours to match book cloth, book blocks, end papers and ribbon. Slightly the wrong shade of yellow or wrong pattern can look disastrous with very little effort so as I have been thinking about new designs I have also been taking on board how colours and patterns and images are all going to work as one. 

Orange and Red Tulip small notebook

Yellow Tulip Journal

Blue Cornish Mackerel Blank Greetings Card

 As I was testing out my new ideas I thought I'd have a quick trial with my Cornish Mackerel Linocut to see how it would print on to blank greetings cards and was so pleased with these that as soon as they were dry they were photographed and in my shop. Its been great to see this linocut being used across a variety of mediums. Again it was a simple idea that just seems to keep giving. I am mulling over the idea of having the design made up into a screen print to expand my textiles but then again I'm very keen to work on a design based on different fish. Soooo many ideas soooo little time to get them done!

White Cornish Mackerel Blank Greetings Card

 And finally my last idea that has worked really well! I had an idea of making an aperture in the book cover in order to insert one of my prints just to give my notebooks that arty edge, so I took my wood engraving of a Green Finch that I did a couple of years ago and hey presto! It makes the book unique and it's great to see another of my own designs applied to another format. 

Aperture Journal with Green Finch Insert

I now have a busy few weeks ahead stocking my Etsy Shop up with new designs while I wait for a new roof to be put on my studio. I simply can't wait to move it and get set up again. I have canvases that are just busting to have some paint on them and with the amazing Cornish landscape around me there is plenty of inspiration.

Mid-Winter Hiatus

It's the coldest day of the year so far and I have been busy re-assessing where I am with my work. I ended up taking a very unplanned hiatus from work while I cleared out and reorganised my life. After drowning in paper and half finished ideas I can finally see the wood for the trees and my studio is back in a functioning state.

A Working Studio

Sometimes it pays to take a step back and work out what I should be doing, so with a new action plan in place I am looking forward to achieving goals for the summer.

I have neglected my Etsy Shop so this will be my main focus over the next few months. I am hoping to launch new prints and develop designs for cards, calendars and textiles. 

I have decided to take a break from the Emsworth Arts Trail this year, but for those that want to visit other artists and find out dates here is the link for the web site. www.emsworthartstrail.org.uk/

Of course that doesn't mean there's no painting happening. I have a few paintings rumbling along in the background and when I'm ready I will be re-opening my studio to the public.

Studies of Natural Objects

When Ideas Crash and Burn

Sometimes things just don't go to plan and today has been one of those days. Before Christmas I had an idea of printing cards with a nautical theme to sell in my Etsy shop so I sketched out some designs and chose two that I thought could be fun to produce.

I deliberately designed them so they would use three plates to add a splash of colour. OK, so I had never tried this before but that's never stopped me. 

Ship in a Bottle

Under the Sea

I split the layers and drew them on to tracing paper, colouring in the sections so I could see which to cut out. All was looking good. 

Three layers

I transferred the images onto vinyl lino because I knew I could get a refined cut and, although it was hard to see where I was going on occasions, for the most part I was happy with the plates. I then spent the next few weeks cutting away all the fiddly bits (and there were a lot) and did some quick test prints half way through in black with positive results.

Christmas and family commitments bought everything to a temporary halt, then January was spent finishing the lino. At last I would get to do a test print with three coloured layers.

Layer 1 in pale blue

Layer 1 went down in a pale blue. The print was clean and the line up on the paper was good so I quickly printed off a few more so I had some wriggle room to adjust the print if I needed to, after all spares are always useful.

Layer 2 in mid blue

I didn't want to wait as it had taken me so long to get this far so I simply added more blue to my mix and printed straight onto wet. I liked the colours and the print was clean. I printed off  the rest and got to work on the black.

Layers lined up

It is at this point that my heart sank. Possibly it is because I like a refined look to my work (I am very particular) but this looked like an all out disaster. Weeks of work, hours of labour and valuable time wasted when I could have been so much more productive flashed before me.

Layer 3 in black

For me this simply doesn't cut it and will have to go in the rejection pile. The lines are far too chunky making it look almost child like. The black flattened out the mid range blue so there are huge areas of flat colour and the fun element which I still think lives in the original sketches has died somewhere in the process.

The finished card

I guess you don't know until you try but this has been one very frustrating test piece. On reflection I have to work with the lino rather than force the image to be successful no matter what. All is not lost as I have other ideas in the pipe line but this has taken up too much time to start another test print straight away. The Arts Trail deadline is starting to loom on my calendar so paintings are now my priority. At least I am on safer ground for the next few weeks!