Creating a Beautiful Mess.

Last weekend we set some time aside to be creative. John decided to brew. Making his first beer since October last year. My friend Alli, my daughter and I decided to have an arty day. Alli was keen to try some printmaking.

I cleared some space, put a plastic cloth over the table and set aside all other tasks for the day. We started with some simple transfer prints by drawing on a sheet of paper laid over a thin layer of ink, which had been rolled out onto a piece of acrylic sheet, and by impressing objects into the ink and then printing them. The technique is simple and if you are interested I can share a tutorial.

This feather print turned out exceptionally well.

We then started to paint with the ink, rubbing areas away, brushing inks on, adding textures and colours. I worked mainly with landscape images and Alli worked in a more abstract manner. We pegged the prints on the clothes airer, but soon hand more prints and they were laid out all over any spare space.

We used an oil based ink, which generally dries quite quickly, but some areas of ink were very thick and one or two prints are still drying. - Messy but fun and I think i'll work into some of the prints over the coming weeks.

I'm looking forward to trying John's Vanilla Porter, unlike my art work the results are not quite so immediate and it will be several weeks before it's ready to drink.

I'm also working on a series of portraits of family members, these are just the first studies and I may develop and work into them with inks and paint, but I haven't quite decided yet how I want to capture the personalities of each person.


I had left it way too long before having a totally creative day and need to do this more often. What do you find is the best way to stay creative? What stops you creating?

Re-Sew-loutions 2015 - just a little late.

Full of good intentions to post every week in 2015 and already I'm behind - Great start eh?

2014 was a strange year and although I made a lot I didn't post much of it. I just found the time ran away from me. I started a new job in September and it's going great, but i'm super busy andtrying to create my own art and sewing, while finding example and creating examples for my students is tough.

I have an exhibition in March and need to get worked prepped for that. I also want to keep sewing. I made a dress over the Christmas Hols, but more on that another time.

So my resewloutions for this year.
Its dead simple - one thing at a time.
I filled the jar with all the projects I want to complete, when I have finished one. I take out and complete the next one. Hopefully this will help keep me focused!

Now then - back to my drawings...

Soundtrack: Idlewild - The Remote Part