The runner

I finally printed my new runner pattern this morning - I decided on a rich mandarin red.

And now theyre done - some will be available in my shop and I will keep some for the craft events I have in December.  I have a number of other projects to complete before mid- November so Im glad this one is ready.

Inking up

Today I printed scarves in a surreal butterflies and skull pattern which is one of my favourites despite being quite abstract in form. I hope the flaming red linen will work.

Then I decided to ink up a pattern for a new Christmas table runner Ive had on my mind for a while using some tjaps and wallpaper blocks Ive been dying to use.

Its quite a laborious process inking the tjaps and repeatedly block printing a  new pattern template which needs regular tweaking.
Doesnt help when your three year old decides she wants to squeeze onto the already heaving table (ink, tjaps, paper etc) and decides this is the best time to start her own masterpiece with the (foolishly) laid out ink I was poised to use.

This is the end result fifteen hectic minutes later at which point she serenley  wandered off covered in paint and oblivious to the disaster she left in her wake.

So after a bit of a clear-up I carried on printing - starting off with the bird at the top. However I kept changing the lay-out as the pattern needed to flow smoothly and coherently without breaks  whilst still achieving that lush factor I have in my head (!)

I usually cut out some of the print when its just not working for me and use it to help with the next attempt at a  lay-out.

Finally I got there - a lay-out that Im happy with (ish)

I re-inked it up again and joined the two halves together to form the entire 2 meters of what will be the full runner length. I use these templates when I come to print my patterns - most of the fairly complicated lay-outs I have will have gone through this process and then I have a visual guide for when I come to block print the fabric.
Bearing in mind I work free hand and by eye when I block print each piece of fabric, they  will never be an exact duplicate of the ink -up but always a very close match.
The final lay-out -

So now I will decide what colour ink to mix for this pattern - I will probably keep it to one colour rather than two as its quite busy on the eye already being ornate in detail.

The Tate Britain

This December Im going to be doing something very exciting.  Tate Britain have asked ten sellers (of handmade items) to collaborate with them to promote their Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde: Exhibition. 12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
We were asked to each write a blog on a particular piece within that exhibition - I chose a William Morris block printed fabric panel (naturally) - The Crayfish.
Our blogs have already begun to be posted on the Tate Britain site - mine is scheduled for 26th October.
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On the 7th December we will also be involved in the Late at Tate Britain: The Pre-Raphaelites - if you are in London that evening pop in - you get to meet us all. 
We`ll be selling a variety our handmade items that evening and there will also be music and a variety of other forms of entertainment.

I decided to make a special range of items geared towards this event - so it will be mainly the highly ornate patterns like Baron, Big Ben,  Raja and Madame Wong and lots of blowsy exotic flowers and fauna that I will focus on.

Here is the new wood block pattern in print - Baron.

Christmas owl

The finished hamper in red - I used scarlet red linen for the lining and mixed my ink to match it.

Boggy and wet

Today started off wet and soggy - just like it has for the last three weeks. Heavy rain at night and thin  incessant drizzle during the day means we constantly squish through murky puddles and (if you`re particularly unlucky) fox poo.
My resident fox is firmly entrenched in our garden - he seems to like the fact he has good cover and a source of winter food (the heavy laden grapevines and a good array of slugs and snails..eeww )
However he also feels the need to 'mark' his territory out by regular deposits....

On a nicer note the garden has peaked and from this point the deciduous plants will start their beautiful riots of reds and russet leaf displays before becoming bare.
Ive already popped the fleece into my tree ferns before the first real frosts. However as the majority of my garden is evergreen it will always be lovely to look out the window even when its bitterly cold/wet and or both!

I also had a red print run - its almost Christmas so red is always a good colour for the festive season.
I had been meaning to make a small batch of  hampers geared towards the holiday period but was so busy that it was a nice coincidence I was asked to make a custom red owl hamper by a customer. So this morning I started to print the owl in red instead of the blue- I can only make tiny batches -so five or less hampers at a  time as my lino sheet becomes too saturated with ink, so losing detail. Its also a two stage process as after Ive printed the owl I then have to block print the lotus flower all around each one.

Im also going to be creating as I mentioned a few days ago some new linen runners with birds and blossom using some vintage tjaps - I will ink a pattern up first as it will have to span a  two meter length so its very important for me to block  print everything first before I start to print. I`ll post the ink up once its done.

A parcel

Oct 12

In December Im going to be involved in a very special project that I will be able to blog about very soon. Its tremendously exciting but will mean I have to be very productive over and beyond the normal Christmas levels - I will also be creating a new range  for this event which wont be stocked in my Etsy shop so you may see some of them here in the making.
It will involve some new patterns - predominantly ornate and exotic wallpaper block patterns  - one which Im extremely excited about as its a new block- beautiful....
In the meantime here are a couple of tjaps which I will be printing with.  I think I`ll team the bird with other  tjaps to make a  lush 'birds amongst blossom' lay-out.

For my Etsy shop Im in printing overdrive - the overflow of drying, freshly printed fabric from my studio now fill my living room floor waiting to be heat set and stacked in the "to sew" tubs. Ive even got the odd finished item!!

You have to...

 Absolutely love what you do ...even when you`re flagging and wondering whats the point really?

So in simple pictures heres what I love to do - every back breaking, ink smudged minute of it.

printing Raja

block printing

Inking up my giant owl lino pattern

My foo dog and auspicious clouds lino patterns as a tea towel.

My addiction....tjaps - this is one of my collection. Peacocks are one of my favourite themes.

My orchid lino pattern

Another of my linocuts - Madagascan pineapple

and the giant silkmoth I carved at the same time as the pineapple and orchid - thoughts of my childhood.

Funny things you see in London

The duck boat

 .....which make you smile!

And once we got back home I realised I had run out of tissue wrapping paper  for my shop stock.
So my three year old and I had a bit of morning fun bock printing a new batch up (at least she tried and then  decided it was far more interesting to paint herself up to the elbows)
She  had a small butterfly tjap to print with, much to her delight

And I used a simple orchid tjap for this batch of paper...

An hour later and I had enough wrapping paper to keep me going for a bit so I decided to call it a day.
Im hoping to get some new tjaps this week so will be experimenting with new pattern lay-outs for a few Christmas editions items.