Pattern Saturday

A final push to print another batch of linen for a set of smaller cosmetic pouches:

And from this point I will stop printing and focus on the mammoth task of heat setting, prepping and sewing the neat stacks of linen into finished items. I have a number of custom orders that need to be finished too. I do love the printing most of all........sigh.


Here are some of the new cosmetic pouch range, orchids, blossom, birds....

Parakeet

Chrysanthemum

Orchid

And the indigo versions...

A crisp morning

So London awakens to a cold crisp start and the day begins for me with packaging orders and choosing tjaps for a batch of little drawstring bags that need to be printed.

I have a love of birds in all guises.Some of my tjap patterns are lush and exotic, some sweet and twee.
I chose a bird that is one of a mirrored pair, though I only needed one to combine with another blossom tjap. I used a blush pink I had mixed earlier that morning.

Simple pairings like this often produce the most impactive pattens. The pink is an unusual twist to this one which I really like.

Indigo and ethereal

November. sigh. Dark mornings and dark days. Perhaps a perfect opportunity to create.
The fabric for my cosmetic pouches is all printed and heat set, neatly stacked up, so now I must concentrate on some runners.
I have a very old tjap (batik stamp) that I have had for many years and it is a beautiful piece of art in itself. Its a giant butterfly, one of those sought after tjaps. Not particularly intricate and made of thin copper to create the first outline pattern before another tjap with the solid detail would have been then stamped on top to dive depth and solid colour to the shape.
The  framework and tjap is incredibly thin and delicate. Parts of the backing frame is buckled and held together with metal strips I added years ago and the  wings are paper thin. Yet she prints like a soldier.

I loved the chalk white ink against the deep indigo.
The finished runners looked even better than I had imagined they would, simple and striking. The scale of these giant butterflies was perfect for the impact needed on the runners. I havent used this tjap for over ten years so it was a treat to see the finished prints.

And despite poor light (it rained most of the day) I sill managed to get some decent pictures done. Now available in my Etsy shop.

I was printing away happily until....

The handle of my beautiful tjap snapped off mid stamp.
Sob.
Its vintage and irreplaceable as workmanship goes. However the  handles are fixable - a pain, but fixable - though possibly not halfway through printing a complicated repeat pattern for a custom order.

 So I carried on without the handle...pecariously.

It turned out well in the end.Phew

This Christmas I have a brand new range Im working on that will be in my Etsy shop mid November.
The New Year will see a new website with a larger variety of items that are currently in the pipeline. Never a dull moment I say!

The quiet...

before the storm as the saying goes.
I gradually start to make stock for the Christmas season, but the monotony of producing stock items often finds me distracted to making small batches of new things.
I love the simplicity and boldness linocut patterns have and am determined to start printing some of my many patterns that I faithfully carved into the small hours of the night.

Here are some patterns in progress, the Maneki Neko cat and Kawaii Kitty are a set of custom orders:

The snapper fish and paisley are neglected patterns that I havent printed in such a long time. The snapper is printed metallic gold ink.

A range of shades

Ive started dabbling in metallic shades of textile ink, at the moment gold and silver.
The results were not as satisfactory as my usual densely pigmented inks (despite being twice the price) when block printed, due to the opacity but never the less produced a lovely sheen with those pretty light reflecting particles.
After a test on a range of my linen which I though would be most suitable (ecru, indigo and olive) I decided the gold worked the best on indigo and ecru. I will see how a full tester print fares.

Im yet to try the silver - probably when I do it will be with my giant linocut paisley pattern for a real twist.

I also decided to start colour graduating again with some of my block prints.
As my time is limited with regular print runs of certain items that are more popular in my Etsy shop (predominantly monochrome prints such as white on indigo) I have lapsed in other more colourful items such as runners and tea towels.
Today I printed a couple of runners in Big Ben, a gorgeous wallpaper block, and used grey and ochre with a subtle graduation in the centre.

They came out very well....

Perhaps I should also start colour graduating on my pods and hampers too - I have a tote in mind which will have detailed orchids which I have mixed soft muted blush pink and burnt orange inks which will be graduated.The ground linen will be a gorgeous mocha linen.