Bridget Farmer

House in the woods

2012-02-04T23:21:00.003Z

I've been on my own for almost a week now. Jeremy has been in the city all week. So it was welcome relief when my painter friend came up for his weekly visit and use of my studio. He had a friend visiting too who he brought along and we all went for an exploration of the tracks through the bush around my house. We ventured along a track I hadn't been down before and found a large mob of kangaroos! We also found this amazing ruined cottage. I'm used to exploring ruined famine cottages in Ireland. There was a similarity in the imagining of past people trying to live in these surroundings. What were they doing out here? Gold mining? Farming? Imagine the creepy crawlies they had to deal with! Had they come from Ireland? Had they left the famine cottages?

The fireplace still had a chain hanging over it for cooking.

Newspaper pasted to the hessian walls under layers of wall paper. The date 1932.

Crochetdermy by Shauna Richardson

2012-02-01T08:01:00.000Z

I got a postcard in the post today from my friends Adele and Alison. On it is a picture of what at first glance looks like a stuffed bear. On closer inspection I see it is actually made of crocheted wool! Now, I love crochet and I admit I do also love taxidermy, so my friends obviously know me really well and know what I'd like. The artist is Shauna Richardson and she describes her work as crochetdermy. Read and see more on her website here - www.shaunarichardson.com

Red Wattlebird

2012-01-28T09:05:00.000Z

Look at this lovely little parrot on the side of a building in Brunswick in Melbourne. Melbourne is full of great building art. It is good to spend a bit of time in the city from time to time. If I start doing the markets again I'll be spending a lot more time there. My friends from Able and Game, Anna and Gareth, let us stay at their house while we're in the big smoke. Thanks Anna and Gareth!

Last night I ventured into my dark studio, flicked the lights, sought out the whereabouts of the three resident huntsmen spiders (when you've got spiders the size of your palm living in your studio you need to know where they are so they don't suprise you by lurking on the back of your chair, or under the table just where your knees fit) and started a new wire bird. I wanted to try a larger piece, a red wattlebird. I finished him off this morning and am quite pleased with him.

Also a little note to say I've a new gallery showing my work. You can now view my etchings in Daylesford in Pantechnicon Gallery at the end of Vincent Street, just before the second roundabout. Here's a photo of it for visual people!

Tiles and Markets

2012-01-25T03:49:00.000Z

I wish I could just stick to one thing, but I get bored. So I have to keep myself interested by constantly changing what I am doing. I will maybe have two or three parts of my business/ practice to work on at the same time. In the morning I may do some wire work, then in the afternoon I swap over to my new interest which is ceramics.

I've been wanting to find a new product to sell in little shops and at market. I miss market. Before I left Australia 2 years ago I did Rose Street Artist Market in Melbourne every saturday. I loved it, my group of friends were all fellow stall holders and saturdays were my social day (as well as working!) After market we'd all go to the Napier Pub and spend our earnings on dinner. Jeremy would walk an hour from our house in Hawthorn to join us and a merry time would be had by all!

But when I returned to Australia in September 2011 I realised I no longer had a product suitable for market. I had stopped sewing my felt brooches due to nerve damage and I just wanted to move on to something new. About a month ago I bought a bag of clay and I've been playing and trying to research places I can get work fired. It's all coming together finally, my first batch of brooches should be fired and ready to pick up by next week. Then I shall glaze them and send them back for their second firing. I've also bought some ceramic paint and have been painting little finches (and a chough) onto clay slabs or tiles. I'm really enjoying doing these. I still feel quite experimental, I don't know how they will turn out. I've painted onto non fired clay and I've got some tiles I need to fire first and then paint on. Which will turn out better? I don't know. We'll see!

So these little finches have not yet been fired. I'll bring them down to Melbourne in a week to two for firing and let you know how they go. Hopefully soon I'll be a market girl again!

Wire

2012-01-19T02:06:00.000Z

My printing press is broken which I'm very upset about. I can't get it fixed until mid February and hopefully even then I'll have enough money to do so. I have to buy a new press bed and new clamps for tightening. It's all a bit frustrating, but, I'm not letting it get me too down. I've decided instead to play with a different medium. Since all my old tools and equipment arrived from Northern Ireland I've revisited an old passion of mine - WIRE!

I have a joint exhibition with my friend Kyoko in August and she said that if we want plinths will be available so I've been working on some plinthy items. (pieces that would sit nicely on a plinth!) My drawing style is very linear so when I work in wire I find it looks very similar to my drawings/ etchings so hopefully it'll all tie in for the exhibition.

Honeyeater

Finch

I wonder if I could draw from the wire birds? I love the shadows created when in sunlight. I want to buy more wire to play with....

Rosellas

2012-01-04T23:18:00.000Z

I want to try and post more sketches, even if they are just little 2 second scribbles. I hope it'll make me draw more and post more since i've been a bit lazy at both recently! Here are a few Rosella parrots that I saw last night from my studio window.

Places For Everything

2012-01-04T01:05:00.003Z

We have just finished unpacking the last of our boxes that were shipped from Northern Ireland. Somehow we are managing to fit everything into our wee house, here are a few photos.

I like making little collections of things. I think everyone likes collections, I recently found this gorgeous blog about an artist who decided in 2010 to photograph or draw a collection every day for the entire year! I ended up ordering the book, couldn't resist!

Jeremy just said we need more space for cds.

A Bit of Basalt

2011-12-29T23:21:00.003Z

We've been living in Basalt, just outside of the spa town of Daylesford, in central Victoria, for just over a month now. It feels like longer. We're pretty much all settled in, only a couple of boxes shipped from Belfast still to unpack and find homes for their contents.

I thought for this post I'd explore the iphone ap Instagram and take a few photos of my surroundings. It's summer here at the moment, the first month of the season coming to the end. It hasn't been too hot at all, we seem to be kept cool under the gum trees which is a relief as I really don't cope well in the heat. The city in summer months can be quite unbearable but up here in the central highlands it's keeping a bit more mild.

The birds are frustrating me, I keep hearing their loud wonderful calls but can never see them to figure out what they are. There is one in particular which I keep hearing, but just can't spy it! I have discovered a little flock of tiny striated thornbills which chirp at our kitchen window and sometimes they hang out with a couple of fairy wrens. I think I even saw a kingfisher yesterday at the dam, but I could be wrong.

The dam just below our house is a great natural air conditioner. The breeze blows the air over the water cooling it before it reaches our verandah. Our land lady's grandchildren swim in it, but I haven't braved the muddy bottom of it yet.

Jeremy and I sometimes go for walks just before dusk. This is the best time to see kangaroos and wallabies. The woods around our house seem to be full of them. Jeremy even saw an echidna the other day. An echidna is sort of Australia's equivalent of a hedgehog or porcupine. It is about the size of a rugby ball, has spines, eats ants, rolls in a ball when scared and .. here's the mad part... lays eggs! You've got to love Australian wildlife for it's weirdness!

We get a fair bit of wildlife in the house too, wildlife of the smaller, more legs kind. I'm coping quite wel with it. I'm lucky not to be too scared of spiders, my friend told me the best way to live with them is to give them names. So, we have Janet the baby huntsman spider in our bedroom, she keeps the fly population down. We seem to have a small colony of slugs that love the area under our bed. Hard black beetles like to crawl under the front door at night and hurl themselves at the windows. And we've even had two tiny scorpions wander into the house acting all fierce until you prod them and then they play dead.

In short, I'm just loving our new place. It feels great to be so close to the outdoors. It'll be interesting to see how we cope with winter. We only have a wood burning fire and a couple of electric heaters. We'll have to block the holes under the doors to keep the drafts out and make some thick curtains. We may even get snow. But I'm up for it!

Shop Re Opened and More Experiments

2011-12-16T06:20:00.001Z

Finally I've been able to get down to sorting and aligning prices. It's always difficult to keep my etsy shop prices consistent with my gallery prices, not sure why I find it so difficult, but I've never been the most organised of people so that might have something to do with it!

Ah, I've just realised why it was difficult in the past - etsy used to be in US$ and obviously the galleries I exhibit in are all in AU$ so as the exchange rate changed I'd have to go into the online shop and fix all the prices to be consistant. NOW, hooray, etsy gives you the option of selling in your own currency, so all problems are over. It was not down to my lack of organisation after all!

So, yes shop reopened, just in time to miss Christmas completely! You can see it all here, I've also listed a few of my new pieces.

ok now for something a bit more interesting - pictures!

Thursday being experimental day I put aside the birds and looked for something else to inspire me. I didnt look very far, just outside my studio door is a wire chair. I made three dry point acetate plates and wanted to layer up colours. The first plate was the chair, the second the grass and the third I rubbed sandpaper over the surface of the plate giving a skylike print.

I didn't use all three plates for every print, I liked the differences and the simplicity of just using 2 or just 1 plate.

Some of the prints are ghost prints (when you print from the same plate a second time without reinking it) giving a softer tone. You can see this in the grass of the above picture.

and here they are all together with some blank squares in between. I really like the prints of just grass, they really show the absence of something and they are quite different to my birdy work! It was also good to find an interesting way to create a background (the sandpapered plate) I'm always wanting to have some sort of texture in the backgrounds of my birds.

Experimenting with Choughs

2011-12-12T02:19:00.000Z

My painter friend has resumed his weekly painting in my studio. He used to come to our old house before we left for Northern Ireland, so it's been on hold for 2 years. It's nice to have routine especially now that I'm a bit isolated in the country. I've decided that on Thursday while he's painting I'll experiment. It'll be my playing day. Last Thursday I collected a handful of lovely gum leaves and decided to incorporate them into my printing.

I started with two plates, one a cardboard plate painted with pva and carborundum grit to give a dense background tone in the area behind the bird. The other plate was a dry point on thick acetate which gives me the linear image. I've decided to depict the Chough [chuff] due to the small flock that hang out in the bush near our house. I spent the day layering plates and leaves, printing again and again, not really knowing what I was doing, but as I said, I was simply playing.

To be honest I found it a bit stressful, which is silly. But it was quite a painterly technique and I also had to let go of control which I found difficult. Hopefully if I keep playing like this every Thursday I'll get better and it'll come more naturally to me.

New Studio New Works

2011-12-07T10:21:00.002Z

I'm all pretty much settled in to my new studio in the bush and it's just lovely. I've already been printing, I think I've been raring to get started for so long I've hit the ground running!

Galah

Beachport Sentry

A nice setting for sanding the plates, excuse the thumb in the photo!

Through the Desert

2011-11-10T08:22:00.002Z

Jeremy and I are about to leave the desert tomorrow. I'll miss it, it has been tiresome, but also beautiful. See more about the trip on motormoon.blogspot.com. For here, on this blog, I'll just show some of my drawings. We've been told there is good calarami in the town we're staying in tonight, so off we go to find it!

Pink Lakes White Daisies

2011-10-30T10:39:00.003Z

Coorong National Park in South Australia. So pretty it even made me paint for the first time in 6 years!

More drawings of the Trip

2011-10-29T08:40:00.002+01:00

Onwards and upwards (on the map)

South Australian Beach Pretties

2011-10-27T11:45:00.002+01:00

Jeremy and I have now entered South Australia. It's my first time here. We're camping tonight in a little place called Port MacDonnell. It has a lovely long beach on which the most gorgeous seaweeds can be found. They make the sand look like a painted canvas. The colors so vivid. And then even the beach stranded beetles are the most colourful I've seen. We rescued this one from a sand soggy stuck on his back end!

Honeymooning

2011-10-25T08:33:00.001+01:00

Jeremy and I set off today on our motorbike (Norman) for our first day of honeymoon. We've arrived at wye river and it's just lovely. Weather a bit cold but I don't think I should Complain since as we move north into the Australian desert I'll be missing the cool air of the great ocean road!

I've been keeping a tally today of all the birds I've seen, it's quite extensive!

White face heron
Wood ducks and ducklings
Galah
Grey falcon
Ibis
Magpie
Mud lark
Egret
Welcome swallow
Water hen
Sulphur crested cockatoo
Wattlebird
pied currawong
Pied cormorant
new holland honeyeater
Rosella
Plover
Australian crow
Red browed finch
Kookaburra
King parrot
Superb fairy wren
Black bird
Sparrow
Fly catcher
Black cockatoo

And of course I've been drawing. I think this trip will be as much a sketching/ bird watching trip as it is a honeymoon!

As I write rosellas and king parrots are in the empty neighbouring camp spots, a just heard the laugh of a kookaburra and the constant trickle of the stream in front of our tent. Ah the wonders of the iPhone!

To read more about our trip you can see www.motormoon.blogspot.com. I'll keep putting my drawings up here though and a few photos.

First Drawing At Our New Place

2011-10-20T06:35:00.002+01:00

Even though I didn't have any materials with me on this visit I found a pencil and doodled a bit of the bush around me. I decided it needed a bit of colour so I squished up some gum leaves, wattle flower and tried a bit of bark for rubbing on colour.

Motormoon - Our Motorbike Honeymoon

2011-10-11T07:22:00.000+01:00

At the end of October I'm going to be away for about a month. Jeremy and I are going on our honeymoon. We are going motorbiking to Alice Springs and then back home via New South Wales and the high country of Victoria. I've never really been on a motorbike before, well, I went on a three day bike ride in Vietnam about 10 years ago, but I think this will be different. Jeremy will be driving, I'll be on the back and I'm rather scared, but also excited. Today we bought some of the gear I'm going to need including a very pretty helmet!

Jeremy and I intend to keep a blog about our trip. You can find out what we're up to at www.motormoon.blogspot.com. We've already started writing since the build up to leaving is just as much part of the trip as the actual driving part. I'll be showing photos, writing about what we see and showing any drawings I manage to do on the way. Jeremy may talk a bit more about technical stuff, about the bike and gear etc. I hope it will prove interesting. So if I'm not writing on here for a while, you can find me motormooning!

When we get back home at the end we will be returning to the little house we found. It is out in the bush near Daylesford (about an hour north of Melbourne) and is gorgeous! Surrounded by wildlife and lots of bush track to explore. I think it'll be a bit basic but I'm really looking forward to living there and the studio is big and warm and I can't wait to get printmaking again in such inspiring surroundings!

Melly

2011-10-09T13:53:00.002+01:00

Street art in Melbourne has a few less depictions involving balaclavas compared to Belfast.

A Weekend of Openings

2011-10-07T06:19:00.001+01:00

This Saturday will be a busy one and anyone else in Melbourne tomorrow are welcome to come along! Firstly I'll be in Kew for my exhibition opening in Bird's Gallery. It is entitled Home Bird and is showing many of the pieces I made while in Northern Ireland over the last 2 years.

I will then try and fly down to Gertrude Street, Fitzroy to attend the Scholarship Exposed group exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop, in which I have a piece. I'm hoping get there in time to see some familiar faces that I've missed while I've been away.

Then Sunday is my birthday and I've requested a quiet day at home (well, Jeremy's parent's home) watching Gone With The Wind as I've never seen it before and have just finished the book and loved it!

Monday we're going to pick up keys to our new house. More on that to come...!

New country new gadget

2011-10-01T14:15:00.002+01:00

I have been in Australia nearly two weeks now. It's good to be back, sad to be away from family, but i feel I'm heading in the right direction.

I needed to buy myself a new phone and I've treated myself to an iPhone. I've only ever had the cheapest of phones before so this is quite a new thing to get used to. I'm even writing my blog from it, I can even add photos straight from my phone to my blog. I'm sure this isn't big news to most up to date people, but to me this is amazing!

Jeremy and I have been looking for places to live and exploring new areas. We recently took a trip up to kyneton, about an hour north of Melbourne. It seems a great place, cheaper houses to rent but still a great arty hub.

In kyneton we came across the most amazing shop/ gallery called stockroom. It sold gorgeous contemporary crafts and exhibited the most fascinating pieces of art.

Now, I'm not sure if the photos I'm trying to add here are being placed in the correct spaces. This is all a bit experimental. I'll add a few more, go to sleep, then check it all out in the morning.

Goodbye My Childhood Home

2011-09-13T16:32:00.001+01:00

I'm supposed to be packing and clearing the last of our things. Jeremy keeps wandering into this room looking puzzled at what I might be doing that is more important than packing and clearing. I told him this is important too.

We leave for Dublin tomorrow, then fly out on Saturday to start our new life in Australia.

Alison MacLeod - A Great Friend and a Great Jeweller!

2011-08-30T21:09:00.004+01:00

My friend Alison got married a few months before I did and she was a huge help to me. She kept me going when everything seemed too much.

Luckily she likes my etchings so we were able to do a swap so I could give each of my bridesmaids one of her Berries Pendants which went down very well.

Alison is currently having a competition so you can win one of her lovely pendants. I've entered, I wouldn't miss it! All you have to do is go to her *Brand New Lovely Website!* have a look at her Berries Pendant range and fill in a contact form telling her which is your favourite!

The Big Day!

2011-08-26T10:46:00.001+01:00

I have finally recovered enough to post something on here! I can quite honestly say that last weekend was the best of my life. I felt as high as a kite, everywhere I looked were people I loved who had traveled far and wide to be there. The sun was shining throughout even though the forecast wasn't so good. We danced, we drank, we toasted, we sang and we cried (there wasn't a dry eye during the speeches! except mine, I seemed to be too elated to let the tears fall!) It was all just thoroughly amazing. Now I'll show a few photos courtesy of my friend Alison!

My beautiful Mum who walked me up the aisle.

The guests

The ceremony written and conducted by my wonderful friend and bridesmaid Bryonie

(we were married legally a few days before in the town hall, so for our big day we were able to have our own ceremony and exchange the rings)

The stunning MagnaKata teepees

Jeremy and I drinking Champagne and laughing!

Jeremy and I with our niece and nephew and my granny

The Eating

The Decorations

The place settings

The goodie boxes on the tables

The excitement!

Weddedininginineededing

2011-07-28T19:42:00.001+01:00

Today I've finally got round to taking some photos of the things I'm working on for the wedding. Obviously the invites were sent out a while ago. My poor family, I found it rather stressful figuring out what needed to be written and who got what and how many needed screen printing and how many to sew up. They coped with me tremendously well and helped me with a bit of sewing and bow tying too!

For some reason I decided I wanted to screen print my own pattern, front and back and screen print the wording too. The back of the flags are in three colours, the front only two, one of which is the writing in black. I left the names blank so I could write them in in dip ink pen after.

I then sewed them onto ribbon using my trusty vintage hand powered singer. That sewing machine must be one of the most useful things I own! I love it, I'm going to do anything I can to bring it to Australia with me. But it does weigh a tonne, they don't make them like that anymore!

Today I've been making the name tags to go on the tables. They will be held by the little birds I've been making.

Lots of names!

I've also been making flavoured vodkas. So far I have strawberry flavour and apple and cinnamon. I've done a cherry one too but it doesn't seem to taste of anything yet. I'm going to have them in these little bottles on the tables. Just a mouthful in each!

and that's about it for now. Our sweet pea are blooming and it is a full time job constantly cutting them to make sure more grow!

Oh, also, I'm having a studio sale next Tuesday night at my mum's coffee shop, The Bay Tree. I'll be selling lots of drawings, prints and etchings from only £5. I can't take it all to Australia with me! Have a look here for facebook details.

Wedding Work

2011-07-16T19:02:00.000+01:00

Making making making. It's only about a month to go now. People keep saying 'not long to go now, eh?!' and I try and ignore them, there's so much to do!

I bought a bag of porcelain clay and I've been playing about with it, some of the things I've been making are little birds to hold name tags for the tables. I've gone to a local ceramicists to get them fired, I left them off yesterday, can't wait to see what everything looks like when I get them back.

The willow bower is looking very healthy and has some sweet pea friends growing alongside. All our sweet pea crops are flourishing after a late start. Hopefully they'll keep going so we have lots for the wedding flowers.

Tonight I'm making heart bunting with a friend. I was at market today and spent pretty much the whole time cutting out hearts. Lots to work with! I'll get photos of everything soon, once I've got the making under control.

Teaching

2011-07-04T18:37:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I taught my first experimental drawing class. It's a class I've wanted to teach for a while. I wanted to teach the experimental techniques I learnt in my first few weeks of art college in Liverpool. Those weeks were a huge eye opener to me, I loved them and I still remember each day. It was in one of those classes I discovered drawing with my opposite hand, something I still use in my work today to keep lines nice and loose.

Saturday's workshop was at Castle Espie, where I'm having my current exhibition. We spent the first hour drawing the stuffed birds, trying to draw in shorter and shorter times, drawing without looking at the page, drawing with opposite hand, drawing continuous lines. We needed to get fast and loose before we ventured onto the live birds outside, they obviously don't stand still like our stuffed subjects!

Below are some of these drawing experiments drawn by my students. It was interesting how most agreed their opposite hand drawings were the favourites!

I included a stuffed otter amongst the birds, just to keep everyone on their toes!

A Quick Round Up

2011-06-28T14:23:00.002+01:00

Or maybe it wont be so quick. I've been away and busy and terribly bad at blogging in the last few weeks.

First of all I was in England, tried to kill a number of birds with one stone and I think I succeeded rather well! I had a lovely hen picnic in London all arranged for me by one of my bridesmaids. We went to Hampstead Heath and had a swim in the Ladies Pond. I'm quite a wimp when it comes to cold water but I couldn't opt out since everyone else had slipped into the cool, but not freezing, waters. We even saw a Kingfisher which is a very special treat!

I then went to Oxford to visit a good friend and to see the Pitt Rivers Museum. I've always wanted to go to the Pitt Rivers. This photo is actually of the Natural History Museum, but the Pitt Rivers is out the back of this. It really is a wonderful place, full of anthropological artifacts from around the world, all arranged by subject matter rather than by country. A case of writing implements from all different countries, a case of animal imagery, a case of head hunting trophies, a case of model boats from many different cultures. I went back on day two in Oxford and spent a whole 2 hours just looking at armour and swords. It's brilliant!

I also visited the Oxford Print Workshop. I love being a printmaker. I walked in to Oxford Print Workshop, said that I was a member of the Belfast Print Workshop and they made me feel so welcome, showed me round, talked printmaking talk and compared workshops. Print workshops seem to be little safe havens for traveling printmakers.

I then returned back to London where I was staying with my friend Ruth Tomlinson, who is also the wonderful jeweller who made my engagement ring! On the Thursday I visited her studio where I picked out my wedding ring. I had it all sorted which one I wanted to get from looking at her website. Of course I went for something completely different though, and I can't wait to wear it!

On the Friday I needed to make my north to get to my half brother's wedding in the Peak District. On my way up through England I had arranged to stop off in Cheltenahm to visit fellow printmaker Sue Brown. I follow Sue's blog and I really enjoy her work so I decided that I really wanted to meet her and see her gorgeous shed studio. I had a lovely time even if it was very busy due to open studio week! Thanks Sue and thanks for the lovely lunch!

Now I'm back home in Belfast and I've been setting up my exhibition at Castle Espie. The opening was last Saturday and it went very well. A good turn out and lots of cute ducklings, can't get better than that! It is a joint exhibition with artist/ printmaker Doris Rohr who has made wonderful landscape drawings and etchings. The two rooms seem to compliment each other well.

The final round up is a little moan, sorry about this, but my family will no longer listen to me on this subject. I don't think they quite understand! Below is a photo of me at my hen picnic. I've been growing my hair for the last few years. I'm loving having really really long hair, well, I was. I decided I should probably get a wee trim before my wedding, just to neaten it up and take off the split ends. I am scared of hairdressers, but I knew it needed to be done.

A wee trim I asked for, but what did he take off?

Four to five inches! I'm devastated, I really am. This photo makes me sad, look how happy I was with long long hair!! It wont all grow back for the wedding in 2 months. I vow never NEVER EVER EVER to go to a hairdresser again. They never listen and they are all evil. I'm sorry if I offend hairdressers by saying this, but I've just had too many bad experiences and I'm quite beside myself with sadness.

Can you see why my family wont listen to me anymore?!

The Collagraph Collection

2011-06-01T17:54:00.001+01:00

I spent a lot of the end of last year experimenting with collagraph. This series of British sea and water birds was the result. I did enjoy making them but I think in the end I was too ambitious. I was trying to make large editions and a large series. My printing success rate was about 50% and I have a LOT of duds! I'm very glad I did them and I'm looking forward to seeing them all framed up in my upcoming exhibition, but it made me realise I prefer to work with line, small editions and only one, two or three prints at the most on the go at a time! That's not to say I wont go back to this type of collagraph, in fact I'm still working with it in some side projects and I do like the simplified forms of this series. But I'm happy to get back to etching and dry point again.

You can now see all these collagraphs in my etsy shop!

Whale Day

2011-05-29T12:57:00.000+01:00

I just bought a Moby Dick Whale Brooch (the one in the top right hand corner.) I saw it on the front page of etsy and fell in love with it. I've decided to have a whale day today, so I've looked thorugh etsy for pretty whales to share with you!

Pleasant Pheasant Printing

2011-05-28T14:32:00.004+01:00

This pheasant is my grand finale for my exhibition in June. I wanted a nice big work to go over the mantle piece in the gallery and I thought a pheasant would be quite fitting for the country location of the gallery.

It is a dry point etching into aluminium and I did most of the dry point in situ at the Ulster Museum. In this post I will explain my inking up process which is done a la poupee (multiple colours applied directly to the plate.)

I have my inks all mixed and ready

To start with I apply a layer of dark brown ink all over the plate. To apply the ink I use a rubber squeegee. You can see in the first image some colour staining already on the plate, this is from the previous inking up and has to be covered over.

I then use a piece of scrim to rub the applied ink into all the lines and background.

With a different (cleaner) piece of scrim I start to wipe back the ink. After the scrim I like to use cheese cloth, this is a softer cloth and is good for wiping back further. I have left a fair bit of excess ink on the body of the bird, but wiped back as much as I can in the background.

I have made a number of cheese cloth daubers (i don't know if this is the technical term for these tools) I use them to apply the different colours of ink to the plate.

I apply the colours quite thickly in a circular movement to the desired areas.

All the colours have now been applied

I then start to blend the inks and wipe back. Again I leave quite a bit of ink in areas to give darker and varied tones. It takes a few proofs to figure out the right amount of wiping or leaving. What you see on the plate is not necessarily how it will look when printed.

With a clean(ish) piece of soft cheese cloth I wipe the areas that the ink has smudged out. Keeping the background clean seems to be a constant job throughout the process. There's nothing worse than finding a big finger print or a cloth mark after you've printed! Also remember to wipe the edges of the plate. Lovely clean edges are very important to me ever since a master printmaker pulled me up on them!

With a cotton bud I then apply the red round the eye of the bird. The cotton bud gives you more control in small areas. I then rub in the ink a little and wipe back slightly.

With another cotton bud I wipe back the areas I want to appear white.

This final stage of inking up was taught to me by one of the staff of the Australia Print Workshop in Melbourne and I find it extremely useful. I use a piece of scrim or cheesecloth that has been used quite a bit, there is a fair bit of ink on it, but not too thick. Enough that if you gently dust it over your arm a light shading can be seen, this is exactly what happens to the plate. Dust the dirty cloth lightly over the lines, the etched lines retain a little of this ink and define the image. It also adds a little shading. Be aware that if the scrim is too inky and you dust over the lines you may need to clean the background again in areas.

My paper has been soaking in a bath of water. I nearly always use warm white Hahnemuhle 100% cotton rag paper. I use a window squeegee to scrap off excess water then lay the paper between newsprint to blot it. Paper this size is quite difficult to handle when wet so I find it easier to roll it in order to carry it from the bath to the press. Obviously before I get to the paper handling stage I have washed my hands thoroughly!

I unroll the paper on the press bed and position it using my registration marks. Normally you would have your plate already on the press bed at this stage, but I find it easier when working this size to position the paper first, then roll the press over the paper edge to secure it. I then pull the paper back over the roller to lie on top of the blankets.

Now I bring over my plate, position it using the registration marks and wipe around the press bed incase any ink marks have been left by accident. Again, very annoying when you print your image only to find there was a smudge on the press bed appearing on your print!

I carefully pull over the paper on top of the plate, then the blankets and begin to pull the press.

The moment of truth, peeling back the paper to see the print! I always love this part, even when watching someone else printmaking.

Ta da! One big pheasant.

detail

Now the print has to be put between tissue paper and boards. Weights are placed on top to keep everything flat while the paper and ink dries over the next few days. If I want another print, this process has to be repeated from the very beginning.

Wedding Willow Update

2011-05-04T09:12:00.001+01:00

Lovely and leafy and now with sweet pea planted ready to climb.

A before pic.

Wedding Making

2011-05-01T16:57:00.000+01:00

I've been ignoring my wedding lately. It all seems so much to organise I've just been pretending to myself it's not happening. Not really the way I should be feeling but I'm sure anyone who's tried to arrange their wedding will understand!

But, I think I'm back on track. I visited my friend Alison last weekend, she's getting married in a month and we shared experiences which helped. She also introduced me to Pinterest, a wonderful website where you collect images and can keep them arranged in 'pin boards' that you can share with other people. There are so many gorgeous images on there that I couldn't help but get inspired and making again.

One of my project that I'm working on for wedding decorations is a flock of doves. A bit cliche but I don't care!

The doves are blind embossed and cut out. The plate used for the embossing is made of card. I cut out the basic shape of the bird and then cut out all the feathers and glue them together.

I score the feathers so more detail can be embossed.

It's amazing how much embosses onto the paper when you put it through the press, you've got to make sure the paper has been soaked for a while though.

Layers of feathers. I have made sure the layers aren't too thick otherwise the paper tears during the embossing.

I glue them together and put a weight on top to hold it down as it dries.

This is an earlier plate. I have let all the glue dry then painted it with shellac to seal it.

This is a detail of the resulting embossing from the above plate.

These are the three plates I have done so far. Not sure how many I'll do, but I want a few more!

I have strung up a few in my studio to see what they look like. I've used willow wired up in circles as the hanging base, I think the willow needs to be painted white though, it looks a bit black and heavy.

Waiting For The Museum To Open

2011-04-20T09:00:00.001+01:00

Sitting outside the Ulster Museum yesterday, waiting for it to open, I drew the magpies.

Oh, and an update on the willow bower. It is still alive which is great news and it is sprouting new buds. So we may have a lovely hairy willow bower for our wedding after all!

Smew

2011-04-12T14:34:00.002+01:00

Here is my most recent etching. I made the plate for it a while back but didn't print it until last week. The plate was copper and I used a photo intaglio technique to start with. The plate is covered with photosensative film. I exposed it in the print workshop's light box with one of my drawings on trace. I then worked into the plate with acid etching and a bit of aquatint and finally I scratched deep lines for the blackest areas with dry point.

It is inked up a la poupee (or as I recently found out also called dolly printing, poupee being french for doll!) The blue inked up first around the duck, then the black carefully inked.

The duck itself is a Smew. I saw them down at Castle Espie the other day, they make the funniest noises, deep and bubbly, apparently that is how they got their name, smew, but I couldn't hear the link!

This will be one the my new prints in my up coming exhibition at Castle Espie at the end of June.

Castle Espie

2011-04-09T16:12:00.000+01:00

I was down at Castle Espie this morning. Castle Espie is a wildfowl and wetlands trust nature reserve, it is also the place I'm going to have a joint exhibition with Doris Rohr in June/ July. Doris and I met up with Alison the gallery manager to sort out a few things. It was lovely to meet Doris for the first time, we seem to have much in common, I look forward to working along side her for this project!

Our exhibition will run from June 25th until July 13th 2011 and opening will be on the Saturday 25th from 2 onwards. I will mention this again closer to the date. June and July are filling up very quickly for me, what with my hen dos, relatives' weddings, exhibition and my own wedding and emigrating plans!

After our meeting I decided to sit down and draw all the ducks and geese. Here are a few of them.

Doris and I have also decided to do some workshops during our exhibition. I intend to do an alternative drawing workshop. Looking at how to draw quickly and loosely, capturing the essence of the subject rather than getting too concerned with a likeness.

I also hope to be in the gallery drawing as much as possible during the exhibition.

Flock Of Birds, Port Jackson Press Exhibition

2011-03-30T10:21:00.000+01:00

I am part of an exhibition of birds opening on 7th April in Port Jackson Press, Melbourne Australia.

"Port Jackson Press invites you to enjoy "Flock of Birds", the latest exhibition at the Print Room. Many contemporary artists are inspired to make work that responds to the fluid movement and playful nature of our avian friends. "Flock of Birds" celebrates this imaginative and often whimsical imagery inspired by the bird, and birds in flight."

"The exhibition features Martin King's newest piece "Unusual Places to Die", 2011 unique state etching, which is a visual manifestation of King's experience during the Lake Hindmarsh collaborative project at the start of 2011. The exhibition also includes new work by Sarah Harvey and Bridget Farmer, as well as the wonderfully colourful "Bird with Stick Insects" lithograph by Dean Bowen. "

EXHIBITION: Flock of Birds
WHEN: 7th April - 4th May
WHERE: Port Jackson Press Print Room, 61
Smith St, Fitzroy VIC 3065
GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday – Friday 10.00 – 5.30pm, Saturday 11.00 – 5.00 pm,

Wedding Willow

2011-03-28T13:31:00.001+01:00

Two weekends ago I went to visit my good friend Bryonie, in the west of Ireland. It's always so lovely staying with Bryonie and her husband, their baby son and their wonderful dog, Duffy. The excuse for the trip this time was to help with their willow crop. I had asked for help to make a bower for our wedding and they said they'd be happy to supply the willow and teach me what to do if I gave them a hand cutting their crop.

So armed with a pair of secateurs and some water proof trousers off I went. Their crop is a mixture of different types of willow, giving different colours to work with. This growth is a year old and had to be cut right back.

Snip snip snip

Me carrying the crop home!

The lovely different shades of the various varieties.

And last Wednesday I went down to the cottages where we are going to have our wedding and built our bower. I have planted it in tubs so it can be moved around after the wedding and maybe even planted somewhere permanent. Hopefully the willow will stay alive and grow and be nice and leafy for the wedding, we are also aiming to grow sweat pea up and around the bower so it will be full of colour. If our wedding day is anything as nice as last Wednesday weather wise I'll be very happy!

Flock of Finches

2011-03-16T09:40:00.001Z

Quite a few months ago I went to the World Of Owls, I came back with drawings of Zebra Finches. The owls were all lovely, but it was a little cage of finches that caught my eye in the end!

Last month I was asked by Port Jackson Press, a gallery I exhibit with in Melbourne, to contribute work to a bird themed exhibition starting in April. I decided to put my finch sketches to good use and I made three etchings for the exhibition. I packaged them up and sent them to Omnus Framing, in Melbourne (so far the best framers I've found in the world!) and then the gallery picked them up from there. A nice little arrangement!

Below is my new finch collection. I will also be listing them soon in my etsy shop. They are dry point etchings into aluminium with colour added a la poupee (this means the colour is added to the plate during the inking up stage, so for each print the plate has to be inked up again with all the colours applied individually using a cotton bud or a small piece of scrim)

New Cards In CAMDA Shop

2011-03-08T12:34:00.002Z

Following on from my post about making etchings for Mongolia I have now made my etchings into gift cards in order to raise more funds for CAMDA (Cambridge Mongolia Development Appeal)

Today I listed them in the CAMDA etsy shop and are available for £2.50 each or a set of two for £4.50. All money goes to CAMDA to help the nomadic herders of Mongolia and their livestock.

Thank you!

Artist Book Collaboration - Leggy Stunnerz

2011-03-03T22:18:00.000Z

I'm loving this wonderful artist book made by artist Jock Mooney and animator/ film maker Alasdair Brotherston. It's so fun and bright and beautifully screen printed. I am slightly biased because I know Alasdair, but I think I would love it anyway!

Here's the description about the book "Leggy Stunnerz is an exciting collaborative project between contemporary artist Jock Mooney and animator/film makerAlasdair Brotherston. Painstakingly screenprinted in a limited edition of 50 on 280g BFK Rives tan coloured paper this concertina book opens out to a full length of 1.4 metres. It’s folded down and secured with a neon pink belly band which is signed and numbered by the artists and embossed with the Nobrow Small Press seal. The work shows a carnival like procession of characters all with added legs. Even the crocodile with legs has extra legs! Jock & Alasdair irreverently and playfully depict voodoo idols, Orthodox Christian icons and intertwine them seamlessly with throw away pop culture motifs. The concertina format allows for a narrative dialogue that literally unfolds in front of your very eyes, building from quiet mumblings to gross, all-out, moaning rumblings and feverish shreikings!"

In fact it looks like the website that you can buy this book from is a treat. I need to look further at it but it looks like it is a publisher of artist's books. I'm going to wait until I'm not so tired and investigate it further. The reason I'm so tired? I've been screen printing my wedding invites all week and teaching a printmaking class. I'll show the results of the invites soon.

Blog Twin Time

2011-02-21T16:44:00.000Z

Two Wednesday nights ago I was walking to my dreamweaver class in town and it was all rainy and yuk. The weather was bad, but the reflections of the street lights on the pavment were lovely. I took a photo and sent it to my friend Alison McLeod for our blog twin project.

Today Alison sent a reply photo, she says it depicts "sparkly things on my bench while I was designing last week."

Etchings For Mongolia

2011-02-12T16:13:00.001Z

I visited Mongolia in 2001 and completely fell in love with the country, as has any other person I've met who has traveled there. About a year or two ago I saw a very sad video about Mongolia's nomadic herders and the difficulties they were facing because of the very harsh winter weather they had been experiencing. I found a charity called Camda (Cambridge Mongolia Development Appeal) and signed up to their newsletters to keep up to date with what was happening out there.

Mongolian Horse I

Etching with aquatint, made from a sketch I did while in Mongolia in 2001

Recently I got in contact with the organisers of Camda to see if I could help in anyway and I offered to try and raise some funds through my art. I have so far made three editions of Mongolia etchings and I've opened an etsy shop in which to sell them. All proceeds help Camda and I hope to produce gift cards with these images when I can.

Mongolian Horse II

etching with aquatint, colour added a la poupee (straight to the plate)

I am also sending out an appeal to other printmakers who are interested in helping. I'm looking for artists/ printmakers who are willing to donate a piece for this shop. Your work doesn't necessarily have to be Mongolian themed, although if it is that would be a bonus! Contact me at camdaetsyshop[at!]hotmail.com to find out more details. Thank you so much!

Mongolian Landscape

Etching with aquatint, made from a sketch I did while in Mongolia in 2001

To find out more about what Camda does you can see their website here and you can see the Camda etsy shop here!

Wire Work Revisited

2011-02-03T20:50:00.000Z

I've been up in the attic looking for items to sell in my wedding fund etsy shop, SeeTheBirds. I have lots of lovely vintage items that I just can't bring with me to Australia when we move in September so I thought I could try and sell them to raise funds for our wedding in August.

Amongst my vintage items I came across my wire horses that I made for my post graduate diploma in 2003. They are made of silver and silver plated wire, with parts, such as the mane, forged with a hammer. I sold a number of them at my degree show and was asked by Hamilton and Inches (a fancy London and Edinburgh jewellers) to make 9 reindeer for their christmas window displays. It was lovely seeing those reindeer again when I was in Scotland over New Year!

One of the reindeers in Christmas window display at Edinburgh's Hamilton and Inches.

I have decided to list the remainder of my wire horse collection on etsy at quite a big discount from the original prices (originally between £200 - £500.) I have three currently listed and two more to get up.

Horse I

Horse II

Horse III

I'm really enjoying having a vintage online shop. I love setting all the photographs up and remembering where I got each item. Some items I'm sad to say goodbye to, but everyone has to have a clear out every so often and it would cost a fortune to bring it all to Australia with me!

On the wedding front I've been looking in vintage shops (fun!) and I'm due to go down to Dublin with a friend soon. I've also been looking at darling vintage style shoes. I saw these today and I really like that dusky pink, not so keen on the heel, but you can't have everything!

A Quest For Harry Clarke

2011-01-22T10:57:00.000Z

Last November I gave my friend, Bryonie, a book all about Harry Clarke and his beautiful stained glass windows. I've loved Harry Clarke's windows since I studied glass on a friday at art college in my second year. I'm only home in Ireland for 2 years, so will only get to see Bryonie for this length of time (off to Australia after) so I thought we should try and make as many trips as we can together in this time, and our Harry Clarke quests would be a great excuse!

We decided to go to Gilford first since it is in Northern Ireland and about half way between where we both live, me in Belfast and Bryonie in Fermanagh. The little chapel where these window are installed is called St John the Evangelist and is up Castle Hill, very easy to find.

It is beautifully simple inside, all the windows leading up to the alter are clear glass with diamond leading. Then, as you walk up to the top you see the most amazingly beautiful windows of Harry Clarke. They are the first Clarke windows I've seen in situ and they really did take my breath away. I got tingles all through my body looking at them. We were lucky because the sun was shining straight through the left hand side window. It was stunning.

This is a small detail of a little panel in the main window, it would measure about 30cm across. You can see all around the panel the bejeweled patterns like encrustations. (detail of this in the photo at the top of this post)

And this is the main part of the window. The photos don't do it justice which is a shame. The colours are so intense and subtly varied. Harry Clarke is renown for his use of deep blues, I love the turquoise blue mountain like structure on the left of Mary and the horizontal lines of varying shades of blue above it. I haven't shown images of the other window which is also beautiful, but didn't have the sun shining through. Maybe we need to go in the morning to see that one!

I think our next quest will be to Dublin. I'll keep you posted!

Blog Twins

2011-01-20T12:02:00.001Z

My good friend Alison and I have decided to do a little blog twin project. Every so often she sends me a photo and I send her one that links to it in some way or another, or vice versa.

Alison is a jewellery designer/ maker. She keeps beautiful sketchbooks full of inspirational images. The top photo is an image of a page from one of her sketchbooks.

The bottom photo is my contribution. It is a photo of a Harry Clarke window. I am in awe of Harry Clarke windows. I've always wanted to see one in real life, so, my friend Bryonie and I went on a little quest this week and found one in a town called Gilford not too far from us. I intend to write a blog post all about this trip very soon.

http://alisonmacleodjewellery.blogspot.com/

New Illustration Work Published

2011-01-17T21:58:00.001Z

Last year the publishing company I illustrated for in 2008 asked me to work on a follow up book, this time called 100 Australian Poems of Love and Loss. I just got my copy of it in the post this week and it looks lovely.

When the first one (100 Australian Poems You Need To Know) was published I found it so strange to be able to go into book shops and find my work, so familiar to me, in a book on the shelf. This time around I'm not in Australia so I wont be able to wander, self absorbed, into the poetry sections of Borders or Readings!

A Bit Of Excitement

2011-01-06T14:53:00.000Z

On Christmas eve Jeremy got a wet knee in the snow and I got this ring! My friend Ruth Tomlinson made it. I promise this wont turn into a wedding blog, I get a bit embarrassed about it all, even seeing website names like Bridal Heaven freaks me out. My friend Alison, who is also getting married this year, gave me a lovely website though, so I'm taking refuge in it for the time being before I venture further. Any other suggestions are warmly welcomed. I'll be making making making! and I'm happy happy happy!

Introducing Printmaker Stephanie Martin

2010-12-18T11:18:00.000Z

I was recently lucky enough to take part in an artist swap with artist Stephanie Martin. The etching above entitled "Four Crowns" is now in my possession and is a treasured part of my bird collection! I really love Stephanie's work, her aquatint skills are beautiful. I wish I could make my way over to California and learn a thing or two from her!

Aquatint is the tonal effect you can see in Stephanie's pieces. It is created by dusting a fine resin over the plate, melting it, blocking out certain parts of the plate that you don't want tonal and placing it in the acid. For different depths of tone you need to leave in the acid for longer (the longer in the acid the blacker the tone.) Blocking out, with a tar like liquid, areas you want to leave lighter along the way. It's a long process and one I sometimes find difficult to get my head round.

I've asked Stephanie to tell us a bit about herself. Over to her....

"I studied natural history, mainly botany, in college and love being in wilderness. Here on the coast of California we are surrounded by beauty. I also need the mountains and spend a few weeks each year in the high country of Yosemite, camping and hiking."

"Six years ago, when both my girls were grown, I finally took up art, which had been a desire for decades! On the side of being an elementary school teacher, I paint landscapes and make prints--mostly intaglio but some woodcuts too. I love plants and birds particularly and am fascinated by the myths and legends people across time and cultures have made up about them."

You can see more of Stephanie's beautiful work in her etsy shop and her website.

Bay Tree Stories

2010-12-16T13:55:00.001Z

I may be biased, but everyone else who knows The Bay Tree would agree that it is one of the best restaurants in Northern Ireland. AND, it's my mum's restaurant! Good home made seasonal food. I have wished for a Bay Tree in every city I've lived. But there is only one, in Holywood, County Down.

Before owning the business my mum worked there as a cook for many years. All through my childhood and teenage years the Bay Tree has been an important part of my life. My brother and I used to love the Bay Tree stories my mum would tell us when we were little. For example the dishwasher Betty would be asked to get a corgette from the store and would come back with a carrot instead 'is this a corgette Sue?', 'No, that's a carrot Betty', so she'd be sent back and come back with an aubergine 'is this a corgette Sue?' 'No that's an aubergine Betty' and so on. This had us in fits of giggles when we were 7 and 8.

I'm now back living at home for a couple of years and my life once again is entangled with The Bay Tree. My brother now owns half the business and my partner Jeremy works there part time. They have a head chef and his entourage but my mum still does a lot of the cooking. I encouraged her to start a blog and she has jumped right in (with a little technical help from me.)

So I would like to invite you to read more Bay Tree stories in my mum's blog. It's all about food, cooking, the workings of a restaurant, a few recipes here and there and my mum's daily life as the owner of a successful wonderful restaurant. I think it makes for a good read!

http://foodthebaytreeandme.blogspot.com

Garden Goat

2010-12-13T18:53:00.000Z

On Saturday I managed to have a lie in, brunch with Jeremy, a bit of Christmas shopping (for me) AND etch and edition a new print! Go me! I was very proud of myself.

Here's the new print. The Garden Goat. But it's ok that he's in the garden because the garden is a bit over grown anyway and he's doing the mowing.

St Georges

2010-12-11T11:29:00.000Z

I had a great weekend last weekend at the St Georges Market Christmas fair. It was two days of busy business, festival music and pretty lights! Very enjoyable indeed.

But that doesn't mean St George's has finished, it's still open every Saturday and Sunday up until Christmas. I'll be there every Sunday (not Saturday). So if you're in Belfast come and find me. If you purchase from me, mention this blog post and I'll give you a free wee pack of hand printed gift tags!

Another Side Of Me

2010-12-09T18:26:00.000Z

Original print of Belfast Terraces

My friend Danielle and I have started a little business called Flax Fox, designing and making Northern Irishy gifts. We have had enough of all the shamrocks and leprechauns found in Belfast gift shops and so we've started our own range of Belfast and Northern Ireland inspired products. We're only in the early stages at the moment, a few designs out and about 10 of each printed onto tea towels, shopping bags and printed as original prints. But today we had a bit of fun doing a photo shoot. Here are some of the results.....

Co. Down Tea Towel in Turquoise

Belfast Terrace cotton shopping bag

Co. Down cotton shopping bag

You can see more photos from the shoot at our Flax Fox blog. Or see the range of items we have for sale already in our online shop - www.flaxfox.bigcartel.com.

Birds in My Belfast Garden, Artist Book

2010-11-25T12:59:00.001Z

This is my new artist's book that I made a little while ago. It is called Birds In My Belfast Garden and you may recognise most of the etchings that make up the contents. There are 6 etchings each coloured a la poupee (colour added to the plate rather than to the paper after). I have blind embossed the front cover with foliage and a lost feather.

I made the book to be submitted for the RUA (Royal Ulster Accademy) annual exhibition and I am extremely please to say I was accepted. I am a bit late in writing this because the exhibition, which was held in the newly renovated Ulster Museum, finished a few weeks ago and I managed to sell 2 editions. In all I have made 6 editions and one AP (artist proof). The AP is for me to take back to Australia, when I move back next year, to keep as a momento of all the lovely little garden birds who live in our garden here in Belfast.

The piece I exhibited had a hand made box to contain it. It is covered in the same blind embossed paper as the cover of the book. Subsequent editions of the book do not have this box.

You can see this book in my etsy shop!

More Life Drawing

2010-11-23T10:55:00.002Z

Here are a few more life drawings from this week. Term has now finished but I hope to start again next term. They are a very friendly group of artists and even brought in some wine and mince pies this week!

I didn't realise until I uploaded this drawing that it is pretty much the mirror image of the drawing last week. I like standing poses, I think they are my favourite.

I'd like to direct you to a lovely post I read today by printmaker Sue Brown. She has taken photos of an exhibition all about choughs and other birds in the corvid family (such as crows and ravens). Some lovely works! See the post HERE!

Quick Life Drawing

2010-11-16T11:12:00.001Z

Last night I was very good and went to a life drawing class. If I was really very good I would go regularly, but as it is I'm only (very) occasionally good! My problem is (here's the excuse) I like fast poses and so few classes do this. They may start with a couple of 1 or 2 minute poses then straight into half hour poses and I just don't like spending too long on one drawing. I find I tighten up and over work the picture. The class last night was good in that it had quite a few 10 or 15 minute poses preceded by 2 minute ones.

This was a 15 minute pose, I enjoyed the pose but I feel even in this I have tightened up too much.

This was part of a 10 minute pose. I drew the figure for about 9 minutes, then in the remaining minute I quickly sketched this and I think it is my favourite drawing of the class!

The best drawing class I attended was while I was at art college (many years ago now.) It was a full 2 hours of just 5 minute poses, it was brilliant! Anyone know of anywhere I could do that in Belfast? I'm sure the models would be happy about it too!

Arabian Coffee Pots

2010-11-05T12:59:00.001Z

While I was in Abu Dhabi visiting my friend I saw lots of these coffee pots all beautifully decorated. I made a few drawings with the intent to make an etching and a few weeks ago I finally got round to making them.

This was the first time I've experimented with a coloured background. I used a roller to apply the red colour, then wiped away the red ink in the area of the coffee pot and rubbed in the sepia ink instead. It ends up a bit more painterly and I've left a lot of sepia ink in places to get the shading. You can see these pieces in my etsy shop here.

I'm currently working on christmas cards and tags and other christmassy regalia and I'll list them soon in my etsy shop under the section Christmas Shop. Keep an eye out!

I've also updated my page 'My New Favourite Shop' with a wonderful maker of spats!

How To Make A Collagraph

2010-10-12T11:06:00.006+01:00

The term collagraph is made up of the words 'collage' and 'graphic.' The plate you use to print from is a collage of materials. There are many different ways to make a collagraph, I'm going to show you how I make the plates for my bird series using just card.

I use off cuts of mounting (matting) board. You don't want to use anything too absorbent.

First I draw the image I want to make and decide which areas are going to be the highest. Remember the higher the plane the deeper embossed it will be in your print. I want the black area at the top of the beak and eye to be the highest because when it comes to inking it up I want to use a roller for evenness, so if it is the highest area it will be easier to roll onto.

I cut out the outline of the bird.

Then I cut out the shape of the part I want raised

I draw around this shape

and cut it out

I find if the lower layer is complete then the upper layer sits better. So I join the original piece of the birds head (like a jigsaw) and place the replicated shape on top to see if it all sits correctly.

Then I glue. I just use PVA or a wood glue. Try not to have too much squelshing out the sides though. You can see here I'm glueing on the drawn side, I've decided I want the bird to be facing the opposite direction, so I've just turned it over.

Glue glue glue

and then glue the top layer on

Now I put weights on the plate so it glues evenly, no curled up edges hopefully. You can also use books or anything heavy.

All glued and dried I clean up the edges with some fine sand paper. It's good to have a slight angle on the edges. Remember any lumps or bumps will be visible when you print, so if you want the print to be smooth you have to make sure the plate is smooth!

Now I coat the plate in a number of layers of shellac. You can use bought french polish but I've found it to be a bit sticky and takes an age to dry. I use shellac flakes dissolved in methylated spirits. I use about 1:1, I like the mixture quite thick, but you can read here for more info.

The finished plate with about 3 layers of shellac. Leave to dry over night.

I have just made a new page on my blog especially for how tos. I will make links to all how to posts so it will be easier to find them in the future. You can see it here or click on the page tab at the top of the blog.

Sketches From Abu Dhabi

2010-10-07T10:22:00.000+01:00

Since I've been bad and haven't managed to get drawing lately ( and have lost my camera charger and can't take any photos) I thought I'd have a look in my old sketchbooks. I was flicking through my lovely green canvas covered sketchbook when I realised I hadn't finished putting up my sketches from my Abu Dhabi trip last April. So here are the rest of them, you can see the first half of them here.

The Mosque in Abu Dhabi

From the bus on the way to Dubai

Dubai pigeons

New Discovery - Edward Bawden

2010-09-28T20:40:00.000+01:00

I was on the phone to my friend Vicky today and she told me to look up Edward Bawden's work. I'm glad I did, they are beautiful. I especially love his series of Six London Markets. Here are three of them, all lino cuts.

Braintree Cattle Market

Borough Market (where Vicky herself used to work!)

Smithfield Market

Trinity

2010-09-23T12:55:00.001+01:00

Another drawing from my Dublin trip, Trinity college, from the courtyard on the inside.

Sketchbook Project

2010-09-21T11:48:00.000+01:00

My sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project arrived in the post the other day, so I decided I'd better get started on it. I had arranged to go down to Dublin to see a friend of mine and go to the Natural History Museum with her. Dublin's Natural History Museum is the most wonderful place. It's even a museum of a museum. It hasn't been changed since victorian times and is over flowing with stuffed specimens!

Here are a few pages from my sketchbook, I'll be putting them and more up on my 'Sketchbook Project' page.

This page is a mix of images I saw from the train window as we were traveling back up to Belfast. It's a good way to keep your drawing quick!

A Few New Works

2010-09-13T13:10:00.001+01:00

I remember, years ago, I did a course in between my foundation art course and my degree. It was called a craft course and was in a small town called Tomastown in Co Killkenny, Ireland. On Mondays we did pottery, Tuesdays weaving, Wednesdays batik, Thursdays printmaking and Fridays metalwork. I can't believe I just remembered that, it was over 10 years ago! The printmaking we did was mostly screen printing, I hated it. I really did have an aversion to it and it put me off what I thought was the world of printmaking, I didn't know there was more to it. I remember writing up my projects to hand in to the tutor, I hadn't been particularly successful with the majority of my screen print projects and I rather cheekily wrote, 'oh well, sure, life doesn't revolve around printmaking anyway.'

HOW WRONG COULD I HAVE BEEN?

Now that I've discovered that there is so much more to printmaking than just messy sludgy screen printing my life does revolve round it! Recently I've been experimenting with collagraphs. Here are a few outcomes.

Tern

Gannet

Black Headed Gull

They were originally just going to be embossings but after experimenting I decided colour was needed. They are still quite heavily embossed which doesn't show up so well when scanned. I'm trying for really simple shapes to define each sea bird.

Please note I do not mean to offend any screen printers, it's just not my thing! I love other peoples screen prints, possibly even more so because I know what's involved and I can't do it!

Meet Jenny McCabe of Yarn Soup

2010-09-10T09:00:00.005+01:00

Swallows

Jenny writes one of my favourite blogs and I really love her work so I got in contact and we decided to swap interviews.

Tell us a little about you

I’m a visual artist living with my family (husband & children 13 & 4) in Lancaster near the Lake District. For many years I worked as a community artist facilitating other creativity in various different settings including hospitals, schools and theatres. I loved this work very much, but my personal creative practice took a huge hit working this way as every project took up so much of my time I never found the energy to focus on my work for very long. Last year I decided to take a break from chasing and delivering community projects and focus on my work full time and see where it would lead me.

"Mrs Brown has a Visitor" mono print

Tell us a bit about your work

I have absolutely loved having time to mess and create! I feel like I’m back at Art College, excited by every new idea and pile of messy creations in my space by the end of a session.

In order to focus on my work. I have created a little studio space in a corner of my home, loads of light and a great view of the fantastic (if a little distracting) woods out the back of our house!

Birds have always been present in my work, from my bird ladies - working from old family photgraphs –replacing the mothers head with that of a bird, to my textile work and linocuts which are just plain celebrations of birds- their shapes and movements

I have been jumping around the mediums a lot over the last year, this is very ‘me” jack-of-all-trades! But also very deliberate in order to explore ideas further, I feel the bird ladies and more narrative work seems to have found its home with the mono prints- maybe in the form of a storybook or just a series of images telling
a tale.

The textile work has lead to learning about plant dying and wool spinning!

Text Bird Head

What inspires you to make?

Everything inspires me to make! The desire to make things seems to have been in me forever, I have always had some project on the go. Im never sure where an ideas is going to come from, it could be an image or the medium itself that inspires or a piece of music or a practical need for something! Sometimes I wish I could just enjoy a gallery trip or a film without coming out desperate to get home and make whatever Ive been inspired to do!

Could you tell us about each of the images below?

Lampshade moths

This is the most recent bit of messing – playing with moths as motifs I created some stitched moths- heavy machine embroidery mimicking the patterns and intricate markings, I displayed these like taxidermy pinned into a frame, very beautiful but to static, my ideas seem to be heading more towards flight and movement. The idea of mass & swarm were very appealing to me, Id already been working with paper cuts and vintage pages but Ive seen it a hundred times butterflies coming out of books so I wanted to take another direction, the lines and markings on the map pages lend them self’s very well to moths markings so I have been playing with these stitched map moths, creating many and displaying them in lots of different ways- this work is ongoing as I continue to play with these ideas making hundreds and creating a big swirling mass!

"Do you have to bring the owl Marge?" mono print

Mono prints images

These are part of a series of mono print drawings using old family photos to create little intriguing narratives, often with a bird or owl involved! As these develop Im thinking they will become a larger story, I have already experimented with making a small artist book with a selection.

Goldfinch

Flock of Owls

Swallow, Goldfinch, Flock of Owls & Text Bird Head

These are all from the same thread of work (literally!) playing with freehand machine embroidery- literally drawing with my machine. The swallows & Goldfinch were created with appliqué layers, inspired by the pile of plant dyed silks I had amassed while experimenting with plants form my garden and local area.

Dye jars on the balcony

I have always been amazed by the history of plant dying and the amazing spectrum of colors achieved from plants, this year has seen me start to learn a bit more and have a go. I have read my stuff and just jumped in there and started- mainly solar dyeing which is slower and a bit more of a surprise but I have tried some hot dying and got some amazingly bright results! My bible is Jenny Deans wild color which has just come back in to print, a fantastic book for anyone interested in starting.

Running from the trees

This is a series of ideas combining paper cuts and stories quite literarily!! Im aware this not a new idea but I love the look- the plan was to try and illustrate a story with a series of these images, I love the theatrical look and the texture the printed words give to the image I have all kinds of grand ideas with light bulbs and drilled holes!! We will see if I ever get around to it!

Is there anything else you'd like to say?

I have a very confused practice most of the time that doesn’t know whether it wants to make something pretty or try out a crazy idea! I would love to just find some peace with that and have a constant steady flow of the joy I get when Im just making and not questioning!

Not sure what the future holds but I hope to keep on learning, growing and creating.

Id love to get access to printing particularly screen printing, but really don’t know where to start and it needs a cash injection which is nowhere in sight so for now that will have to wait.

I'd like to say a big thank you to Jenny for this interview and for my interview on her blog which you can see here. You can find more about her work in the links below.

My Flickr photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39318704@N06/

My Blog

http://jenny-yarn-soup.blogspot.com/

My Shop

http://www.etsy.com/shop/jennymccabe/

Experimenting with Dry Point

2010-09-07T09:27:00.000+01:00

Recently I taught a class at the Belfast Print Workshop. It was dry point etching into aluminium. I had done dry point before into copper and perspex, but never with aluminium. So I decided I had better play a bit to get to know it.

The following prints are different stages of working, using different techniques, on the aluminium plate.

Finch 1, just drypoint, scratching the image into the plate with a dry point needle. Inked in dark sepia.

Finch 2, tone added on the wing by scratching the plate with sandpaper creating a soft tonal area. Inked in dark sepia

Finch 3, more tone added, on belly and tail, using a roulette. A roulette is a tool which you roll over the plate, it textures the surface of the plate thus holding more ink when inked up creating a blacker area. Inked in dark sepia

Finch 4, a mixture of PVA glue and carborundum grit is applied to the branch, this is highly textured when dry and leaves a very dense tone and a certain amount of texture on the paper. Inked in dark sepia.

Note the light scratches in the background now. This is unintentional and due to accidentally scratching the plate with the grit when inking up. This can be a problem when working with grit.

Finch 5, colour added straight to the plate in a technique called A La Poupee. I ink up in the usual way with dark sepia, then add a dab of colour onto the plate in the areas required, rub it in a bit and print.

Finch 6, same as finch 5 but initially I inked up in a brown colour instead of the dark sepia. I have also scratched a few more little circles into the the underwing and darkened under the eye with the etching needle.

If anyone is in the Belfast area and would be interested in taking a class at the Belfast Print Workshop you can find details on their website or ask me. Autumn classes have not yet been decided but they will be up soon. Classes may include screenprinting, collagraph, dry point etching, acid etching, photo ingalio and more.

http://belfastprintworkshop.org.uk

My Other Work

2010-09-06T09:15:00.002+01:00

I thought I'd show a few images of my other ranges of work. I've always called my printmaking and drawing work my 'serious' work, but a artist has got to make a living, so I have a couple of other ranges of work.

Bird & Bridge
Bird & Bridge is a range of bird themed pieces (not surprising coming from me really!). I make small digital prints and hand embroidered wool felt brooches and art pieces.

Cartwheel Bird in Lichen

William and Tatiana, Hand Embroidered Wool Felt Brooches

Circle Bird, Hand Embroidered Fabric Art Piece

You can view more of this work at www.birdandbridge.com or www.birdandbridge.etsy.com

Bridbird in the Kitchen

Bridbird in the Kitchen is a series of kitchen themed digital prints. I originally made some of the pen and ink drawings for a cookbook I was illustrating for my mum. She owns a wonderful restaurant here in Northern Ireland called The Bay Tree and a few years ago she decided to make her second cookbook. She kindly asked me to do the illustrations.

You can see more of this work at www.bridbird.etsy.com

It's raining here, I was going to cycle to the print workshop. I think it's the bus for me this morning!

Ukraine Sketches

2010-09-04T09:51:00.002+01:00

Here are a few drawings I made while in Ukraine a few weeks ago.

Large man at Kiev Airport. We had a 5 hour wait from when our plane landed till when our bus left so I read, drew, ate and knitted for 5 hours.

Salty fish and beer before dinner

My brother tenderising meat for dinner

Zaporizhzhian pigeons and a peacock in the zoo.

PS. I was just looking through some of the blogs that I follow and found this wonderful post in a fellow printmaker's blog. You've got to see it! A giant lino cut pressed by.....you'll never guess..... look here to see! Genius!

Hooray!

2010-09-03T09:13:00.002+01:00

I've just been informed that my blog has been mentioned on Blogs Of Note. Thank you very much! To new people looking this way as a result I might introduce myself. My name is Bridget Farmer, I'm an artist/ printmaker from and currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. My other home is Australia where I spent the last 4 years and intend to return in a year or so. Hence all the Australian birds in my work!

Fitzroy Birds, drypoint etching

I love drawing and I post my sketches up here. Initially I started blogging to make me draw more! It works quite well.

To see more of my printmaking work you can look at my website (currently not updated with 2010 work as I'm a bit afraid of tackling dreamweaver on my own) or my etsy shop, always up to date with new work.

Thanks for stopping by!

And a big thank you to all my usual readers for your encouragement and kind words, it can seem lonely as an artist but blogging makes me feel connected to everyone and supported by a world wide artist community!

An Evening With The Ulster Orchestra

2010-09-02T22:56:00.000+01:00

I have literally just got back from a lovely evening at the Ulster Hall watching a *free* concert by the Ulster Orchestra. I had managed to get tickets for Jeremy, Jeremy's sister and me, but in the end only I could go. So I jumped on my bike and off I went. I took a few pieces of paper and my pencil and made a few drawings. Interestingly my favourite piece of music was the one I didn't draw in! I don't seem to be able to listen and draw at the same time which is a shame, but I equally enjoy both.

Members of the audience waiting for the concert to start

The first and second violins

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. I in F sharp minor, Op.13

Ukrainian Chocolate

2010-09-01T11:03:00.000+01:00

Personally I think Ukrainian chocolate is rather unsatisfying but the chocolate wrappers are some of the most gorgeous I've seen!

Ukraine

2010-08-31T22:12:00.001+01:00

Here are a few photos from our trip to Ukraine to visit my sister in law's family in a city called Zaporizhzhia [za-por-oh-zhia] in the east of the country.

My nephews toy car

The outside kitchen

Watermelon delivery

Beer - Piva

Cheers!

No sandals in the house

Beware of sabaka!

Ukrainian gate

On Lenina Prospect

Part of the enormous hydro dam on the River Dniper

More Ukrainian gates

Church in Kiev

Dog gang

Kiev street

PS.

After a discussion with a Ukranian reader, Mellissa, I have added this painting by a Russian artist called Maxim Kantor. I saw this painting in the Ulster Museum about 5 years ago and fell in love with it. I think this is the reason why I was so obsessed with the stray dogs while in Ukraine!

Scrabo Tower

2010-08-07T10:15:00.000+01:00

I had a friend visiting from Australia last week. It was lovely having her to stay and I tried to show her round a bit, while also keeping abreast of all the work I need to get done before going away to Ukraine next week. She fell in awe of Scrabo tower, a 19th century tower built at the top of Strangford Lough in Co. Down, and requested we go and have a closer look at it.

Scrabo can be seen for miles and miles around, it's quite a landmark, but I don't go to it very often. But after this visit I think I'll try and get there more.

It sits at the top of Scrabo Hill and you can see 360 degrees all round. To the south you can see Strangford Lough and the Mourne Mountains way down near the border, to the west you can see all of Belfast and the Belfast Hills, to the North you can see the Holywood Hills and a piece of Belfast Lough and to the East you can see right across to Scotland and the Isle of Man. It's quite a view!

Russia

2010-07-29T18:13:00.000+01:00

I originally made this etching for a friend who was getting married, they met in Russia. I have now editioned it and have it in my etsy shop.

Keeping with sort of a Russian theme Jeremy and I will be visiting my Russian sister in laws family in Ukraine in a few weeks time. I have no idea what to expect but I think a lot of eating and drinking will be involved. I'll try and draw too!

Three Little Birds

2010-07-28T18:30:00.001+01:00

Here are the other three new little garden birds. I only have one left to make in this series but I'm out of copper at the moment.

Robin

Dunnock

Chaffinch

I'm currently working on a piece for a 'going green' environmentally aware themed exhibition coming up in the Belfast Print Workshop. The piece depicts a house sparrow. Did you know that in the UK and Ireland house sparrows were once so common they were on a list of 'allowed to kill' birds yet now their numbers have dropped by half in the last 10 years and no one knows why?

Thank You Jeremy

2010-07-22T22:08:00.000+01:00

Jeremy has been driving me places. I can drive, but if it's a choice between me drive or him, he drives. So he's been driving me to World of Owls, yesterday, and to the museum today. Here are a few of my drawings from both places.

Pair of Harris Hawks

Zebra Finch, not quite an owl, but still at world of owl centre.

Shag

I thought I'd run out of paper in my sketchbook so I was looking through some old sketchbooks for some spare paper. I found this drawing in one of them. I quite like it.

A Weekend In Jersey

2010-07-21T13:18:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I went to Jersey with my mum for a family friend's wedding. I'd never been to Jersey before and it was glorious. All the more so in the high 20 degrees and nothing but rain at home! Of course I took my sketchbook with me and here are a few wee drawings I did.

This is a little dead bat I found on the road. I took him back to our tent so I could draw him. He was amazing with a little mousie tail enveloped in an extension of his thin tissue paper like wings.

Jersey houses are rather french looking. It was lovely just to walk around the island. I almost wish we'd had more time. Getting home yesterday was a bit of a mission. All our planes were delayed because of one poor little bird in an engine somewhere. Poor bird.

Seagull Conversation

2010-07-14T13:09:00.002+01:00

Here is one of my new books, it's a book in a box!

The original drawings are monoprints which I then digitally reproduced in order to make multiples to make into books.

The book is called 'Seagull Conversation' and depicts a conversation between two seagulls about their favourite foods. I love seagulls, I love their boisterousness and how they eat anything. They are constant chancers!

It says,

I like chips, do you like chips?

Oh yes, I like chips, do you like prawn sandwiches that people have dropped?

Oh yes, I like prawn sandwiches. do you like crisps and pieces of battered sausage?

Oh yes, and ice cream.

Ice cream?

Yes, ice cream, I like strawberry flavour.

You can see 'Seagull Conversation' in my etsy shop here.

Start of A Series

2010-07-02T10:30:00.000+01:00

I've been working on a new series of etchings, the theme being British and Irish garden birds. They will sort of be a wee reminder of home when I return to Australia next year. I posted the original sketches in an earlier post and also a how to regarding the making of one of the plates. I also made a robin this week and intent to print the chaffinch or the dunnock today. I just need to get on my bike (literally) and get to the print workshop.

Great Tit

Wren

Right, now I'm off to get the old bike out of the green house and away!

Wish You Were Here

2010-06-29T19:37:00.000+01:00

I have finally submitted something into a Belfast Print Workshop group exhibition. The theme is postcards and members have been asked to make prints 4 x 6 inches, postcard size! I'm really looking forward to the opening, there should be some great prints on show and all for under £50, many under £20, so I'll be bringing my purse.

I made my submission last Friday after arriving in the workshop intending to work on something else. Everyone else seemed to be making something postcard sized so I decided to make something too. So, I prepared a plate and went to the windows and drew the posh Merchant Hotel which is opposite the print workshop.

I like the result and it's given me ideas of a book I'd like to make. Sometimes it's good to be distracted from your original intentions!

The exhibition opens this Thursday, 1st July, at the Belfast Print Workshop gallery. Come along if you're nearby!

A Recent Rediscovery of Robert Race

2010-06-24T17:15:00.002+01:00

About ... oh, .... gosh it must be about 8 years ago now, maybe even longer, while I was at art college, we went on a trip to what was then called Chelsea Craft Fair, but what is now known as Origin. Origin is a big fair in London showcasing the best crafts people in the UK. When we went down, oh so many years ago, I found a stall with wonderful wooden automata in it. The craftsman was also selling little bird automata for £12 each. I fell in love with them and had to buy one. I have never regretted my spent £12. I've always loved my little bird, who, when you release the lever at the bottom of the stand, puts his little head into his acorn bowl.

But up until last week I had no idea who had made him. I'm not so good at remembering names! Then I was invited by a gallery in England called Forge2 to have some pieces in their summer exhibition and they sent me a link to their website. And there, in a photo somewhere in their blog I saw a close relation to my little birdy. I looked further and found out the artist's name was Robert Race and I went on to find his website too. It's so lovely to see more work by him and to find out a bit about the man behind my little bird.

"His moving toys and simple automata incorporate a wide range of natural, re-used and recycled materials. Much recent work is in driftwood, as collecting it gives him a good excuse for going to the seaside"

http://www.robertrace.co.uk

Preparing And Etching A Copper Plate

2010-06-13T22:06:00.007+01:00

This is one of the plates I'm working on at the moment. You may recognise the drawing from my earlier post of bird sketches. I decided I wanted to follow my drawing fairly closely so I photocopied it onto trace paper.

I then placed the plate of copper under the trace to figure out the position of the bird on the plate. This is needed for registration later on.

Recently I salvaged a lot of copper from the copper bin, nice big plates of it, already used but I can use the backs of them. BUT it takes a lot of cleaning! I bought an electric sander to get the worst of the marks off. Gradually using finer and finer grade sand paper. I then go onto wet and dry paper and sand by hand.
Finally, after much sanding, I use brasso and crocus powder to polish up the plate surface. The more polished the surface the whiter the background of your print. Any scratches will show up when you come to print so you have to be very careful.

I have to then degrease the plate in preparation for putting on the ground. I use a degreasing spray and whiting powder and work it into the plate with a rolled up old piece of felt blanket. You have degreased when water sits across the whole surface of the plate and doesn't creep in at the edges.

Now for the hot plate and the ground. Ground is a waxy substance you put on the plate which protects it from the acid. You draw into the ground and where you draw it exposes the copper so when you put it in the acid it eats only where you have made marks in the ground.

There are two sorts of ground, soft ground and hard ground. Soft ground is very sensitive, for example if you put your finger on a plate with soft ground it will leave your finger print, this will not happen with hard ground. Soft ground gives a soft etched line, it prints like a soft pencil mark whereas hard ground gives a very precise neat line, like a fine liner pen.

For this plate I have applied soft ground first. It helps me recreate my drawing as you will see, and gives a good variety of line in the final print.

Plate with applied soft ground

I now place the trace paper carefully on top of the plate and trace some of the lines.

I don't want to trace all the lines because the soft ground will just be a starter. The main lines will be done in hard ground.

Also I must mention that the back of the plate is protected with either stop out varnish or sticky back plastic so the acid doesn't eat into the back and exhaust itself.

I then place the plate into the acid bath. The acid is ferric chloride. Soft ground doesn't seem to take as long in the acid bath as hard ground, I left it in for 10 mins max.

Always keep an eye on the clock!

A bit of turps on the plate will take off the ground and I can see the soft ground lines etched into the plate.

I then want to apply my hard ground so the plate has to be degreased again and brought over to the hot plate.

Hard ground is much easier and nicer to apply than soft ground, it's also less stressful because it doesn't mark so easily!

Then, looking at my original drawing, I scratch the rest of the lines into the ground freehand with an etching needle.
Ready for the acid. This time I'll leave it in for longer, about 25 mins. The amount of time you leave a plate in the acid depends on a few things. How deep you want the etch, how old is the acid etc.

Again I use turps to clean off the ground to reveal the final etched plate.

Now the plate's edges need to be filed to a 45º angle. If you don't do this the square edges of the plate can cut into the paper and ruin your print. And finally I burnish the edges to give a really smooth finish and a clean edge to your print when you come to print.

In printmaking there are many ways to do things, this is just one example. It's like my mum always told me about cooking, there are many ways to come to the same result!

Soon I will show a step by step 'how to' about printing from the plate.

Dr Sketchys At Last

2010-06-09T09:10:00.004+01:00

Last Sunday night I finally got to go to Dr Sketchy's! I've been wanting to go for years. If you don't know what Dr Sketchy's is I'll tell you. It's basically life drawing but with a difference. It's on once a month and the life models are often burlesque models who dress up in themed costumes. It's sort of a show as well as life drawing and there is generally a bar (it is hosted in a pub in Belfast) and a fair bit of alcohol sloshing about! Unless you're driving like I was. Many many cities have a Dr Sketchy, there was one in Melbourne that I never got to while I was there. I'm hoping to attend the Belfast one every month

This months theme was 80s. We sketched models in leg warmers and flouro skirts to music from that distinct decade. It was great!
Some Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Sketchy's_Anti-Art_School

http://www.drsketchybelfast.co.uk/index.htm

Just google dr sketchy and your city name and I'm sure something will turn up!

Preliminaries

2010-06-02T16:22:00.005+01:00

Chaffinch

I went down to the Museum today for the first time in ages. I had a plan to draw little birds. I would like to make a series of small etchings of British and Irish finches, tits and other such small garden birds, to remind me of my time at home when I return to Australia in a year or so.

Robin

Goldfinch

Wren

Dunnock

Great Tit

Oh and I forgot to mention some very exciting news, the state library of victoria, in Melbourne, has purchased one of my 'State Library Seagulls' artist books for their artist book collection. It's funny how seeing their collection was partly the inspiration for me to make the book in the first place!