A Little Monoprinting!

Inspired by an exercise at drawing class,  I decided to get out my Gelliplate and do some printing. As in our drawing exercise I chose 4 shapes ... a jug, a pear, some leaves and a ribbon and made up a number of simple stencils.  I also added some corrugated cardboard for use as a texture plate.  I decided to use a limited color palette of blue and yellow and a dash of black ... here are some of the results .....

I was a little bit rusty at first .... getting a bit too much ink on the plate but soon got into the swing of it ..... I'm quite pleased with the results but this is just the first step .... I'm thinking about some stitching and contemplating the options for finishing them ... single pieces or a collage of a number of pieces .... I'll let you know how I get on! 

I'm definitely planning more printing in the near future!

Latest Blue Trees Variation

A deadline is such a helpful thing .... I've been very focused this last week with a number of deadlines looming!!!

Finished the quilting on the latest piece in the Blue Trees Series ... its been sitting on the design wall for some time waiting for the last stitches!!! 

Blue Trees Variations # 5   © Carolyn Collins 2016   20" x 24"   Hand dyed fabric, batik

I am pleased with the way the quilting of the  top and bottom strips worked out.  I was just looking for texture and something that would not distract the eye.

This piece is a further evolution of the earlier representational landscapes of Blue Trees #1 and #2  and is a step larger in size.

Have yet to come up with a good name for it ..... any suggestions??

Quilting for Sydney Quilt Show

Most of my energy this week is going into the quilting of LeafLines #20 for the Sydney Quilt Show in June this year ... I've still got a couple of weeks up my sleeve ... but it's time now to get it done and not allow myself to be distracted by other ideas and inspirations!!!  

Color Wheels ....

We  painted a color wheel in art class this week ... a first for me.  I've dyed a fabric color wheel but that was more of a formula type exercise .... mixing the paint colors is much more of a challenge!   Color is such a big subject and while I've covered the basics a number of times in various classes,  there is nothing like the practical application and actually mixing the colors.... 

As well as the color wheel we also painted a 7 step value scale and chroma (intensity) scales ....  I have done these with dyes too but mixing the paint was great fun although I'm still not much good at painting between the lines!

We learnt to describe color in terms of hue, tone chroma/intensity, value and temperature and our homework is to use these characteristics to analyse its use in an artwork  !!

So now I'm looking for some good study references on color.....

Finished ... really finished!

These last couple of weeks I've been coming to terms with what it means to finish a piece of work .... happy with the composition,  quilting done, facing/binding completed ... it's finished?  

Well no not  really!! (I admit to having a stack of pieces at this stage!)  .... but I still need to sign and label, sort out the hanging mechanism, photograph and record, and hang or store the piece.  What I've learned is that all these steps take time!!  and I need to factor that in to my process of making art! 

This piece is from my Stepping Stone series  and is called 'High Road'. You can see more of the series in the Gallery.   It is my donation to the SAQA Benefit Auction 2016  and is on its way to  the USA!  

Good feeling to be able to say it's finished ! 

Thanks for visiting   .....

Stepping Stones # 8  ' High Road'

Labelled and Hanging Sleeve added