Sunday 24 November 2013

Something different...



A chance win of a crocheting tutorial on theamazings.com website a couple of week ago has led to this premature bit of Christmas on my blog today. 

Having never attempted crochet before and having only the flimsiest of grasps of knitting this Christmas Stocking seemed a bit over-ambitious. I should add to this that I am notoriously bad at taking instruction from anything or anyone.



 My first few attempts were very loose and unstructured. My first mistake was to ignore the instructions as to how to hold the hook and feed the wool. After starting the first four or five in my own rather awkward knitting-with-one-hand way I suddenly got the hang of the correct technique but the results were so different I decided to carry on in my own wrong way to make sure all 17 hexagons were similar  (Mistake #2). 


Mistake #3 was starting at the wrong point for the white circuit. I knew something was wrong because the hexagons were becoming contorted, and not just from my poor technique. At this point I should have stopped and returned to the tutorial but I was on a roll, and on a train, and nothing was going to stop me. On hexagon number 15 I accidentally started at a different point, which happened to be the correct point and everything became clear, too late! But at least they were consistently wrong, most of them.

The tutorial does assume knowledge of some crochet stitches, which left me feeling a bit lost at first but by repeatedly replaying key bits of the video I soon got the hang of it. Overall the content was clear and had some really good tips about steaming hexagons into shape (I needed this!) and sewing the pieces together (I overlooked this and had to unpick the toe section 3 times). Towards the end my main regret was having promised the stocking to my son because I think the hexagons could have made a rather nice cushion cover. Another project perhaps.



Sunday 17 November 2013

Iced Blue Caribou


http://www.jacksonsart.com/newsletter/2013-11-08/2013-11-08-newsletter.html

I was over the moon when the lovely folk at Jackson's Art chose to use one of my images on their newsletter the week before last. If you haven't seen it please do click on the image above.

They also sent me a voucher and some ink & paint goodies. I splurged the voucher on the biggest of gelli plates  and can't wait to start experimenting, hopefully I'll have some results to share here soon.

Iced Blue Caribou is available to buy in my ETSY shop and my FOLKSY shop .




Tuesday 12 November 2013

Revealing Craft

Watch the film


Admire India Hobson's beautiful photographs

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0k9fl5wc3zjyvuh/Inserts_.pdf

 
a stunning print
a beautiful book
a stunning print and a beautiful book
a stunning print and a beautiful signed and numbered book 
or even 
all the stunning prints and the beautiful signed and numbered book!

Monday 4 November 2013

Green Surf Anemone

Green Surf Anemones - a five colour lino print (20x20xm)
Another print inspired by a trip to Vancouver Island earlier this year. As someone who cannot resist any chance to poke around in a rockpool the sight of these giant green anemones clinging to the fringes of the Pacific Ocean was bound to have me hooked. Unfortunately the weather didn't hold and our beach-bound activities became more bracing. On the plus side, in an attempt to escape the weather we did find the Uclulet Aquarium which is a fantastic hands-on experience with an excellent  ethos. 

Anyway back to the print. It was printed from two separate plates, one for the greys and one for the yellows and greens. The grey plate was cut for the rocks, printed in pale grey, cut again for the shadow and definition and printed again in dark grey. The yellow plate was similarly reduced twice after the initial carving.

Green Surf Anemones will be available shortly in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

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