Making strawberry jam

This wedding craft was what we made to give to guests - tiny jars of either either marmalade or strawberry jam. As we had a very small wedding of mostly family it was easy to make enough jars for everyone. Helps that hubby is a chef and we had access to a big kitchen to do it in. I printed names onto luggage tags and tied them on with string. Then tied a ribbon around with a bow. They then doubled as place cards at tables.

Stamp your feet stamp your hands stamp your everything

I've been inspired by other people's stamp making, after a few years of playing with mixed media art and seeing stamps that other people have made. I have a background of dabbling in printmaking, so if I'm honest, to begin with I was a bit snobby about making your own stamps. I thought they were the dumbed down version of relief printing. I also am a bit averse to using other people's stamps in my work because it doesn't feel like mine. I know some people use heaps of stamps and love them, and create great effects using them, I don't have any problem with that, it's just a personal preference for me. But anyway, to cut a long story short, I felt the need to try making some stamps, and around the same time I rediscovered a very soft, rubber carving plate I had bought for printmaking - and voila! the project was born.

To start with I used 'lino' and cut it into smallish squares, using standard lino cutting tools. Then I swapped to the rubber plate and cut that up, and oh my goodness, a world of difference. So much softer! My hands did not ache from the cutting! Quicker to do as well. I really really recommend not using lino if you want to make quick stamps. Another technique I've heard of is using just standard white erasers, which seems great - cheap and accessible, but perhaps limited to their standard sizes. I used a fairly standard and cheapish water based printmaking ink to prig with. Next round I'm gong to try gouache (because I have more colours in that) and slightly watered down acrylic to see how that goes. Once I got started on printing it was endlessly fun and I could have kept going for days, it was really very fun. You can see in the image below how the stamps came out on white, or Kraft brown recycled envelopes. I like both. In fact I still have the project materials out in my kitchen because I feel like 'any day now' I might whip up another batch of envelopes, or maybe some letter paper. As a bonus, I'm using a combination of these shapes to form my new logo for art therapy work (recently graduated). I thoroughly recommend stamping up a storm.

something soft to rest on

Well at Christmas time I decided to make my fella something nice for our soon to be new house. I went to Bird textiles and bought some of their Sydney-designed, hand printed fabric. Bought remnants to sew together patchwork style to make a cushion cover, using nice olive and natural colours that I thought would go with the couch and also the views from the loungeroom which features big gum trees.

What did I learn from this sewing experience, after so long not sewing? (Much like Merririsa below)

- Well, making something with patchwork strips is heaps slower than just using normal slabs of fabric. Hmm, note to self.
- Fabric is remarkable forgiving about non straight seams - everything seemed (no pun intended) to line up ok in the end despite doing it all by eye and not having everything perfectly symmetrical on the grain etc.
- It worked! Finished product looks great I reckon. (Thanks to the fabric)
- Buttons are yet to be attached, oops. Got a bit frightened off the whole button hole cutting step. Must do that this weekend.

Thanks to Miss Snapdragon for her help and technical advice.

skirting the issue

This skirt is the first wearable thing I ever sewed - five bazillion years ago, with Ambiguity's help. later, I took up the hem because I wasn't sold on the length, printed on some of the leftover fabric, covered these buttons with it, and hey presto - detail. Wore it last week for the first time since the remodelling.

Fabric printing a go go

Further to the earlier foray into t-shirts, I'm now playing with printing onto reams of fabric. This is a simple black pattern repeat on a course weave dark coral/red cotton. sPattern is pretty simple gumnuts in various sizes. I plan to do some with overlays in different colours but wanted to start with the basics.

Cute as a button

Covered buttons - my new passion, such fun to make! All covered with fabric that I've hand painted/ hand printed recently. I used 25mm/1" and 30mm/1 3/16" plastic self cover buttons. The fabrics are (pink) silk, and (white) vintage cotton/linen, and the designs are done freehand or with linocuts.

a bit overdue

From ages back, here are another round of monster t-shirts for little ones. Hand cut stencils, printed through a screen. Am overdue to make more - oops. Sorry to any one who is waiting. I suck at being a constant producer, I only like making the protptype. I need a santa's workshop of elves to help with the printing. (Tho that would make me santa I guess, and I'm not fond of that two piece outfit)...

cheeky little monsters

So the first textile creations to come out as inspired by the stencil art course I did a few weeks ago at PineStreet Creative Arts (Sydney) were a series of monsters singlets and tshirts for bubbas. Some I have already given and others are waiting for special birthdays which are up and coming. I am very inspired to finish the range at least, because there is a wavy armed tree man, few more ghosties, and a spotty dinasaur dragon thing that need to come off the page and be printed at least once, and a few more colour themes to be explored. I enjoyed the aqua / purple / mauve type shades, and doing sets of three with different colours in the same theme. Standard fabric paint and hand made stencils from hand drawn images.