Friday 21 August 2015

second lot from Festival of Quilts .. also very colourful

I am so not capable of writing a short sharp blog post. I get so excited when I am sorting the photos and I want to show you EVERYTHING .. plus a few extra ideas as well. It's the same when I am teaching and is probably why students look a bit punch drunk by the end of the day. And if I could I would give them audio tapes to get a few more thoughts and ideas in overnight ... now that is a thought .. hmm 
So in that spirit we will carry on with images of cloths and paper printed at Festival last week. Last post was using the gelli plate with natural items to create beautiful detailed prints (which then got splattered with lots of extra colour - another thing I can't help). It is my favourite way to gellip - but the plate also does loads of other lovely things .. it is so soft, any texture comes up beautifully. These few were done with a small off cut of foam board - just marked into the plate, then printed and overprinted - I love this - the marks are so gestural and personal. 
 




 DO you remember my lovely potato masher (I now have a few)? Shaped like a daisy (no idea why that helps with the spuds) - I finally got it onto the gelli this show - together with a couple of other mashers .. great marks and would be great cloth to use in backgrounds etc




 here is the daisy boy taking centre stage (I had to add colour in the background with the computer as it amazingly it is not yet dyed) .. a few colour reversals of this and you have wonderful materials for a quilt (I wish I had more time)


 oh look......  just playing with colour replacements on the computer - what a quilt this would be

  

 you can even try out different sashing colours 
 
  


Foam stamps also work really well with the gelli plate .. it picks up alot of their texture too. These are a mix of using the gelli and directly applied 


this is where the hearts came from .. such a simple stamp - but really effective with just a bit of paint and dye .. another piece just begging to be made
 



my favourite poppy was this one, which I bodged up by leaving another stamp under the cloth when I printed .. but in fact I love the diagonal element it has given. Not something I would have done myself (if you know me, you will know I find diagonals all a bit too racy) .. but it has lifted this print .. fate often knows best and I shall try and remember and learn .. 




we all enjoyed that so much, we did another ..
 

you truly don't need alot of imagination to see potential in these - made using a simple homemade foam stamp again .. making materials is design made easy




This stamp is even simpler ... but still interesting 

  

and if you imagine cutting the cloth and re-piecing it ...

 
  
 

Most of the show was dedicated to gelliping - and all these techniques and alot more are covered in some depth in my book 'The Gentle(ish)  Art of Gelliping'  - the 'ish' is because I am not sure it is gentle the way I do it ... but it could be (I think). Truly - if you have a gelli plate and haven't got this book, you are almost certainly not getting the best out of it ... even though I say so myself. It is almost certainly the only book you will ever get that has an accidently unfinished sentence. I plan to have a competition to try and guess what it should have said when we have sold half the books .. with one of the pieces from the book as a prize .. so watch out for that
On Sunday however - I did allow myself to play with my lovely stencils  a bit too - always a really quick and easy way to make unique cloth to go with your prints - or for anything else come to that. Here are just a few ..
 


 





stencilling and over stencilling with paint and then flooding with dye gives such depth to the finished pieces. Stencilling and stamping, pus other surface design techniques are covered in my first book 'Make it Perosnal'. I am getting into my last few boxes of this - so if you haven't got it .. you might want to order soon...

'Sunburst' - an old favourite stencil never fails me


fiddled in the computer using a negative image
 

in fact - alot of fiddling done (the process for this is also in the gelliping book)- and then collaged for ideas like these

 
 

Ok - enough ... I have exhausted us all I think. I did have a couple of new toys with me at Festival - I will tell you about those next time .. here are some pears done with one of them.. any guesses? - those who saw it at the show keep mum!!


 

Thank you for staying all the way through!! - Hilary xx

Thursday 20 August 2015

Get ready - it's another shows worth of gelliping!!



I tell you - four days demonstrating a gelli plate produces ALOT of prints! I decided only to photograph the ones I had dyed over - but I've still got shed loads. So I'm going to split this post in two - just the first 50 today
So here we are - gelli prints from Festival of Quilts .. such a wonderful tool and you can do amazing things with it. These are a selection of leaf prints and backgrounds to go with them - the first half on paper (a mix of khadi, deli and cartridge papers) and the next lot on fabric .. I like to print on a variety of surfaces as it gives me a more varied palette of materials to work with. Materials form demos are always particularly interesting as I try to use lots of different colours to show people how they work together and as resist. So a bright bunch ....hope you enjoy them

 






alright - not leaves ... heart stamps - they just sneaked in early .. 





 
oh - another couple of hearts .. pretty though ..

 










  
we are switching to fabric now ... both plain cheap cotton and cotton lawn







 anyone spot the crab??

 

 

 















Phew ... such piles of yumminess. The next lot will be textures on the gelli plate - like this one below, and some stamps too - see you very soon xx