New Prints New Products

New Prints

My latest design is inspired by the rich warm chocolate brown bark and luminous orange of the persimon tree I stumbled upon by chance on a wintry day on a walk around my neighbourhood. The tree was silhouetted against a white house, its shape and dark form contrasting against the pale background. Persimon is an old fashioned fruit which must be completely ripened before eating. When ripe, the fruit comprises thick pulpy jelly encased in a waxy thin skinned shell.

It is said that one can predict the winter by taking the seeds out of some persimmons and then slicing the seeds. The shape that shows up the most inside each seed will indicate what kind of winter to expect. The three shapes resemble three eating utensils.
A Knife shape means there will be a cold icy winter (as in the wind will slice through you like a knife).
A Spoon shape means there will be plenty of snow to shovel.
A Fork shape means there will be a mild winter.

The persimon design is printed using the technique I teach at Megalo Print Studio using 2 silk screens: the tree stencil using photo emulsion techniques, the fruit screen using a paper stencil. Im going to have a lot of fun exploring the possibilities of this design.


New Products

Ive had the opportunity to experiment with creating some new products using my printed fabrics and have found the style and design of the tote bag is perfect to display my prints. Some bags are made from a good quality heavy weight hemp canvas and others are made from the test prints on calico which I print to check the colour and the stencil quality prior to printing on my 'good' fabric. I delivered the tote bags to Shop Handmade today. The bags measure 40 cm x 40 cm and are perfect for shopping, library books and going to the fruit and vegetable markets.



Along with the tote bags I also delivered a handful of Mum's kitchen teatowels to Shop Handmade. Mum's kitchen is a sketch of a cottage kitchen in a beautiful old weatherboard house, complete with the Canberra wood fire oven. Kitchens are the heart and soul of any house, and Mum's Kitchen is no exception as you can see the memorabilia collected on the shelves and on the mantle piece. Mum's kitchen is a limited edition print.