Design and Print Your Own Tea Towel weekend workshop

I will be teaching a number of textile workshops at the NSCCD (Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design) during the winter semester 2017. 

Orange Fox by Willa

The second workshop I will be teaching is Design and Print Your Own Tea Towel. During this short weekend course we learn how to design and create simple stencils and explore shapes, colours, and layering working with opaque and transparent print paste. 

Experiments with overlaying coloured printing inks

We practice on cotton fabric and course participants will be provided with cotton and linen tea towels to print their final design.

It is fabulous to watch simple designs transform and become beautiful patterns on fabric.

Fun things happen when blending ink in a single stencil

The fabulous thing about this course is that all the techniques you learn during the two days are easily transferable and you can take this knowledge home and start printing on your kitchen table (if you so desire!)

COURSE DATE(S) 

Jan 28, 2017 to Jan 29, 2017

Saturday & Sunday, 1:00 - 4:00 pm

6 hours/2 days

Class size: 6 (no experience necessary)

REGISTRATION CLOSES 

Jan 23, 2017

COSTS 

$60 + materials fee $50 payable to the instructor on first day of class

Call Alexis, the NSCCD Studio Coordinator, at 902-492-2524. If you're leaving a message, please make sure to - Leave your Name, Number, and the Class you want to sign up for. If you're in a hurry, you can also call Becky, the NSCCD Administrative Coordinator at 902-492-2522.

Maud's House Tea Towel

Earlier in the year I ran a crowd funding campaign to assist with my travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia to participate in the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design's Summer residency.

One of the rewards for my crowd funding supporters was a tea towel hand printed by me with an image of Canadian artist Maud Lewis's tiny little cottage. 

The building is so tiny and amazingly decorated all over with her folk art that her entire house is now in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax! Her cottage was so basic that it did not have electricity or running water and consisted of one room and an attic. As such she fitted in with my concept of pioneering women and images of her house appeared in the artwork produced for the exhibition in Halifax.

Printing up a storm at Megalo Print Studio and Gallery 

You may have seen some images of her cottage on my blog if you had time to follow my adventures - here's a link if you would like to know more about her.

Printed on 100% linen tea towels measuring 50 x 70 cm using water based permanent ink, I got carried away and printed a few extra tea towels with the Maud Lewis design. If you would like one for your collection, or a Christmas gift, you can find them in my online store.

Behind the Scenes: I heart Canberra tea towels

A behind the scenes look at my tea towel design for the Centenary of Canberra being printed by Copperhead Printers.

Amazing machinery, lovely people and very cool that they listen to my favourite station: Triple J

Images of the printed tea towels can be found here

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Screenprinting fun at Megalo

Ive just finished teaching a 6 week block of screen printing on fabric at Megalo. I always enjoy the experience and never ceased to be amazed by the creativity and diversity of images by my students.

Here are some images of them in action and some of the fantastic prints they created.

Gen experimenting with mixing two colours 

Gen's Fantastic Mr Fox image combining paper cut stencil and a photo emulsed screen.

Lisa printing her first photo emulsed screen.

Liz printing her first screen.

Liz's amazing repeat print

Neil creating a back ground colour for his Matisse style prints

Sara experimenting with a three colour watermelon print combining paper cut stencils and photoemulsed stencil.

Sara's watermelon print. Love the colours!

An action shot of Sharon drying her bearded men print combining blocks of colour and linear hand drawings. 

Jacqui's happy accident where she printed the screen in one colour (blue/green) then blocked out areas and reprinted over the top in pink. 

Jacqui's repeat cloud print on a tshirt

The Queens Diamond Jubilee - new designs

The Queen is a topic of debate here in Australia. Some would like to see a republic, whilst others prefer the status quo. I quite like having a Queen and all the associated history, tradition and links to Britain (where I spent 6 years living and working in London and I consider it my second home).

We have a long weekend in June coming up, the Queens Birthday, and to celebrate I have designed and printed tea towels, cushions and t-shirts which will be available online and at selected outlets. I have wanted to explore this image for a while, so its pretty exciting to see it realised from the pages of a sketch book I kept whilst in London.

The Queen Stamp (design measures 26 x 30cm), on linen tea towel.

Royal Male (design measures 28 x 22cm) on cotton tshirt

This year we also celebrate 60 years as the Monarch of the Commonwealth. During her reign the Queen has seen six decades of enormous social change and development including the first man in space, JFK's assassination, the peace movement of the 60's, the fall of the Berlin wall,  and the cloning of Dolly the sheep. A website which celebrates the Queen's Diamond Jubilee can be found at which contains all this and more about the Queen. 


Whilst I was looking around the site I discovered the complete collection of Queen Victoria's journals from the Royal Archives.  Queen Victoria was a keen artist and she captured people and places throughout her life. Below are some of her sketches, to see the entire collection visit www.queenvictoriasjournals.org

Water colour by Queen Victoria 6 June 1845.
Image from www.queenvictoriasjournals.org 

3 November 1853 

18 April 1862

Its pretty cool to be able to see Queen Victoria's sketches and read her diary (if you have the patience to decipher her spidery writing)!


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Design of the times article

I had the pleasure of chatting to Philip O'Brien from the Canberra Times last week about winning the Legacy of Good Design Memorabilia competition to design products for Canberra's centenary next year.

The result is the article which appeared in last Friday's paper.

Click on the image for a readable version

Thank you Phil for such a lovely article.

Im dreaming of a green Christmas

Christmas for me is a chance to spend time with family and loved ones. Not a commercial event where so many unwanted gifts end up gathering dust or in the trash. So last year I decided that all my Christmas pressies had to be thoughtful and environmentally friendly! 

I set myself some rules: I wanted to give gifts that would be enjoyed, but would have little impact on the environment. So I decided that hampers were the way to go. Recycled baskets from the local opshop were filled with home made jams and chutneys (using recycled glass jars collected throughout the year).  

 

Handmade cards, decorated with beaded snowflakes (which could be reused as Christmas ornaments) labeled each basket, and exotic fruit added a touch of colour. Each basket included a hand printed linen tea towel (by yours truly). Although I didnt make the wine (thats another project on my growing list of things to do!) at least it was in recyclable glass bottles.

Ginger dipped in dark chocolate, and other delicacies  were wrapped in grease proof paper and tied with string.

Happily all the contents of my Christmas baskets were biodegradable.

This year my Christmas presents will be handmade again, and I am working within another theme. Its so much fun, but I cant give away any more.... shhhh its a secret until Christmas day x

National Gallery of Australia Commission

I have been working with the National Gallery of Australia over the past couple of months to create an image of the new entrance to the gallery which will be printed onto tea towels. After several design variations they decided on the one below....

They were printed and delivered last week :)

Teaching Screen printing at Megalo

Every Thursday night for the past 6 weeks I have been teaching a Screenprinting class at Megalo.

Class participants are taught the basics of screenprinting: using paper cut stencils, photo emulsion stencils, registration for two or more colours, and how to create basic repeat patterns.

Sherree printing using a photo-emulsed screen (above)

Big smiles from Steph as she displays her Gaudi Towers - created using one screen and repeating the image. (above)

More smiles from Bonnie as she displays her bows - created using one screen and repeating the image.

(above)

Sam printing her paper stencil lion (above)

Sam's lion using a combination of paper cut stencil and photo-emulsion techniques (above)

Carly's amazing 7 colour print which was then sewn into a dress - her first ever screenprinting project! (above)

Sophia's Marilyn repeat experimenting with shade and colour (above)

By the end of the 6 weeks we were printing repeat lengths of fabric. Above is Suzy's repeat inspired by lichen. (above)

The group had such fun that on the last evening everyone chose to print onto a tea towel as a momento of the class. (above)

Creative Uses for Tea Towels

A friend of mine bought one of my Knit print tea towels at the June Handmade Markets with the intention of using it as upholstery fabric. She has just sent me some 'before' and 'after' images of her ottoman:

Before (above)

After (above)

She says "This little ottoman has got a new life now and all because of your beautiful screen printed fabric!! I think it looks wonderful with your nice stitches pattern on it. Thank you very much Kate!"

Other people have told me that they buy my screen printed tea towels and frame them, and others have bought the tea towels with the intention of turning them into cushion covers.

I think they are all such fabulous ideas - and it's lovely to see my designs inspiring creativity in others x

Sneak Preview of News Designs at the Handmade Markets on Saturday

Its almost time for the fabulous Canberra Handmade Markets.... count down has begun with only 2 sleeps to go before the BIG day.

I have been busy developing new designs and colours specially for the event!

Organic Cotton Onesie with Aqua Lyrebird

Organic Cotton Long Sleeve TShirt with hand drawn Lake Burley Griffin scene.

Lightweight Cotton scarf with new Water Urn Stitch print

Red Knit print on cotton cushion 45 x 45cm

It will be held again in the Convention Centre, Civic which is a fabulous light filled venue. A perfect outing for the cold grey Canberra winter which has descended upon us!

Come along to see all the beautiful handmade goodies - I look forward to seeing you there

:)

If you are unable to drop in to the markets - you can always browse my online store.

Introduction to Screenprinting at Megalo

Every Thursday night for the past 6 weeks I have been teaching the Introduction to Screenprinting class at Megalo.

Class participants are taught the basics of screenprinting: using paper cut stencils, photo emulsion stencils, registration for two or more colours, and how to create basic repeat patterns.

Below are some of the results of the class. I really enjoy the teaching process - its amazing how the same process can result in such different imagery and ideas.

Fantastic layering of colour and size of imagery .....

Beautiful three colour prints using a combination of paper and photo emulsion stencils.

Great placement printing incorporating different coloured inks, printed in different layers to create depth

A two colour design printed using the t-shirt jig. What a shame I don't have a detailed image of the design to 'show-off' the precise registration achieved!

Another design created on the Tshirt jig using photo emulsed screen.

A two colour print (white and black) using both paper and photo emulsion screens.

There were two others in the class who also had some interesting imagery: delicate pencil drawings of native flora printed over red dots; and the effects of layering transparent and opaque inks - but I totally forgot to take photos of these in the rush to finish everything in our last class.

I am very impressed with how quickly everyone got the hang of it and transformed their ideas into prints onto fabric.

Well done everyone ! :)

Sneak preview of my new designs for the Canberra Handmade Market

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on some new designs which are going to be launched at the Canberra Handmade Market on Saturday 19 February at the new spot in the Convention Centre in the centre of town.

Inspired by a recent commission to create a lyrebird cushion using patchwork techniques I have transformed this design into an embroidery panel for others to embellish. The panel can be used in many ways by transforming it into a cushion, stretch over a canvas to become an artwork, incorporated to be part of a quilt or sewn together to make a bag.... the possibilities are endless! They also make a perfect gift for a crafty friend :) The panels measure approximately 45 x 45 cm and are printed with colourfast waterbased inks onto linen.

I loved this design so much I also printed it onto grey cotton T-shirts.

I have just moved into a cute little cottage (which explains the absence of regular postings since Christmas) whilst washing up I admired the delicate shape of a ginko leaf my sister had picked for me. This was the beginning of the Ginko design which has been printed onto linen tea towels, hemp table runners and as a repeat onto a length of fabric.... oh and a couple of cotton T-shirts.

Having gotten into the printing mood I then started on some Canberra souvenir tea towels and bags - this design is created using hand cut paper stencils - and are a limited edition of 10 tea towels and 9 bags. I love the street art look this design has......

All these designs will be available on Saturday or if you are unable to drop by for a visit they are also available from my online store.

ps - Im contemplating incorporating some of my renovations and decorations into this blog. What do you think? Would you like to hear about the other things I get up to?