flower

The light is changing here and spring's vanguard have arrived. The jasmine and the daphne and the magnolias are all showing off their delicate shades of pink and soft perfumes. And although its cold again at night there's something in the air, a warmth, a light, a feeling. I love this pretty spring light and the way it slants into the garden.

I have been working away, head down, lots of projects in the making, lots of different creative thought processes fighting for attention in my busy brain. I still haven't got my kiln wired in, but I am still making and still decorating clay pieces. I am uncharacteristically patient with the slow progress on this front. As long as I can keep making while I wait I'm happy.

We have plans, literally, and hopes that these will become reality soon. I'm hoping the stars eventually align... I'm pretty sure they will.

The other day I signed up for an online discounted Illustrator course and I've had fun playing around and learning some new tips and tricks for this favourite program. I've also joined in with Kate using up some of the colourful yarn stash crocheting a Granny Square hot water bottle cover. Its not the first hot water bottle cover I've made, but it will be the first I've kept.

I like crochet, I'm not great at it but it is so much quicker than knitting and these little granny squares are such a great way to play with lots of different colours. I'm a bit behind though, I better get to it!

I've also had the screens out again, for something I hope to share quite soon. You'll have to wait for that one, but not too long.

I had such a fun weekend last weekend. It started with dinner and a sleepover at my sister's place on Friday night. Such a delicious dinner and it was so nice to have time to natter and catch up properly. I've been coveting her vintage style scales she brought back from Vietnam for ages so it was a lovely surprise she brought me my own set on her last visit.

On Saturday I had dinner with friends, a really nice and interesting bunch of women, more fabulous food and this moreish cocktail of Aperol and Prosecco. Worth drinking just for its looks I think!

Sunday the boys soccer team won against the odds (header goal from Master D), another team lost against the odds and so we made it through to the finals.

A grab bag of pictures again this week. Its the best way for me to blog at the moment, and I always enjoy it when others share their weeks, I hope you do too!!

The last picture is of the wonderful guinea fowl feathers that Jenni sent me, just because. Aren't they beautiful.

2013

And there goes 2013, just like that!

Actually mentally I'm still in 2013, and will be for a while. I'm still on holidays and have some lovely family camping in my future, hooray. 2014 can cool its heels a moment while I recharge.

An annual tradition round here is this end of year post when I go through my Flickr pages and compile a mosaic or two of my creative life for the year. {and if you're interested here's 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008}

Its always a nice surprise to see how busy and productive I've been despite sometimes feeling like I'm getting nowhere and taking too long about it!!

This year is no exception. It was big! Some great important things happened this year and I learnt a lot.

My work was featured in The Sydney Morning Herald's Spectrum Design section.

I taught my first craft workshops at SewMakeCreate.

I did a ceramics course and learnt to throw pots. A new addiction this and I'm already signed up for more in 2014.

I learnt to Shibori, expose my own screens and make coiled brooches at workshops run by other people. It was fun! I tried embroidery. Here's to more learning this year too.

I cooked and ate a lot. A brief flirtation with the 5:2 diet and an increasing dislike for processed food saw me make my own pickles, jam, marmalade, yoghurt, ricotta, paneer, bread, soup, curries, pastries, pizza, dolmades, soap and lots of cake. I also grew more of my own produce, which made me very happy.

I printed lots of fabric. So much that I didn't get round to showing it all on the blog. That's something to remedy in 2014, and sewing more with my flowerpress fabrics is another.

I sewed some more clothes for me, and I thought and read a lot about learning to adapt patterns to my particular shape. That's another thing I want to pursue further this year.

I dithered in my bloggings and was quiet for some of the year. I can see from the comparative number of posts that I wasn't as present here. However, the absence made me realise blogging's importance in my life. I hope to embrace it anew. This year I hope to be a more focussed and committed blogger. Another thing I really enjoyed this year was getting out and meeting more bloggers in person, both friends I've met through the blog and via ABCD meetups and the Voices 2013 competition. Bloggers are such lovely people and its nice to have a chance to catch up on all that stuff that you never talk get a chance to talk about in emails.

Do you have plans for 2014, I need a few more ideas for the year, and I'd love it if you wanted to share yours here. And Happy New Year!!!  Here's to 2014, but not just yet ;-)

Doily panels

My Butterfly Doily image is another favourite of mine. I've printed this design on cushions and tea towels in the past, but always dreamed of taking it further and making a doily fabric repeat pattern. I can't exactly put my finger on what appeals to me so much about doilies, but I do know that they make me happy! I think its something to do with the intricate patterns and the traditional handcrafted nature of the craft. Some slow, handmade love to be passed down the generations.

So this newest printing takes the doily image a little further. I think this pattern is a work in progress, but for the moment I have printed up some panels of the doily design to sew with and made some extras to share with like-minded crafters. They are in the shop if you need some Doily sewing goodness. This is the first of my sun exposed screens!!

Each doily panel is a minimum size of 11 x 14 inches printed in white on lovely unbleached linen/cotton fabric. I have plans for other colours. This fabric is a great medium weight perfect for homewares, and small projects.

I spoke last week about my search for zipper feet, this pencil case project was the one in question which couldn't be completed without the elusive equipment! For many years I've had this serviceable tartan pencil case, which because of its size has proven really useful and taken care of my extensive pen and pencil collection (I have a habit!). As you can see it is starting to fall apart, but beyond that I felt that something I used so often should be beautiful rather than just serviceable, and it was a great way to showcase my new fabric.

As you can see I've echoed the curved corners of the old case and made it a similar size. I've used my chrysanthemums on the reverse side, and lined it with a little blue and white floral print.

There is just one flaw in my grand plan, the newly made case was quickly seconded to necklace duty for my recent trip, and is actually a great way to keep all my necklaces together and untangled. I'm thinking I might need to make another for the actual pencils!

basecloth

Did I tell you my ambition this year is to make more fabric!!

I want to design and produce more Flower Press fabric designs. In particular I want to screenprint more designs, and if I've been a bit absent, a bit distracted that's why. I've been working behind the scenes to make this happen.

As you know from my recent Sewing with Flower Press post I get a big kick out of seeing what people make with my fabric. Up till now that has mostly meant digital quilting cottons. I love the way with digital I can create multicolour quilting fabrics like my Bricks and Marble prints and print them on quality Kona cotton. What fun! With digital design you can do anything - if you want to combine a hundred colours into one design you can. Swatch or yardage? No problem. Its a designer's dream.

Screenprinted fabric comes with more design limitations. There's more preparation in producing it. But handprinted fabric has its own quality which make us love it. Personally I love the vibrancy and texture and the graphic quality of screenprinting. I love the feel of it, the strong printed designs and the way they sit on the basecloth.

To me basecloth is all important to screenprinted textiles so part of my journey towards producing more has been finding the perfect basecloths. 

I'm always on the lookout for good fabric, and over the years have amassed samples from all over the place. My first criteria is they must be natural fibres which narrows the search to linen, cotton and hemp.

I love 100% linen for tea towels, its hard wearing qualities and substantial feel make this sustainable fibre a star.

For fabric panels that are going to be sewn I prefer linen/cotton blends to straight linen. I think they combine the great strength and character of linen with the better drape and usability of cotton. I find them easier to iron and a finer texture.

Cotton in all its guises is another favourite. There's something about the feel of freshly laundered cotton, its strength and durability and ease of care that make this versatile fabric so very popular. No wonder that quilts are made almost exclusively with cotton.

I was so happy when I sourced the perfect white cotton fabric recently. I love the weight and drape and feel of it. I also found some fabulous coloured cottons to play around with. I can't wait to print some of these neutrals.

And lastly, hemp is a new fibre to me. While I've seen this fabric around I hadn't had much to do with it up close until recently when I got some unused yardage when buying some secondhand screens. 

Wow, I was really impressed. Its a really nice fibre and it has a real radiance to it. It sort of glows. Its also smooth and strong and has great eco credentials. I snapped up a big batch of different weight hemp fabrics a couple of months ago when a local wholesaler had a sale, some of it a hemp/organic cotton mix. This will be fun to print on too.

As for the printing, I'm getting there. It is taking a while to get my setup perfect. The good news is that with my such a great range of fabrics bought I am a few steps closer to my goal. Expect some scrap packs made up of test prints to go up soon. I'm a big fan of the scrap pack myself (remind me to show you my collection some time!) so it will be fun to share some of my own.

p.s. yes, I know, I've messed up my blog template recently experimenting with tabs! I need to restore my saved template but life has been too busy. Time for a complete overhaul methinks!

gocco in spectrum

I'm really sad about the demise of the Gocco printer, this little Japanese system got me into screenprinting way back in 2007. It was actually the simultaneous discovery of Gocco and Etsy that set me on the road to my Flower Press business, and blogging, and all the wonderful rest of it, way back then.

My twin boys had gone off to preschool that year, and I suddenly had time to get back into some creative work. I'd finished the horticulture studies I'd been doing while they were little (my little spot of brain space after having three kids in three years!) And I was feeling the need to make again. So when I saw the Gocco it was love.

I'm a big fan of printing in its many forms, and the idea of being able to produce and print my own screens at home was, and is, a revelation. These days I'm still working on making my own screens and printing them, but its a much bigger more complex production than with the Gocco!

Riso the company that make Goccos shut down ink and bulb production in 2008, and while there are stockpiles of materials still available, it doesn't look like an alternative supply will come along any time soon. It seems like the end of Gocco style printing.

In today's Sydney Morning Herald there's an article in the Design section of Spectrum (with a picture of me!) about the Gocco story with comments from Karena Colquhoun (Magic Jelly), ghostpatrol and me. Its a nice acknowledgement of the Gocco phenomenon, and I'm pleased to have helped celebrate it before its gone.You can read it here.

That's me with my little PG-11 printer in the photo. I still have some supplies, hidden away, but I'm loathe to use them, and sad to think about the end of this much loved art.

I still sell some Gocco prints and digital copies of Goccos like my well loved Ruby Slippers and Teapot prints above in my shop, which I have finally updated. I'm hoping to have some new products and designs in there soon too, and maybe a giveaway so watch this space!

my creative space - field

As promised some photos of my new textile print Field. I really love it printed and can't wait to sew with it. The artwork for this screen was done in a rush for my exposure workshop and I want to tweak it before I list it in the shop but it will be there soon.

What colours to print though? Here's an early design doodle with some colour ideas. I like them all, but what do you think? Opinions welcome.

Other creative things happening around here - a custom version of my Ruby Slippers in someone else's colours, orange and pink, you guessed it its the Curly Pops edition! To celebrate Cam's big adventure. I printed this one for Cam but I might just do a small edition for the shop some time.

I've also started cutting squares for a baby quilt for a new girl round here, who arrived a couple of weeks ago. I realised when I was posting them that the colours are similar to my field colours. I really do love aqua blue with pink, yellow, white and limey green as you can see. There is something very clean and soft about that combination. The nice thing is I think my field print would slip into that quilt quite happily. Which makes me very happy :-)

Its nice to be posting for My Creative Space this week. I have so many ideas bubbling that its good to have something to show for some of them!

(By the way, I logged into my Google Reader today only to read they are discontinuing it in July. Wah! I found this article on CNet which speaks of alternatives but I need someone clever to come along and tell me which I should choose. Any ideas? Do you use another service?)

march

I'm feeling pretty blessed this week. Lots of great things happening round here. Well actually I must qualify that by saying I had a shocker yesterday! but overall there's been some really great stuff to overshadow that.

Wednesday I had my photo taken. That was exciting if a bit nerve wracking. Hopefully when it appears some of you might see it and I will post about it here.

Later in the day we went to the big school open night and saw our girl and her friends in all their wonderfulness, and felt our boys start to get excited about their journey to high school next year.

Then on Saturday I spent the day at Peter Leis, a local screenprinting workshop run by brother and sister combo Shivaun and Amon Leis. The siblings grew up learning the trade from their dad Peter Leis, a legend of screenprinting in these parts. I didn't know it but Shivaun mentioned on Saturday that Peter worked with Florence Broadhurst amongst others!

Lamina and I, along with fellow student Sam, learned from Shivaun how to prepare and expose our own screens using the sun, so we can make our own screens at home. It was lots of fun and we learnt so much! Thanks again Lamina for signing me up, and for your photo of me coating the screen.

I'm so excited I'll be able to prepare my own screens. I'm hoping it will mean more of my designs making it onto fabric, and into the shop. On Saturday we each brought a design to expose. You can see my screen in the photos above. I chose to expose a new textile design with the working name Field. (I just checked and this design has been brewing since way back in August 2011! So its great to see it finally in print.)

Sunday I did just that, had a morning of printing with my new screen. I posted some pics on instagram (@flowerpress) and thanks to everyone for the lovely feedback there. I plan to show pics of it on fabric on the blog later this week, on Thursday for 'my creative space'.

To finish this wonderful week, and while I was still covered in ink, Mr F found out we'd been given last minute comps for the Neil Finn and Paul Kelly concert at the Opera House!! Like many we tried to buy tickets for this when they came out but missed out, so we were over the moon!

The concert was amazing, we had such a wonderful night seeing these two amazing singer songwriters together, singing some of their beautiful songs. I must admit to a tear or two at the start, it was so beautiful. If you missed out I just read they are streaming the last concert on Monday March 18, 9pm on YouTube.

2012

I can't quite believe we've left 2012 behind already, can you?!

It was a good year, a busy year with lots of happy times and not too many sad.

Looking back, it was a creative year too. I often feel like I don't get everything I want done, so I love these end of year roundups and photo mosaics, where I get to see what I've actually achieved - it gives me a great sense of accomplishment!

There's nothing like collecting all your work together to remember the times through the year, what you were doing, what was happening, what you made.

For example looking here I see that this was the year I finally learnt to crochet and embarked on a bullseye quilt, which is still 'in progress'.

I made a quilt for little Poppy, my second, but definitely not my last, in fact I've started another starry quilt which I need to get back to...

This was a year for sewing and one where I actually made some clothes for myself. I grew in confidence and started to learn more about how patterns come together, how sleeves fit armholes, how linings fit within skirts. I have many new patterns in the stash and one of my dreams is to design and print some material and then make some clothes with it for me!

At the end of the year I celebrated five years blogging and was included in Pip's Ace Bloggers list around the same time. It feels like a wonderful milestone to have blogged regularly for five years, it has given me so much. My little Flower Press business which has also enriched my life marked its fifth anniversary too and that felt good.

I created tutorials - for foam and perspex printing, for my small baby quilt and for stencil screenprinting. It felt good to share what I'd learnt. In return I followed many tutorials, pinned many projects and became an instagram addict!

I did my first collaboration and made a wonderful marble starter kit with dear Alisa, something we're both very proud of.

I made soap, I made bread, I made yoghurt, ricotta and jam. I planted more vegies and reorganised the garden to make it more a mix of ornamental and productive. 

Our family worked hard, we played hard, we did our best. We ate healthier, we lived simpler, we cared for others around us, we looked at art, we were creative, we exercised, we lived. My heart is full watching my beautiful children grow a little more into the wonderful people they are.

I'm excited about 2013. Some ideas are slowly percolating in my mind. I've learnt not to be too specific about goals, to let life steer me through my year. But I do know that there will be more of all of this, another big mosaic next year with lots of creative life. 

And I know that as always my lovely blogging community will inspire and encourage me and help show me the way.

While making this I couldn't resist looking back at the last four years of mosaics, I think this one's the biggest! Here's the list of links for 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 if you're interested. And for individual photo links for those images above, click the mosaic picture to be taken to flickr.

Stencil screenprinting tutorial

I'm in love with geometrics at the moment, I love the way basic shapes can make a myriad of different patterns. I've also been wanting to play a bit more with stencil screenprinting after my simple experiments a couple of months ago. It's a fun quick way to get a design onto fabric and ever since then I've been dreaming up patterns which take into account my basic papercutting skills but also print in two colours, another first for me. In the end I came up with this wonderful colourful Harlequin design, easy to cut and, even better, where I can use a single stencil for both colours.

I'm really happy with the results. I'll be playing with this one some more I think. I've got ideas for other colour matches. I think it would look great as a graphic pencil case or tea towel, or maybe a tote bag.

I thought you might be interested in the simple steps of how I got from my initial design (above) to finished print (below) so I took some photos along the way. I hope you enjoy my simple tutorial for Stencil Screenprinting.

1. Once I had my design I drew it up in illustrator and printed it out to size. I used a light box (use a window as a simple alternative if you don't have a lightbox) and traced the design onto my Ezicut film. Ezicut is available at art shops and is a thin plasticised paper/film which is a bit tougher than paper and doesn't distort when wet.

2. The straight lines proved nice and simple and it didn't take long to cut out each of the triangles. I used a small Stanley knife, a ruler and a cutting mat. The dark triangles you can see are the print out behind the cutouts.

3. Note I've spaced them slightly apart to give me some film between printing spaces to give it some strength. Also you can see I'm only cutting one half of the design as it will be printed in two colours.

4. My stencil filled most of the screen so I didn't bother covering the other parts. You might want to attach paper or extra ezicut to block out unused areas. Once you have your first pull the ink will stick the stencil to the screen and keep it in position. I put some sticky tape on mine to hold it in position at the start.

5. Print your panels, sorry no printing photos as its a bit hard to hold a camera mid print! As each panel is printed hang them carefully up to dry.

6. When you have printed all of them wash the first colour gently from screen and stencil. I use only waterbased inks such as Permaset and Aquatex which are eco friendly and quick to wash out.

7. Dry the panels, screen, stencil and squeegee and set up for the next colour.

8. To align the second colour I used a trick I've seen online. I taped a sheet of mylar film to hinge along one side and printed my second colour directly onto it.

9. Then I positioned each fabric panel below, aligning the second colour with the first. As each one was positioned I flipped the film to one side and printed. As you can see my second colour isn't exact, but I like it that way. You could spend more time aligning them but I like the handmade effect it gives the final prints. Dry the panels and heat set the designs.

All in all I was really happy with my day of printing. I'm inspired to try some different colourways and maybe play with scale. I found I also love this first colour print all on its own. I like the simplicity and it reminds me of bunting twirling in the wind!

Good luck stencil screenprinting! I'd love to see what you come up with. I'm happy to answer questions in the comments and would love to hear your suggestions for other Harlequin colour combinations!

Show & Tell is around tomorrow. Come back to meet Miss October and admire her lovely work.