printmaking

 Hi Jo.

I made a forest of velvet pine trees. Actually I started them last year. Didn't finish them. I think I was having a problem figuring out how to make them stand. Yesterday I saw a picture on a blog of a little tree standing on an old wooden spool. Go figure. I had a whole bagful of wooden spools. So I got the trees out and did some assembly. And guess what .. it didn't work. Not one of my trees was balanced enough to stand. They all fell over. I was just going to put them back into my sewing room again when I spotted the piece of styrofoam that I use as a portable design wall. It will do.Nnot sure what I was planning to do with the trees anyway. I think I just wanted to do some machine stitching. Maybe they will be a faerie forest.

And another experiment that didn't work very well.

I have a pack of tissue paper that is made specifically to bleed. Yes. 

A long time ago I tried a bit of printmaking with vegetables. I want to explore this method a little bit more. I got an onion out of the cupboard and sliced it in very thin slices, layered them on the bleeding tissue paper with paper underneath and fabric on top. 

I put a heavy book on the layers and left it overnight.

And then I sliced up two more onions and put them in vinegar and in the fridge. I like to have them ready for adding to salads or burgers. 

Having onions is the fridge was about the best part of my day.

Having the house smell of onions all day was not really very nice.

The results of my experiment are not really very exciting.

This is what happened to the fabric.

Not really very interesting. I used red tissue because I thought maybe it would look like red onions. I didn't get any kind of hint of what I  used. Disappointing. 

The paper took a little bit more of the colour.

The dark spot is where I put one little square of brown tissue. It's not very clear. I was hoping for more definite rings of onion.

Oh well. I think I did do a pretty good job of documenting. That's a good thing.

I made a quilt a long time ago with pears. I just cut them in half and used acrylic paint to stamp onto fabric.

Maybe I will try that technique with the onions next. Maybe that is a summer thing. 

karenwholikestotrythings.

P.S. I love the wool. The colours look lovely. I hope I will be able to see them soon in person.