screens and ink and another technique to play with

Have I told you that I've decided that I'd like to get into screen printing?  Seriously, it's more fun and actually easier than I thought it was going to be!  Earlier in the year I told you about a workshop that I did with Learn2Screenprint where we went through so much information and so many techniques that it was impossible to process it all at once.
Yesterday I was able to do another workshop where we used the technique of photo emulsion and exposure, a technique that I was really keen to get my hands dirty with.

In its essence, photo emulsion is a paint-like medium that is put onto a screen, then overlaid with a design on acetate (you can see my dahlias above).  The screen is kept in the dark, then when the design is in place, it's exposed to light to burn the black design onto the screen.  The screen is then washed, and what you see in black is removed.  The emulsion that was hit by the light is hardened and sets onto the screen.  The black protects the emulsion behind it, and then is washed off.  Voila, a very sharp image and potentially superfine designs are left on your screen, ready for inking and printing.

This is the test print I did (all I had time to print yesterday unfortunately), but the photo shows how sharp and crisp that edge is, and how the design can come up.  I'm excited by this type of screen production because of the results that you can print from it.  I'm lucky enough to have access to a darkroom and therefore the exposure lights required to do this myself, but I can definitely see myself using the professional services of screenprinting companies to expose my designs onto screens as well.  I have SO many designs and products running through my mind, just itching to jump onto the fabric.

the Finders Keepers Market, Melbourne

I've been wanting to visit ever since I discovered them, but a 4.5hr drive and scheduling issues have meant that the planets didn't align until this Saturday just gone.  The Finders Keepers market is held twice a year in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and it is a giant collection of artists, craftisans, designers and generally amazing people.  I lost count of stalls, but there seemed like hundreds.  Seriously!

I had a strategy to try and see every stall in a logical manner - up one aisle, down another, not missing anything.  I quickly abandoned that crazy idea when I discovered that it was not only set out in a way that fits the space (how inconvenient!), but I didn't want to just walk past things once.  I may not have done a full couple of laps, but I did try :)

The market was held at the Royal Exhibition Building, which is an incredibly impressive building on the edge of the city.  It's high ceilings and ornate decoration set a pretty artistic mood, and from both a stallholder's and a shopper's point of view, very well spaced so that it wasn't difficult to move around and see what you wanted to.

Here's a bit of a peek through my shopping bag,

Above and below is Blank Goods, where I bought a couple of supplies for myself.  It was hard to not just buy things to make things, rather than things that other people have already made!

The cute earrings below were (surprisingly!) my only jewellery purchase - for myself anyway! I bought a couple of pressies which I'm not showing, but there were so very gorgeous pieces in a lot of stalls.  I did take a few cards to follow up later...   This little pair of red earrings from That Vintage will be worn often I'm sure.

There were quite a few very talented screen printers at the market, and the one that tempted me (for now anyway!), was Tinker.  I chose a table runner in flax-coloured linen, with a colour palette that I love.  It was very lucky that they I restrained myself here.

 I've long admired Maze & Vale and was very happy to discover that they had a stall on Saturday.  I chose (after long deliberations) three pieces of their prints on linen.

This overhead shot was taken by Tinker, showing their gorgeous bunting against the equally stunning second level and walls of the Royal Exhibition Building.

I am a scarf gal, and my new rule is that I can buy myself a new one for each Winter.  Just one.  This one is made from bamboo, and is a bright pink dahlia print on a light grey background.  Perfect.

Again, some evidence of things to make with rather than pre-made, but I love Indian wooden blocks and this kit came with three beautiful paisley ones.  It was purchased from earth tribe, which proclaims fair trade ethics - this means that I could have quite happily have justified in purchasing more!  Next time.

So that's a snapshot of my visit, but only a very small part of it.  I HIGHLY recommend this market for anyone who loves good quality, handmade products.  But allow a good couple of hours to get through it all at least once.

I was also able to do a quick side-trip and took in the always excellent Top Arts 2013 exhibition at the NGV Ian Potter centre, Federation Square.  There I was able to pay homage to a very familiar piece by a gorgeous girl, Shannon Malseed.  Go and check it out.

finding some inspiration

I'm finding that this time of the year is the time of the year that I am actively seeking out some inspiration and in that, some motivation.  Maybe it's the charge ahead for a new year or that feeling of clearing out the old, in with the new.  Whatever it is, I've been busy reading about what some other people get up to to formulate some new designs and structure into their processes.

I've been a fan of Ali Edwards for a long time now, and if you're not familiar with her or her work, she's a graphic designer who has a clean and simple approach to her work.  She does a lot of paper work and posts regularly about the projects that she's been doing, both personal and for her business.

I decided again to sign up for her One Little Word year-long workshop again, to remind myself of a regular project and the reflectiveness that this project can provide.  Hopefully it'll also inject a bit of my word back into my day-to-day in the year thirteen.

I also went back and went through the blogging course from elsie & laura at a beautiful mess, which I first mentioned in a post last year about blogs I was (and still am) reading.  In their blogging ecourse, I like their mix of personal experiences and guidelines.

Whilst they proclaim throughout to be no experts (which I think there a lot of us who would decry that they are!), it is refreshing to read about what they find interesting and how they manage their own time.  I am a planner and organiser, but my own ideals don't always flow through to everything that I want them to - I don't post regularly, I don't have a lot of planned or scheduled posts, I don't take enough nor share enough photos, I don't... I don't...   I am trying to be easier on myself with running a  craft business and having an online presence, so I think that reading through these courses and articles help to both re-inspire and to remember that it's okay that I don't do all of that!

january 2013

I have many reasons to love january: the long holidays, beautiful summer weather, sleeping in, tennis on tv (and in person), the beach, iced coffee, driving with the windows down, freedom and TIME.
I get into the habit every year of making a "holiday" list.  It's not usually a physical list of jobs or words, but it's certainly a physical presence.  There are piles of things to sort, tackle, fix and start all throughout the house that are labelled "holidays".  At the beginning of these big holidays, I usually am too tired to really deal with much of it.  There's a quick cleaning frenzy and then I'm content to look at things for a few days and ignore them.  Three days ago I got my mojo back and started into them all.

The types of things that I leave can be as mundane as sorting paper into the filing cabinet and re-arranging piles in the spare room, but also excitingly, things that are more fulfilling in the creative sense.

I started making new cards which is a great process.  I am making more of some popular designs which sold out at recent markets, but I'm also making a lot of new ones.  I've got a collection of amazing old prints and photographs from encylopaedias and novels which are being made into absolute one-off cards.

Here you can see little piles of cards in various stages.

At the back is a tray filled with cover pieces ready to be put together.

Front left is an example of a vintage illustration, and next to it is an example of some of the popular phrase cards that also use some vintage book paper.

I love sewing paper together as it gives it another texture and design element.

One of the january jobs that I enjoy is trying to plan out the year ahead.
I have work and personal commitments that influence those plans, but as the market dates are announced I put those into the year's schedule, as well as their application opening dates.  I try and spread markets out throughout the year, but a lot of market organisers seem to share the same ideas and there can often be a glut!  I have to travel between 75kms and 300kms to attend markets, so it's not something that I can easily do as many weekends as I would like.

And I also discovered a little while ago that the website I had started to build in 2012 was shut down.
How did that happen???
Well, I have to take a lot of the blame for that - I hadn't done any work on it in a long time, I hadn't even checked it for a long time.  I didn't realise that I was on a limited renewal (not automatic like I requested) and therefore it just ceased to exist.
Now I'm in two minds and whilst I have spent time and money learning how to develop an independent website, I'm clearly not in a position to be able to update and maintain it as should be required.  So it's a loss and a lesson, but I'm happy to spend more time here in blogpost instead.  So hopefully you've noticed a slight change here.  I'll keep tweaking as I find how to do more things, but my main focus will be the content itself, because that's what everyone loves most on a blog (well I do anyway!).

the getting ready phase

I am fascinated by markets and the whole market experience.  Even before I fulfilled a dream of being a stallholder myself, I would stop in at any markets I saw and even plan trips around being able to visit them.

Any time that I see blog posts about markets, I zoom straight in and soak up every detail.  I want to know how they displayed their product, what tools and equipment I could see hiding on the other side of the stall, and of course, I wanted to be amazed by every detail of their products themselves.  I definitely have market love.

So in order to put back into the blogosphere what I love to take in, I'm going to do a daily post for the next seven days giving some insights into what I'm up to in the lead-up to what might be the biggest market of the year for me.  I said "might" because in true market fashion, I have no idea of which markets will be filled with buyers, or which products will be popular from one day to the next.  It's hit and miss, but that's what makes it a bit fun too.

So tonight it's Sunday, and I didn't have high hopes for spending much time on my products this weekend.  I did manage to fix my printer problem and was able to finish off a print run I began a couple of weeks ago.

In this first photo, it gives you a very good idea of the state of my desk.  There are lots of piles, some needed for Sunday but others that will need to be moved away.  I try and keep most of this space empty and just my working projects on there so that I don't get too swamped.  That ideal doesn't always work and it becomes a dumping ground.  First job will be to move most of this stuff away.

The notebook that you can see at the front (it's upside-down), is my latest attempt at a proper inventory system.  This information will get transferred to a database, but I need written info when selling at the market.

This is just inside the door (and in front of a large noticeboard that I don't see half of at the moment).  

The shelves were part of my market display for a little while, but they're just too big for my car so I've gone back to using my vintage suitcases instead.  This suits me better not just for the car space, but also because I store a lot of things in the cases and have cut down the amount of boxes that I actually take with me.  This is a huge consideration when I go to markets alone.

I've got a framed canvas sitting on the top shelf there which is going to be a new display board for my 2D items - the garlands and bunting which are hard to display to good effect sometimes.  You don't often have a wall or backdrop behind you that you can string them from, and signage is hard for that too.  I hope that this canvas will help to display these more effectively.

This is the table from the other side and there's a pile of printed pages at the very front which are ready for sewing.  Putting those bunting pieces together is what I'm going to do over the course of this week, as well as trying to create a more effective packaging for them - high hopes!

These are a lot of the books that I'll re-box up for Sunday.  I spent some time a couple of weekends ago retagging everything.  My old labels were not wearing up to the challenge, and I wanted to add some more information onto them.  I also sorted out what cards were left and remade some of the more popular styles.

I won't get a chance to do anything much else tonight, but am aiming to get the sewing machine out tomorrow night - let's see if that happens!

owl know how

A big shout out to former Portlander Isobel Knowles and her collaborative partner, Cat Rabbit for the launch of their new book, Owl Know How.

The book is a form of stop-motion animation, where the ladies built the characters and sets from reclaimed and found materials, creating the wonderful owl factory, photographed each page and then created the story to match the expanded book.  Such creative and amazing ladies!

Source: owlknowhow.com via Joe on Pinterest

This was a news article in todays' The Age newspaper on the pair.
If you're interested in purchasing the book - or a limited edition plush toy - check out the esty site for orders