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Here are some close up shots of a little pouch I made yesterday. The screenprint isn't a new one but I've not made him up yet due to the no zipper situation. This one is available on Etsy and I will have more in different sizes coming along over the next few weeks. I'm still making up new designs and trying out different things, so I am sure my stall at Rose Street on Saturday will be a bit of a hodge podge, but it is always good to test things out and see what people think.
Tomorrow is going to be a fabo exciting day with the Craft Victoria's Craft and Design as a Career talk that Bridget and I are going to. It is held right next to where we draw our birds and should be a interesting and informative day. Then in the evening the Nicholas Building is holding its Open Studio event where I am sure I will feel envious that I don't get out of the house to work, but then remember that I can still wear my PJ's all day long if I want. Add a few drinks to the mix and I think it might be a fun day/night out.
I made up some fabric brooches to take to Rose Street a few weeks back as a way of using up small bits of fabric and to try something a little different. I wasn't sure about how I felt about them at first. I loved the different fabrics and the stitching, but wasn't sure if they were a bit too messy or big, so I only made six to begin with. They have been quite popular at Rose Street so I've made some more in different colours, including some green and yellow. Martine from Green Olive said they reminded her of the accessories from some of my artworks, and I think I've said in the past that I wish I could get something like the things I've sewed onto paper. I will be listing them on my online shops over the next few days as well as having them available at Rose Street each Saturday.
I've been coming up with some new designs for the products I make. Today was coming up with some new pouch designs, something that is similar to what I do, but three dimensional and can stand upright. I spent some time drawing a design I liked, then making up protoypes and getting the pattern (made from an old manila folder) just right.
This was the 5th one I made and I'm happy with the results. I like the denim and fabric combination with the denim on the outside and think I might make some more like that, with screenprints and other fabrics I have. Now I just have to design some screenprints that fit in with the size of pouch. Most of the prints I have will end up with upside-down bird legs on the reverse, which I am not really fond of.
The red pigeon shopping bag is up for sale on Dawanda. I have a similar bag with a blue pigeon which I used today but I forgot I had it when the lady was packing my vegetables into a plastic bag. The strap on the plastic bag broke as I was walking home as a reminder that I should have used it in the first place.
This is a new pouch available on Etsy. I finally got a shipment of zips on Friday and was very happy to have enough to make a large army of pouches and coin purses. This one has a white screenprint on the red drill and on the back there is three different fabrics, the dark denim, red drill and a beige denim.
Over at Dawanda they always seem to have the cool people blogging about the products on sale. Glamcanyon is one of those people and my little Betsy got a mention on Day One of the month of outfits. It is fun to have a look at all the different people and the products chosen with some directly relating to the clothing and others are a little more subtle. Plus is was great to see some Melbourne talent like Bridbird and Sarah McNeil from Funiscool included in the days.
I've been busy making wallets for a new shop in South Australia and thought I would post some pictures. I will post some more information about them next week when they open their doors. Due to the new stockists I've been doing so much screenprinting I needed to sort out the growing pile and shifted an almost empty Billy shelf into the studio to sort out the piles with lots of room for it to grow over the coming months when it gets busy in the lead up to Christmas. I'm not very good at sorting things out, I can't throw out the stuff I should, so the stuff I need often isn't kept in the best place. My studio space has a lot of shelves but I don't think I use the space that well, even though they are rammed with stuff. I look at people like Martine from Green Olive who had everything so well sorted out in her last house (and now has a lovely huge studio!) and wonder how people actually do it. I keep thinking I just need meters and meters of shelf space and then I will be happy and everything will be good, but I think that is just a dream.
I ordered some American Apparel shirts a few weeks back to screenprint onto for Rose Street. When I got the shirts I realised I had ordered the man shirts and they were massive. I sent them back and got the new ones last week and printed some of them up. I decided to go with the pigeon prints because the print is one of my favourites and I like the idea of a longer print on a shirt that goes down the side.
This is one of the grey shirts with a red print and I also have pale blue on a bright blue with the other pigeon print that I cut out. I've got a pale blue and red shirts that I will print onto this week, plus a whole lot of screenprinting I need to get done for a new stockist in South Australia.
This is some of the yardage I printed up the other day. When I say yardage it is probably just over a yard. I just wanted to see how it looked in a repeat without going marathon and doing 10 meters. I'm not sure if I like the white fabric, although the red on white is one of my favourites, but I'm one of those people who don't deal with while very well. It quickly turns to off white or grey if it is something that I need to use on a regular basis. However I am sure there are people out there who can deal with white much better than I can.I have to send out a big thanks to Erin from Design for Mankind. Not only is she really friendly, but she featured me on her Dailies section. You can see my pretty green and pink floral couch, which Gareth loathes, with him sitting in it on his computer as well as other things I did and ate during the day, I think there is more food than anything else!Today I'm having arvo tea with Stacey from Sheep's Clothing. I did a screenprint on a top for her (which I hope she ends up liking....) which I need to give her and it is nice to meet up with people when your social life often involves a keyboard and the lady at the post office. Plus I'm a big fan of her blog, which gets quoated in The Green Guide. Rose Street is tomorrow so pop on by, Bridget is back this week which is good!
I have two new stockists which are both really exciting. The first is Store and Co and Mini Store in Hobart and Sandy Bay in Tasmania. Sandy who runs both stores is really lovely and I'm excited because it is my first shop to stock my products in Tasmania. They have a range of bags available and judging by the photo above the store is really stunning, those floors look beautiful.
The other is the gallery shop at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre. The gallery is located in Gymea in Southern Sydney and have a range of lady badges available. The Gallery space was left to the Sutherland Shire by the Broadhurst family and became a Gallery in 2000. You can read more about the family and bequest here.
Here is a bag I made from one of my new screenprints. It is drawn from the museum drawings and rather than using a cut paper stencil I painted emulsion onto a screen then let it dry. The areas where the ink has come through didn't have any emulsion painted onto it. I like this new technique because it still has the hand drawn aspect to it, but I can reuse the screen and not worry about peeling off the stencil. This is the first one I did but I found it hard to paint the emulsion as it was thick and gloopy. I watered the emulsion down for the second one I did and it worked much better. It printed up okay, but I did another print run and it had a lot of little holes in it, one that looks like a big inky fingerprint according to Gareth. I think I might be able to do another layer of emulsion over the top so hopefully this solves the problem. The emulsion is also messy and droplets occur (as you can see in the image below) and you can't really get rid of them. I thought they might be an issue when I print it but didn't cause any issues. I'm sure people have been doing this for ages, but I've never really seen it and for some reason I didn't think it would work as the emulsion is so sticky and yuck.
I've been on a screen printing bender today using a new technique that actually ended up working out. I am sure it has been done before but I only just realised that it might work and was worth trying.
I will post about that next week, today it is still about the pigeon print, this time on a calico shopping bag. I've made four of them but I think I might keep one because the strap twisted, plus it is a good excuse to have one of my own. The other three are coming to Rose Street on Saturday then I might put them online for those of you that can't get to Fitzroy.
Oh and I was VERY disappointed after watching Project Runway Australia from Monday night. I was going for Petrova and when it was her and Julie in the bottom two I was heartbroken as I liked them both. My reality dating show injection on Monday with The Farmer Wants A Wife was also good, although they did pad it out a bit too much making a rather big deal about the shock decision that Nick made, which in the end wasn't that interesting. I think they could have just shown Rob and Jo for most of the 90 minutes and that would have made me happy. At least then people wouldn't be referred to as a gold digger on national television. Ouchies! Let me know if you saw it as I was smsing people during it and want to hear what people think.
After about 6 or 7 drawing trips with Bridget at the Melbourne Museum I realised I should just draw the designs for the screen prints there, rather than draw away then use the drawings to create the print on a new piece of paper. I sat this week and drew the birds as I would cut them out and it was so much better for getting all the right details. I cut out a few last night and printed this one up today.
It is a lovely dark brown on white canvas and I've done two to stretch and some more on calico for shopping bags. I didn't do many because I wanted to peel the stencil off to keep and lucky it came off because the detail was pretty fine around the wing and I was worried it would just break apart. This is one of my most favourite screenprints ever.
Oh and have a look over at Bridget's Etsy shop, she is on 99 sales and whoever gets her to 100 gets one of her lovely bird brooches. I see them each week at Rose Street and they the most beautiful brooches around and all hand stitched. Also her beau Jeremy is going to take her out for a fancy meal when she gets to 100 sales. Lovely!
Over at Dawanda they are having a competition where Jena from Modish has selected some of her favourite items and you can vote for which one you like best. My screenprinted flame flower fabric is one of the items in the selection along with some other lovely items like the Leaf Pocket Bag by Little Odd Forest and the Ballerina Slips by Mchicha.
