Screenprinting some table linen

I am very happy screen-printing some table linen at the moment. I made a table cloth for my friend's mum's 75th birthday out of a hemp/silk blend (which is stunning) and was very happy with how it turned out. It's the one with the large red floral print on it in the pics below. To make the pattern I cut stencils out of architectural drafting film and taped them to a blank silk screen then printed through that. It was a bit tricky as I had to wait for each separate segment to dry before I printed another one.

I also made some table runners from raw hemp and another table runner also from the hemp/silk blend with the same floral pattern on it as the table cloth. Except with this one I deliberately didn't heat set it for very long and it gave this lovely washed out look. I like it a lot.

I made some bags!

I got this exciting idea to sew some bags out of lots of pieces of lovely screen printed hemp which i have had for a long time. I made some samples and I will be offering these for sale in my online shop from tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday 3rd May 2011 Australian time). They are all made from 100% heavy weight Hemp canvass. (the super textile). There is only one of each in the shop so once it's bought that's it but I will be making some more in the near future. I'm testing these to see how popular they are. I had a lot of fun sewing them that's for sure and I like that they're all different.

Night Lights decorated with vegetable paints

I just love love these lights. So simple to make. I used A4 sheets of water colour paper and vegetable paints to do the designs. The dark pink is beetroot juice. You basically just juice half a beeteroot and paint with it. That's it. The green colour you see is spinach juice, same thing you just shove lots of spinach leaves into a juicer. And the orangey colour is tumeric mixed with water. It's a bit stinky when you paint with it but when it dries there is no smell. So I painted the designs on and when they dried I stuck a piece of double sided tape along one side and then rolled the paper into a cylinder shape and stuck the sides together. I use large tea light candles under the lights. Please remember if you're going to make these (I know this is fairly obvious BUT...) you are putting paper and naked flame together so make your lights wide enough so that the candle underneath doesn't touch the paper. Or put your candle into one of those plain glass tea light holders and then put the paper cylinder over the top. Don't they look lovely?

The following two light's were painted with beetroot juice.






The one on the left is printed with one of my designs, and the one on the right is painted with spinach, beetroot and tumeric.

Decorate your own crockery

I have been using Pebeo Porcelain Paint Markers for years mainly to decorate goose, hen and ostrich eggs for Easter. You can see some of my Easter Eggs from previous years on this blog. Last week I decided to give the Porcelain Markers a go on actual crockery. I love the result of these two jugs. Pebeo Porcelain Paint markers are available from just about any decent art supply shop such as Oxford Art Supplies or Eckersleys. They are so easy to use, you just paint your designs on then bake the crockery in the oven for 35 minutes at 150 degeres celcius.

The jugs you see below were plain and I added the red designs onto both of them. The taller one with the yellow stripe on the edge is a cheapy from Ikea and the other one is an antique clay jug which I picked up years ago from one of those antique shops in the country.

Cardboard houses

Hello friends :)
I have been keeping myself very busy over the last few weeks following my own excitement. It's amazing how nice it feels to listen to your intuition and then do what it tells you. Sometimes I come up with seemigly random things such as a desire to make a little cardboard house. But what all these have in common is that while i'm doing these projects I feel happy and inspired. And who knows where this will lead? So here are two little cardboard houses made purely for the love of it.

Here's the first one I made out of magazine back covers. Frankie and Artichoke to be precise. Both always have such great imagery. This house is a response to the still existing graphic designer/lover of architecture in me. I used craft glue to put it together.

This is the second little house I built. This one is made from scrap cardboard and has been painted with water colour on the outside and markers on the inside. It is a direct expression of my love for Polish folk-art and those old Eastern European villages. I love it!

The roof comes off for easy access to the interior. I think my daughter will move her fairy family in here.

Some newbies

Hello friends! Am I back to blogging? Well I am for now. I have found that blogging is a job which requires more time than I orignally thgouht I had. So I shall keep my blog writings to a minimum and upload as many pics as I can as often as I can. I've come to terms now with the fact that I will never be a regular blogger. And my hat goes off to all those who do it on a daily basis, even weekly even monthly!

For today here is something new. I've created some lovely new Christmas cards. They come in a pack and are available from my online shop. http://www.laikonik.bigcartel.com/

I made a papercut, in Polish they are called "Wycinanki" and I used the design to make the cards.

First I cut out the design. I make it up as I go along...

...then I scanned it into Illustrator, drew the design and created the cards...

...and lastly the packaging. I love the stitching on the side :)

Exhibition photos

The exhibition opening night was fantastic. I know I said I was going to write about it the next day but.....

I will keep the words to a minimum and let the pics speak for themselves. The most exciting thing I'd have to say was meeting other artists who were interested in using eco materials and working with the environment instead of against it. This week there will be two sessions at the GAFFA organised by The Hemp Gallery in partnership with Jaspers Village. This is an exciting project with a vision for a sustainable future. Contact the GAFFA gallery for more info.

And now for some photos!

My wall, I set up my Hemp paintings on one side and all my commercial work on the right.

Daisy Prowse

Wearbeattie

Steve Woods

Steve Woods