March 23rd, 2012 | Add your Feedback (0)
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Mumble, grumble, mumble … *)
Rabbit No. 4 now drying in studio ^_^…
I finally have a couple of prints from all current editions and can start on something new!
Hmmm, maybe some more copper sulphate etchings?
Will see…
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*) the Artist would like to express her annoyance with the treacherous Fates of printmaking, but
a) she does not want to bore you
b) she actually is afraid said Fates might be listening…
… shhh!
March 20th, 2012 | Add your Feedback (0)
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The Beaver drying on newsprint
Now. There are good days in the Printstudio and there are …
…. not so good days. Last Friday nobody was there to let me in. Now, that’s kind of okay, I was 30 minutes late, so I had to wait another 30 minutes for Nick to come back from lunch …^_^… fair enough.
But. It then took me over an hour to figure out that the black smudges on my prints are not caused by my dirty fingers; a person, of very little brain, used the water-bath to colour their paper with black ink. Naturally he-she-it cleaned it just bad enough for the next person to not see the stains on the edges and even the glass to dry the paper on….
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Anyway, all is well that ends well, and I left with 5 good Beaver prints ^_^…
March 10th, 2012 | Add your Feedback (0)
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My stubborn ‘I-can-write-this-book’ project is slowly taking over my life. Not that I have any reason to complain – I even find grammar inspiring these days – I write my 500 words per day – and throw 490 away the next day ^_^ – read lots of books, listen to university podcasts and, in general, just love everything about the process.
Anyway, I haven’t abandoned my toys or my printmaking and still go to the print studio on Fridays. The Badger No. 2 printed really nicely on the new paper and will pop up in the shops soon.
And there is more to come ^_^…
Soon(ish)
February 17th, 2012 | Add your Feedback (0)
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Puh! What a relief. It took almost three month to replace my old, for-some-reason-not-available-any-more @#$%^&, printing paper. After I had tried every other paper available in Wellington, wasting an obscene amount of time and money, I sent a sample to Fine Art Paper in Christchurch, and encountered friendly, even exceptional, helpfulness! Small samples were sent, selections made, bigger samples were sent, proofs printed, paper ordered, paper sent, and finally today: a paper-stress-free day in the print studio!
The kind of darkness…, etching by minu
For copper sulphate etchings, I’ll use Tiepolo, made in Italy. It has a warm white colour, a smooth surface, and withstands rigorous pressures. It is mould-made out of 100% acid-free cotton.
For the Afternoon Tea series – and most other drypoint on Perspex or PET series – I’ll use the new Revere paper, because of its slightly whiter colour. The 100% cotton paper is made in Italy by Magnani, with a nice ecological touch ^_^ using hydro energy and no chlorine.
I can highly recommend both papers for all intaglio printmaking techniques.
All is good that ends good.
Many thanks again to Fine Arts Paper.
December 3rd, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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Badger enjoying Afternoon Tea on the window
Rieko and I were totally overwhelmed by the amount of people who joined us for the opening night. Rieko sold all her work during the opening and we got very nice feedback from everybody!
I would like to thank Thistle Hall for hosting the show, Inverlochy Art School for their support, Sophie for being her beautiful self and helping me with the set-up and Stefan Lehmann for taking the pictures, Jonno and Rieko for their patience with my totally stressed-out self.
Many thanks to all who made it to the show!
Opening night
New work for the show
Many more images on Flickr.
November 12th, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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After a chat with Basia Smolnicki at Inverlochy about copper sulphat etching, I googled the topic and found this sentence on nontoxicprint.com:
“The characteristic of aluminum is the crystalline structure within the metal, which is revealed by the copper sulfate’s action. This means there is no need for aquatinting to get solid color or lighter tints of any hue.”
In short: no more messing around with powdered resin or spray colour! I had to try this!
Last week I had all the materials together and started on a test etch. It works! So I went on and etched my first aluminium sheet. Now, I won’t tell you how I did it… seeing that I did everything wrong ^_^; however, it still worked (kind of).
I’ll do it the right way next time and take some pictures of the process ^_^…
Exciting!
October 25th, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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I am working on artwork for a group exhibition in a couple of weeks. I usually hate these fake photo effects, however, in this case it supports the story.
It took me weeks of trial and error to find a way to turn the “Afternoon Tea” prints into toys. This is the first one that kind of works, I still need way more practice with the joints… the raccoon is my first “traditionally joined” toy, meaning you can turn the head and move the arms. I am still not 100% happy with the toy. But after spending countless hours in the studio – and loads of money on parts and fabric – and wanting to give up around 1000 times in the last 3 weeks I feel like this could go somewhere nice…
… and it would be boring to do things one actually knows how to do anyway…
would it not?
September 29th, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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I started to prewash the plush fabric. Since the manufacture changed a year ago the cotton pile is denser, softer and “fluffier”. I can see that other toymaker might prefer this but it doses not work with the Schlaf, the Viech or the Bear. With the pre-washing the fabric is back its old slight scruffy look and feel! One worry less ^_^…
September 22nd, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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I am finally back in the studio where I catch up with my toy making. The online shops are back online and the first new prints from the New Zealand Art Show are available online ^_^. The first new set of bears will be shipped later this week. Thank you for your patience ….again.
I had a good time in Germany and I enjoyed my stay in Berlin immensely. I took many, many images of street art. This one of my favorites…
There are many more pictures on Flickr.
September 20th, 2011 | Add your Feedback (2)
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Many thanks to all of you who made it to the New Zealand Art Show 2011. It was a very nice weekend, even though I was really tired after the crazy weeks before the show.
Seeing that I left for Germany the day after the show I never managed to publish more pictures from the New Zealand Art show on the blog…
… and there are many more images on Flickr… as always ^_^…
May 25th, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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April 6th, 2011 | Add your Feedback (0)
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I wanted to share this story since ages but never found the time. It’s something that can only happen in New Zealand!
One Sunday in July 2010 I had unexpected visitors in my little studio, telling me a sad story. During a holiday Morven’s much loved teddy bear TE – a family member for two generations – had been snatched from the beach by a large evil sea gull! Morven was utterly distraught. TE was assumed to be lost forever.
The family had seen some of my work online and commissioned me to make a new body for TE adventurous bear spirit. I felt honoured and happily agreed to take on the work. Morven selected fabric and felt for the new bear.
TE’s new apprentice
A couple of weeks later I got good news: TE was rescued. The evil sea gull was a notorious thief in the area and known to be nesting on a lonely rock in the sea. A local team, moved by the young girl’s story, went on a teddy search and rescue mission. They actually found TE held captive in the gull’s nest on the rock and send him home to Wellington.
After this last adventure the family – including TE – decided a younger teddy apprentice for Morven’s outdoor adventures might not be a bad idea. So we decided to make the new bear and he is now living with a happy Morven in Wellington.
TE after his adventure
All is good that ends good!
I love my work…
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