My Green Door Print Exchange has arrived!

Check it out! My Green Door International Print Exchange has arrived. This has been the second time  that I've participated in this show and I've been quite impressed with how organized the exchange has been. Below are just a few of the pieces that I received in exchange for my Bandit linocut print.

l-r: Eleanor Walker, Harriet Brigdale, Monique Wales

The picture above is of the wonderful info-graphic that was included with the print set. Here I got to see which print mediums were used, what paper was the most popular, which countries submitted as well as all of the names of the participants. What fantastic info! 

Langley Art Studio Tour

Why hello there! How have you been? I've been crazy busy! I'm having a bit of a hard time keeping up with my studio practice while still putting out cake orders AND trying to home school our kids while we go through a teacher's strike here. Needless to say my kids schoolwork involve baking and art projects. Meh, makin' it work.

 Right now I'm preparing for the Langley Art Studio Tour Sept. 20-21 & 27-28. This self-guided tour will feature 43 artists in various studios throughout Langley. To view a list of participating artists and venues click here. This year I will be stationed at the Loafing Shed Glass Studio where Robert Gary Parkes will be demonstrating some glass blowing magic. Who couldn't watch that sort of thing all day? As for me I will be doing printmaking demos everyday which will include linocuts, silkscreens, and monotypes. I will be emphasizing  how to print at home and without a press. Demo. times will be 1-3pm each day but I will probably be working on something the entire time I'm there.


Below is a short video I created of using a homemade gelatin plate for monotypes. I will be demoing this technique on Sept. 27. Shall I see you there?

See you at the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair

  The Christmas craft fair season has started! I hope you're able to avoid the mall this year and make it out to one of the many fantastic handmade shows. I would love to go see all the vendors at Make*It at the PNE but I think it's a bit too far for me this year. Next year, for sure.

 The only show I will be selling at this year is the Steveston Christmas Craft Fair on Nov. 30 10-4pm. If you've never been, it's a great excuse to visit Steveston and see where Once Upon a Time is filmed. 

  I will be selling cards, calendars, prints, paintings, silkscreened napkins and tea towels and whole whack of other goodies. Shall I see you there?

Steveston Salmon Festival and the Fraser Biennale Art Show

Hi there! Did ya miss me? I'm still here but I just haven't been spending as much time online as I used to. I've been finishing up some pieces for the upcoming Steveston Salmon Festival on Canada Day. It's supposed to be sunny and beautiful that day so that will be a welcome change from all the rain we've been getting here. If you haven't been to that show yet, it's worth the drive out to Richmond. There will be a parade, a horticultural show, martial arts demonstration, and a fishing derby. Top that off with a great water park for the kids and you've got a great day planned.

I will be in the craft show this year and I hope to sell out of my new magic wallets, napkin sets, lavender fairy sleep pillows and dolls and tea towels.  A lot of my silkscreen textile work are only available at these shows because I feel like the shipping I would have to charge is such a deterrent for people. What do you think? Should I list my sleep dolls? Would you pay $7-$10 shipping for an $18 item? Hmmmm...

On a side note, it you happen to live in the Valley you can catch some of my artwork at the Maple Ridge Art Gallery for the 2013 Fraser Valley Biennale. I have three landscape monotypes in that show which runs from June 15-July 27.

A fairy found

Shhhhhhhh......I found this little fairy sleeping in my studio. I'm sure you're going to see her again but I wanted to give you a peek. 

Rest well little one.

How the Crafty Affaire Show went

I just finished participating in this spring's Crafty Affaire on May 4th. It's been a while since I've done a spring show but I wanted to make more of local presence this year. I had hoped to do a show every couple months but when you work in the restaurant industry you have to always work when the craft shows are on. I will have to pick and choose carefully which shows I'm willing to risk tips and wages on.

My new magic wallets that I wanted to show you in action but YouTube refused to co-operate. 

For this show I created a couple of cake stands with thrift store finds and I think they turned out great. I used one to showcase a hand painted cake I did along with some sugar paste cake toppers. The goal was to get the word out about my custom cakes and gauge the interest of handmade cake toppers. I got a luke warm response. Oh we'll, lesson learned.

Hand-painted gluten-free cake with a collection of sugar paste cake toppers

Like anything I guess, I find it takes practice to do a craft show well.I felt out of practice. I didn't do horribly but the attendance of the show was pretty low so it wasn't as busy as I had hoped. It was hard compete with how gorgeous and sunny the day was.

Silkscreened napkin sets.

Now it's time to get ready for the Steveston Salmon Festival on July 1st. See you there?

New silkscreen napkins

Today I thought I would share with you a peek into a couple napkin designs I've done recently. Even though I had made plans to simplify my studio and have less stuff, my new studio is starting to get crammed with silkscreens. What can I say? I love creating and that seems to create more studio "stuff".

Created with my own illustrations, I'm making sets of four napkins printed with either a dahlia print or a teapot and cup design. I'm loving the pink dahlia on white which although you can't tell from the photo, is a shimmery colour. Perfect for tea don't you think?

Some Halloween Skeletons

I've been busy on so many projects that I almost forgot to update my blog. Lately I've been working on numerous silkscreen projects and this year I finally got it together to create some Halloween themed pieces. What do you think about my funky little skeleton?

A nice sized trick-or-treat bag

Size: 6-8 yrs

Size: 24 months

Available in my shop

Getting ready for Arts Alive Festival 2012

I haven't been able to do an Illustration Friday  submission since before I've moved but I've been very busy doing other things. I don't do many art and craft shows during the year but I have been prepping for one that will be happening in my new hometown of Langley.

On August 18th part of downtown Langley will be closed to traffic and artists and musicians of all sorts will be selling their wares. I've never done this show but I want to start establishing myself as a local artist as soon as I can. What I do know, though, is that we've found Langley to be one of the most friendly places we've ever lived. Just about every time we've gone out somewhere someone has stopped to chat, give advice or help out. I think that bodes well for the show, don't you?

Below is a picture of some things I will be selling at the show. Some of the items might make it into my Etsy shop so stayed tuned. What's your favourite?

Silkscreened aprons for kids

Hi everyone! Today I thought I would share some pictures of some products I've been working on. I'm creating some children's aprons from tea towels that I hope to sell at some local Christmas shows. These are the designs that made me think that I needed to get a real silkscreen kit.Through my trials I found that my chiffon fabric and Modge Podge resist worked best.

I did one design for girls, "Chef du Jour" and one for boys, "Official Taste-tester". My youngest thinks the girl one is better because it's "prettier". Perfect. I personally prefer the taste-tester design I think. I will be making some for Christmas presents too but I'm not sure if they will end up in my shop. If you would like one for a young one you know, let me know and I can create a listing for you. I will be pricing them at $15 ea.
Bon Apetit!

Silkscreening at home update

For today's post I thought I'd show you some more silkscreen projects I have been working on. As you know, I have been stretching my own screens with old frames and chiffon fabric and using Mod Podge as a screen filler. The drawbacks to this method is that I'm not able to get a super fine mesh and once the Mod Podge is dry it can't be removed from the screen and I have to stretch a new screen for every new image. I have quite a few more silkscreen ideas so I thought I would spend a little money and buy myself the Speedball Silkscreen kit. I figured the mesh would be tighter and I would also get a screen filler that I can remove.

Well.....I haven't been impressed. I'm going to show you a bunch of photos of a current project where I'm trying to use the drawing fluid which is used a resist with the screen filler. The instructions say that the filler may dissolve the drawing fluid if you brush over the same spot more than once. A single swipe with a squeegee is the recommended application. I've been finding the filler so watery and inconsistent that I wish I had just carefully brushed it all on without spending time with the drawing fluid resist. I'm going to need two coats at least. When I used the Mod Podge I only need one coat with some minor touch ups. I will finish applying the filler because I hope to save the frame but so far the Speedball products don't seem worth the extra time.

Drawing fluid in blue and red screen filler. This is the second time applying both because the filler dissolved all the drawing fluid.

Here you can see how thin the filler is. There are holes everywhere.

My screen made with chiffon and Modge Podge. The negative spaces were easily filled.

I've used this screen over and over. I haven't had any of the Mod Podge come off over time.

Below are a couple pictures of a t-shirt design I did with the chiffon fabric and the Mod Podge. In the close-up you can see how the weave of the fabric obscures any pixelation created by the mesh. I'll be printing up a couple t-shirts with this design just in time for Halloween. It's creepy cute, don't ya think?

La Calaca International Print Exchange

In a past post I had shown how I was trying to adapt my studio for silkscreening. I had tried sheer curtains and the embroidery hoop frame technique but I found it wasn't as consistent as I needed. After finally adapting an Ikea RIBA frame and chiffon fabric I was able to create clear silkscreen prints.

A while back I began following printmaker Carlos Barberena and I have been continually impressed with his posts about his printmaking techniques and the courses that he teaches. Early this summer I saw that Carlos put out a call for printmakers to submit to an international print exchange with the theme La Calaca, Day of the Dead. How cool! I thought it would be a great chance to explore silkscreen again as well as give me the chance to use my Wacom tablet to work out the preliminary sketches.

As tempting as it was to go crazy with multiple colored screens and create a sugar skull, I kept my design simple and more in keeping with my own style. Below is my print "Never stop dancing". The paper size was restricted to 9"x12" for an edition of 15. I printed on Stonehenge paper . I adhered a different piece of decorative paper to each print to depict the skeleton's dress. I like how the intricate patterns mimic what you might see on a sugar skull for La Calaca.

If you look closely you're able to see the weave of the screen and while it's not as fine as any professional screen I've used, it has been a very good substitute for the home studio at a MUCH lower cost. I should note that while you see pixelation on paper that it disappears when printing on fabric. Stay tuned for future posts and I'll show you what I mean.

If you're interested in seeing other submissions to the exchange you can view them over here. You never knew skulls could look so cool.

Silkscreen Printmaking for the home-based printmaker

While going to art school, I majored in printmaking.While there I learnt all about lithography, intaglio and silkscreen techniques. I enjoyed silkscreen very much but once I graduated I didn't see how I could still pursue the technique in my home studio. The processes that I learned were very dependent on chemical emulsions,cleaners and large photgraphic equipment. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to expose my screen with the sun alone, at least not in this northern climate. I gave up silkscreening and sold my squeegees and my 20"x30" sturdy screen.

Once I started on Etsy I learned about Gocco in the forums and was so excited to hear that I might be able to rekindle my interest in silkscreening. Alas, Gocco has been discontinued and what is still out on the market is highly sought after and very expensive. Why hadn't I heard about this option in school? The Gocco system has been around since the late seventies after all. Nope, not a word. In fact, there were virtually no words of advice from the instructors as how to continue our printmaking pursuits after graduating. Yup, still bitter.

One day while reading my Facebook home feed, I came across a post by fellow printmaker Coralette Damme about her attempts at embroidery hoop silkscreening using Modge Podge as a resist. Having found the tutorial on  Craftgrrl , Coralette has really perfected this technique that uses readily available materials.

I tried numerous times to create a screen as well but I just couldn't seem to get what I wanted. The process nagged me and I asked for some online help from printmakers Coralette and Adam Devenish. The two of them looked at photos of my results and helped me try and find solutions to the constant ink bleeding problem I was having. After a final YouTube search on the process for the home I decided to use sheer curtain fabric stapled to an old Ikea frame. Once tight, I painted the Modge Podge on as a resist. Finally! My problems had been caused by and embroidery hoop that wouldn't keep the fabric taught enough. Phew! I can silkscreen again.

I was able to use the embroidery hoop again but I kept it to only 4 inches in diameter. My recommendation for the home printer is to find yourself a sturdy, empty wooden frame and a sheer curtain found at a local thrift store. Use Modge Podge to paint your stencil on and you'll have created a very usable silkscreen for under $5. Happy printing again.

I would love to hear how this process goes for you if you try it.