In Print

I have a new toy.  Been looking, asking, watching videos etc and finally decided Yep, let's go for it.
I have bought one of these.

So why, first of all.  Well I felt I needed to inject a bit more of 'me' into things.  I don't use fabric so much these days and when I do I tend to paint it with acrylics.  Several reasons, for one I don't need or want yards of stuff the same colours, paint gets me the exact colour I want, and also I can do as little as I want.  Plus I hate clearing up after dyeing.... the process seems to take 5 minutes and tidying 3 hours.  Then I was thinking ought to try some more mono printing, I wonder what if.... duh idiot, I know what if, I've got samples from my studies.
So researching the Gelli Plate and saw a particular brayer/roller recommended, errr I have one of those, liquid acrylic paints, that's all I do use, and I even have some of the Shaper tools like rubber paintbrushes from eons ago.  So I bought it, and have had a little play.

The very pale one on the top right is Lutradur, but its the fine grade 30, but at least it works.  Otherwise I tried, my fave cartridge paper at 160gsm, some photocopy paper which is 100gsm and some index cards, which I buy from Staples.  I did try a couple of old book pages, but they are very old books and the paper tore when I pulled it off the Gelli.
I also have a collection of Masks or Stencils, not quite sure what to call them, made from mylar or plastic.  So I used some of those, and here you can see how they ended up after, and I rather like this!

Actually I've not cleaned them.  Partly cos it makes me look like a proper artist all messy, and partly cos I saw that its actually not necessary, and apparently the paint will peel off.
I didn't make zillions of samples, no point until right colour choice.
But the good thing from my point of view.  Cleared my table, got out the supplies, made a pile of samples, cleaned the Plate and the table, you only need plain water, and, ta dah - only an hour start to finish.  Plus they dry so fast, and I don't have space to leave things out to dry.  And the messiest thing - my fingers!

Pretties.....

I'm going to have a blitz on some things today - well that's the plan - who knows, days seem to evaporate somehow.
People for some reason, often say to me, you don't do handstitching do you?  I beg to differ... I see myself as a bit of a butterfly, because I like all sorts of techniques.  Quite often I end up with layers of both hand and machine stitches - and certainly to the couple of stitch groups I go to, I always of course by necessity take hand work with me.  So what am I stitching by hand at the moment (of course they might also get put under the machine at some point, who knows).

The fabric has history.... belonged to my gran.  It had a huge dirty splodge on it and without thinking I threw into the washer - stain came out and the fabric lost all its dressing and came out beautifully soft.  This is coloured with acrylic paint.  I've stitched it in white because its about to go into the dye.  Hopefully the bits of white base fabric will colour along with the white stitching - we will see... might be turquoise, might be hot pink.  Anyway I want to move it on to the next element to take it with me on Tuesday.

This is the very fine weight lutradur painted again with acrylic, in hot pink, red and a bit of white.  This is for an EG project which has to be pink!!!  This will likely follow another hand technique, lots of beads, bits of metal chain....over the top.
I don't have a dedicated space all of my own to work in - so I tend to like to paint fabrics rather than dye - I find it easier, more controllable to get the exact colour I want and where I want, plus I don't end up with yards and yards of fabric in a colour which I likely may never use again.  Been there, done that.  I use acrylic paints because I'm all for one product which does many tasks - and I don't find it an issue to stitch through it by hand as you can see from both above, or via the machine.
Btw, I call these pieces of work Pretties.  Because that's what they are to me, using the pretty colours and techniques and being a bit choke girly.  They are also free spirited, conscience reactions if you want to be posh - but if not, I just sit and play and stitch where and with what the mood suggests.  I have had and  recorded here, great trouble with working this way.  Because I do enjoy it a lot, but because there's no 'design' no paperwork to support it, it didn't seem like proper art.  Add in one or two people accused me of as much.... and I doubted severely the worth of doing this.  However, wonderful Jae Maries book, listing the types of artist and one of them : Materials Lead.  And this is it, letting the fabric and thread in your hands tell you what to do with it.  Such a freedom to me to know its legitimate to work like this.  I also think it has elements of something Jean Littlejohn said to me once on a class.  Asked about how long it took her to make a piece, she said "oh, about 30 hours plus 25 years".  And that's what's in these Pretties, all the knowledge about design and colour and contrast and texture that you absorb, making such decisions almost without thinking as you work.
I should be doing something else rather than the above, but despite hours of research its not happening... and I have a huge need for a paper fix - so I'm off now to make a paper flower....