We started this mammoth 'collage' project in February - with my two granddaughters (9yrs & 6yrs) and three other girls (9, 7 & 7 yrs). The idea was to create some monoprints - view the post here; then do some rubbings of gravestones and inscriptions. The girls would paint a watercolour background, draw the church in a broad waterproof felt-tip pen (Sharpie) and glue their monoprints and rubbings onto it. Here they are, four months later, in June, carrying their cushions to sit on … [Read more...]
Making pretty paper for collage – Child-art
The girls started off with making prints to cut up and glue onto the (eventual) drawing as a collage. I really believe that its so important to give kids good art materials. (You can't practise making a wedding dress from calico!) We used oil based ink which is water-washable and Chinese Rice Paper. The girls took impressions from embossed (velvet flocked - oh my!) paper and corrugated card etc. They worked with green patterns for grass and browns for walls. They loved rolling with the … [Read more...]
Monoprinting Demo at SSI
Don't forget the enter the competition from Friday - even if you just do it privately! But if you enter, I won't publish your entries and you are still eligible for the end of November giveaway, when we put commentor's names into a hat. On Saturday I gave a monoprinting demo at the Research and Technical day for the SSI (Society of Scribes and Illuminators). This is to create some wonderful papers to include in calligraphic works or artworks. Monprinting can actually mean anything as long as … [Read more...]
Layering fine monoprints
Nathalie had exceptionally lovely quality Japanese rice paper - from her years in Japan and her Japanese calligraphy studies. Here she is pasting it down onto stretched Somerset satin paper. Her craftmanship is excellent - not a bubble or a tear and the background of soft veils of colour integrate flawlessly with the paper. She covered all the white areas with plain rice paper and is now ready for the next stage. This is intuitive design, where you don't have a preconceived idea or thumbnail - … [Read more...]
A gift to delight 1
Every year I try to make gifts with my UK grandchildren for their parents. I have them once a week so we can take it slowly, and it gives me a chance to do some fun projects with them and also get them into the idea of making gifts. This year's gift is still under wraps (their Mom reads my blog) but here is one we did a while back. I saw some really inexpensive little 20cm canvasses and bought a couple. Because I was doing a lot of monoprinting at the time, it was easy to set up for Nicky and … [Read more...]