T stands for.....some linoprints

After starting over with linocut about two years ago (like many of us I did that back in school and then never again), I always had problems getting the print rubbed on the paper correctly, so it looks nice. Rubbing with a wooden or metal spoon or a felt baren wasn't doing the job for me good enough. And the time it takes. OK, so what? Get a press? But most of these presses cost a small fortune. Then a fellow printmaker recommended Woodzilla presses to me. I bought a little little A5 one in blue (see below, photo by Woodzilla).

Let's make it short: I LOVE the press! Makes printing much faster and the prints are cleaner than the ones I made by hand. Here are some card sets I made: 

Insects with and without colored accents.

Some beach themed cards with additional stamping and a colored sun.

And than I was even brave enough to start a project I was eyeing for a long time: To make one of my watercolors into a jigsaw multicolored print block. So I chose my kingfisher paiting.

Once the block is all finished, ....

....you must be brave and cut it into pieces along the chosen lines.

I only had the time to do some test prints so far and printing with acrylics isn't ideal, even if you mix the colors with a retarder to make them dry slower. So the first colored print was damaged, as the block for the blue cap of the kingfisher stuck to the paper and damaged it, when I pulled th print. But you get the idea. I already oredered some linoprint colors and will try again.

For the drinks and to qualify for Bleubeard and Elizsbeth's T party,  I have a question for you? If you drink tea, do you also drink cold brew teas? I tried some of them, but not all are good. The one pictured taste very minty, but like chewing gum, a bit artificial.

Linking to Altered Book Lover for T stands for....! Happy T Day!

 

T stands for....a new cup (paired up with Christmas card printing and winter gardening)

I finished my Christmas cards and am now looking forward to sending them out to some lovely people. This year I printed them with different techniques like linocut or gelli plate. I found this fun video of creating printing templates for the gelli plate with a hot glue gun. :)

I'm always searching for veggies that can be planted in the garden during winter. Winter here doesn't bring as much snow and cold temps as it did 10 years ago, but it can get quite frosty on some days. So here we have a winter pea, which will bring peas in early spring, planted in November.

There's some winter garlic, which will be ready for harvest in June/July.

I also have some broad beans (Vicia faba), which can deal with low temps and will be ready for harvest in May/June.

And to qualify for "T stands for...." with Bleubeard and Elizabeth, I'll show you a tea can I made at a team building event in office. Was a lot of fun and ofc mine has to picture a bird.

I'll enjoy some tea or coffee from this one in the very near future.

Linolschnitt für Weihnachtskarten/Linocut for Christmas Cards

 Hallo zusammen,

einige Zeit nichts gepostet, also wird es höchste Zeit! Wie sieht's bei euch mit den Weihnachtskarten aus? Schon angefangen? Ich habe die letzten Jahre immer welche gemalt und dachte, dass ich dieses Jahr mal welche drucke. Also raus mit den Linolmessern und ran an die Platten.

Hey there,

long time no see. Have you already thought about Christmas cards? Or have started making them? For the last years I mostly painted them, but for this year I thought about printing some. So I pulled out my linocut tools and some linoleum sheets.

Zuerst mal eine Skizze.

First there's a sketch.

Linolschnitt macht süchtig. Man kann nicht mehr aufhören, wenn man einmal angefangen hat.

Linocut is addicting. Can't stop once you started.

Erster Probedruck des Bäumchens.

First test print of the small tree.

Eine weitere Idee für eine Karte. Daneben sind noch zwei Lesezeichen zu sehen, die ich dann mit Aquarellfarben gestaltet habe.

Another idea for a Christmas card. Besides are two books marks, I paiinted with watercolors later on.

Das in Linol geschnittene Design.

The design cut from the linoleum sheet.

Und ein Probedruck mit farbig gestaltetem Hintergrund.

And a test print with colored backgrounds.

Paint Party Friday: Nature Journal and Advent Calendars

 A bit late to the party, but here we go with some new art from my workbench. But first of all I would like to wish all who celebrate a lovely first weekend of Advent. Enjoy the time!

 I started another page in my nature art journal and it is about my hedgehog house and the not so so hedgehog-y inhabitant. I told the story of the shrew in my hedgehog house for another PPF, eating the catfood I placed in there for the hedgehogs.

 

 

 Here's the shrew sniffing for the catfood. Love those little garden helpers, which aren't rodents and not even related to mice, but to hedgehogs. They eat a lot of insects.

 

  

Here's the shrew trying to get away with a flower-shaped catfood pellet. They are so tiny!

 

 Looking forward to finishing this page in my nature art journal.

 

 And then I finally finished the two linoprint advent calendars I was making for DH and my parents. All printed with my handcut lino stamps. The one with the tres and stars is for my parents and they were so happy, when I gave it to them last week.

 

 

 

The little bags are filled with sweets.

 

And that's the one I made for DH and I made five different Christmas/winter stamps for it. Love how these turned out! I used fabric colors for stamping and they hold up to washing very well, after they are fixed by ironing over them for about five minutes. I use these colors for stamping tea towels, too.

  This is filled with sweets, too. But you can also put little gifts or poems in the bags. The possibilities are almost endless.

Have a great weekend and enjoy a good cup of tea or coffee, if possible with a friend or family! Stay safe!

Linking to Paint Party Friday!


 

Paint Party Friday: Birds and more linocuts

 Hello and welcome for Paint Party Friday! First I'd like to thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my woodland animals from last week. Your kind words are appreciated! You don't know how much.

 So what's up for this week's PPF? Birds! Since I was born, my family has pet birds and at the age of three or four (maybe younger) I got my very own budgie, a green one, with a lovely character and he died at the age of 15 (yes, he got that old!). Since then I always had a pair of lovebirds, first Roseyfaced Lovebirds and then Fischer's Lovebirds. So of course I love birds!

Say hello to Amelia (always in the front) and Erhard (guess whom they named after *LOL*), my sweet Fischer's Lovebirds, who share our home. Don't worry about Amelia's missing feathers on her head. The "problem" is, that Erhard loves her so much, that he always nibbles on her head and neck and she lets him. Can't separate them! That's why they are called lovebirds.

So what did I draw this week? Birds of course. But more garden birds. Here's a quick pencil sketch of a nuthatch.

Added some color with watercolor pencils.

And then two wrens. Wasn't happy with my first one, as itididn't look wren-like to me. So this little guy seems to be a bit angry and is yelling at someone.

This one looks a bit worried and sad. Would love to a linocut from one of them.

And last but not least I finished the linocut of the wild boar. The African swine flu reached Germany two weeks ago, as they found it in a dead wild boar, and it threatens the existence of many farmers, but might change the view of how much meat we really need to consume and produce (we can have hope, right?). Nevertheless do I love wild boars. So here's my version in linocut. No test print yet, but I thought about making an art piece for my office.

Have a great weekend filled with creativity, time with your loved ones and maybe good food! Stay safe and Happy PPF!

 

Paint Party Friday: Linoprints

 Lots of printing and painting going on this week. I'm busy making cards for birthdays and also for Christmas. Yay me, planning ahead this season!

Back at the beginning of June, I rediscovered an art form I did back in school for the first time: linocut/linoprint. I had certain things in mind, when I bought the materials and the first two things I cut were those insects, a ladybug and a bumblebee. After some test prints I printed them on fine Japanese paper.

Those animals were next in row and after designing some placemats with them, I printed some on fine Japanese paper to make cards from, too. The owl and the squirrel are missing here and might make their way onto cards later.

I thought about adding some more woodland creatures to this collection and drew a fox. My animals always look very friendly and peaceful.

I already made some "bee kind" cards with right yellow cardboard I had at home. 

And then I had another idea for Christmas cards. Trees!

Not sure how to print them, maybe in shades of green or black on a colored background. The round shapes were the test print for the full moon I added to some of the cards above.

Joining Paint Party Friday! Have a look at the beautiful art shared there!

Paint Party Friday: Back again with so many ideas!

I haven't joined PPF for such a long time! Can't believe it! But here I am, as my lovely friend Nicole of Beadwright saw some of my latest creations and asked, if I would join in again. How could I forget about the lovely folks at PPF?

So what am I up to? A short time before Christmas 2019 I ordered some lovely wooden printing blocks at a small UK based business called The Arty Crafty Place. I wanted more designs lately, to design more fabric and maybe greeting cards, but can't afford to buy more right now. So what to do? Design my own! But how? First step was ofc paper and pencil and some very basic designs.

Then I remembered that we once did linocut/linoprint back in school (ages ago *LOL*).

I did some test prints on paper. I really like how they turned out.

I might make some cards or paintings with them in the future, but for now I made a set of placemats for our home. Even DH fell in love with them and so did I. I even tie dyed the fabric, as I didn't have enough of the color I wanted. Combination of bought wooden blocks and my own linocut ones.

That's the other side, so you can turn them over, if neccessary.

Joining Paint Party Friday! Have a look at all the other great artists sharing their work there every Friday.