have lost count....

'black flower' 21x28cm

'schijn bedriegt or sheer deception' 29x49cm

I'm in a rush and so the photo's are not the best....

 same print above and below with more or less reflections, boy how hard is it making photographs of a piece behind glass! remember next time to make a pic before framing; as always these days 'round christmas I am rushing to get presents finished and usually manage in the nick of time; it does mean it never feels like a relaxing time for me, although foodwise I have now worries. Yesterday evening we had christmas dinner at my sister-in-law's whose hobby is cooking and we were not disappointed! have you ever tasted a white chocolate cake? well since yesterday I have and let me tell you it was scrummy, the entire table was silent for a few white chocolate moments, we were all savouring the rich flavours......and off somewhere else.......
Today we'll be visiting my sister and my husband prepared the main meat dish: hazenpeper (hare's pepper) which will be our contribution to the food (as mentioned the presents are my dept.)

40x50cm mono print 2013 'if I were a hare I'ld be out in a field just like that'

 well seeing as we are going to eat hare how appropriate the hare pops up in these prints I made and framed for our family members

 here's yet another take on the Bird cards: both birds printed facing each other on an oblong piece of paper and folded round and held together with a bit of string

'a hare for all seasons'

 each print varies slightly, so one could say they are both unique; they measure 27x27 cm (30x30 cm incl the frame)

I wish you all well loyal readers and hope to have a little more time tomorrow to go and read what you have been up to these past days, plus I will announce a give-away soon, so stay tuned

a sense of loss

 walk this morning along the river; stumbling through high grasses and dead plants I realised with a sudden pang of sadness I hadn't been back here after Tungsten's death

 he used to love coming here, nose either glued to the ground when he'd caught the scent of a pheasant or up in the air standing completely still, apart from his trembling nostrils, trying to catch a whiff of some bird or other hiding in the underbrush

 he would always drink here where the willows meet the river and he could carefully dip his nose into the water without fear of falling in; afterwards he would come for a vigorous cuddle and he would be jumping up and down for joy which made me laugh and then we'ld head back the way we came back to the house and studio

i miss him 

 print experiments on strips of cloth, above looks like a naked winter's tree on a hillock with a full moon and starry sky or so I mumble to self whilst sewing and looking and heaving a sigh in remembrance of our beloved dog

 printed on back and front, the bird is barely visible; another way it could go

desk; it's 6.30 pm local time and black outside

more birds on cloth and paper

christmas version of the Black Bird, in a limited edition of 15

christmas version of Red Bird, a unique print made especially for N&J, the Press donators; the arrival of this magnificent Press has inspired me enormously and spurred me on to discovering new techniques and ways of enhancing cloth and paper, adding yet another layer to the work

on this shortest day of the year, weatherwise a pretty horrible one, rain is streaming down as I type: an excellent excuse really for staying indoors and fiddling with the lino cutter, resulting in a surround for the birds, who knows what other animals may appear....

my dad bought these when we lived in the UK in the late sixties

detail: winter

two pieces in early stages of development with the new Birds, obviously

first trial prints on paper, how it might work in a frame; working in print-reverse is challenging: the tree cycle for example follows the seasons backwards....anti-clockwise I mean: in left print above winter is in the upper left-hand corner, spring lower left-hand corner, summer in the lower right-hand one, leaving autumn upper right-hand corner. Live and learn!

a flock of birds has arrived unexpectedly in the studio

every year the same thing: oh no, it can't be, where did the year go....is it really almost x-mas? how on earth did that happen? what to do about presents is my main worry these days and as I dislike Shopping (for presents even more so: will she truly Like This? Will it Fit? Does he Need it? and so on) I have always had to resort to the hand-made gifts. This year is no exception and with the arrival of the Press I had a print in mind; of course instead of planning well ahead and actually designing, cutting and printing when I had more time (honestly when is that gonna happen...) I leave it to the kinda-last moment, but hey I managed: a bird lino print; so far 30 have been printed in black-and-white. I'm thinking about cutting another bird facing the other way and printing that one in a more seasonal colour, red and-or green 

all I have to do now is sign, number, date and frame them.....I am rather pleased with the resulting bird, he's a real sweetie



later on more birds did indeed materialize:

oh yes to reds and various shades of green, the last mainly due to lack of cleaning brush and print between colours, seeing what kind of effect that gives one (as if I didn't know)

facing one another on paper

finally a conversation on cloth, perhaps I should have ironed the top bit of fabric before printing.....although Bird on left does now have an interesting neckline hmmph and also somehow the black is not quite black enough, too little/too dry??

25, 26, 27

 yesterday morning, how the colours relate to the work, muddy toned down soft natural

27 pieces on a pile

25: there was a BIG MOON on my drive back home this evening, there's a moon here in this one and rainbow stars, soft kantha on a faded print; another two-sided piece, no title as yet

26: 'two sides of the same page'
there are faint lines, created by pulling horizontal threads, resembling lines on a piece of paper; I imagine writing on the cloth-page whilst looking through the net curtain out into the garden with the hare staring back at me, how a story could evolve in this cloth
the yellow is pomegranate dye, it matches Julie's curtain fabric perfectly; I cannot thank you enough for this cloth Julie, it is incredibly inspiring

27: 'how utterly absurd' 

how does a title happen: it came about as I was thinking what to do with the in-between space, between the top and bottom rows of running stitch? I pulled some threads to create a grid and once I had the grid I decided to stitch the dots on the meeting points as I have done before with the knots on the 'back' and as this was such a lot of work (really) and I kept stitching, knotting, cutting, looking at it, the thought of the absolute absurdity sprang to mind, hence the title. These are the first sewn words on a piece of mine, or at least I think they are

27 completed; my goal for the show was 30 pieces, I have faith I will manage