It's been a busy few weeks of stock management, with little actual making, but some exciting things have happened despite that. I had a bit of a battle with a courier over the return of work from the RCA Conwy Open, but it is finally home, and has now been entered into the Three Counties Open - I really hope that it is successful as this is a very local competition to us, but I shall have to wait a while and see. Meanwhile, I was beyond excited to discover that three of my five submitted linocuts for the Derby Print Open are going to be part of the exhibition, and along with a fourth will be available unframed in the shop. I was able to hand-deliver the work to Banks Mill Studio in Derby, again using our local train station which is on the Derby line. Hooray for public transport!
I have been able to do a bit of printing, the next layer has gone on to both versions of the small kiln at Gladstone.
As you can see they're quite different to each other - the first is very experimental as wanted to play a bit more with spot inking (using small, narrow rollers to ink specific areas) and texture, which I achieved here by using 80% extender in the ink. I know from unwanted experience that this results in patchy coverage, but here it was what I was after, so all experience is useful eventually! I then carved out the lino to print the second, where you can now begin to see more of the structure. The next couple of phases will be working on the first again, always bearing in mind the effect of any carving on the second one, which is now just waiting for the final layer of detailing. A lot of careful thinking and carving ahead.
Last year, in response to the Pressing Matters magazine green and black challenge, I created an A4 version of one of my A6 bottle kilns. Here the are side-by-side:
I have wanted to continue a series of larger versions, with the next intended to be a larger version of my recently completed Chetam's Pottery, which will be orange and black. Completely coincidentally, that is the theme of the next challenge, so I have my time set down for me. The design has been enlarged, and is traced on to a piece of A4 lino ready to be worked on, so watch this space!
Finally, I posted previously about the lovely Two Silver Pennies gallery and shop that has now opened in Uttoxeter. I popped over with our eldest to drop off some more cards yesterday and it was great to see the shop now full of beautiful handmade local products!
This is a very small selection, but some of mine and my husband Ian's pictures are here - Ian's paintings are the Tudor house (Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire), the speckled wood butterfly on blackberries, and the bouquet of lilies. If you want to visit the shop, it's at 1 Church Street in the town centre, postcode ST14 8AG, and it's open Tuesday to Saturday.
That's all for now! More soon, God bless.