I’ve finished the last bit of cutting and testing of my rabbit-moon-greens repeat. I’ve illustrated the last couple steps in the repeat testing process on my new Facebook page. Stop by for a visit! FB has been a real learning curve for me. My intention is to make the updates there shorter and sweeter. Some people prefer Facebook to blogs. It seems like the online world is forever shifting and adaptability is the key!
Here’s the final stencil. I’m pasting and dyeing other work this week, along with reinforcing the stencil. The rabbits will be ready to paste later in the week. This one will work as a single pictorial image i.e. for a hanging as well as a repeat. The size of the image is 12×16.”
rabbits-moon-greens stencil
I’m about mid-way through carving my new rabbit-with-moon-and-greens stencil. Must take breaks to stretch the shoulders. I enjoy the challenge of designing repeats, but my next several designs will be simpler, non-repeating motifs. (I wreally wrestled w/this wrabbit!)
wabbits - moon - greens
Last Friday I visited a yard sale given by local moku hanga (Japanese woodblock) printmaker Jean Shannon and potter Lee Love. Lee and Jean spent 10 years in Mashiko Japan studying and working. The yard sale was overflowing with textiles and other items from their time in Japan. I bought a couple of lovely treasures — a silk kanoko shibori kimono and a linen katazome runner, indigo dyed. Both are vintage. I am thrilled.
shibori kimono, silk
detil, shibori silk kimono
vintage linen katazome runner
I also stopped by Jean and Lee’s exhibit at Raymond Gallery in St. Paul. Jean’s prints depict Japanese toys, symbols, and scenery in bright colors. The colorful prints and earthy wood and soda-ash fired pots worked very well together! You will be able to see some photos of the show here. I look forward to seeing more of both of their work when we all participate in the Art at St. Kate’s show on July 11th!
Several moons ago I began to re-design my minnow stencil. I got back to the task last week with a lot of wheel spinning and not much progress. Over the weekend I perused some of my favorite design books (especially Principles of Pattern Design by Richard M. Proctor.) I want the final stencil to be 12×16″, which will make it useful as a 4-way repeat for the widths of fabric I plan to use. Within that, I want the individual repeated units to be 6×8″, so that the final stencil will encompass 4 of these units. Playing with minnows, mussels and water swirls, here’s a sketch of the basic unit.
minnows and mussels basic unit
I scanned this into my computer and played with variations using Photoshop. Here are some results. C and D appeal to me most. I’ll be working with these as drop-repeats in the next post.
variation of the basic unit within the 12x16 format
