tattoo time

I got some of my new drawings turned into temporary tattoos - very exciting, in fact I was so over excited that I didn't read the instructions properly and forgot to remove the transparent film...I might sell little packs of these in my shop if anyones interested. What could be more rock n roll than a poodle tattoo?!


The toucan tattoo lasted 3 days - would've been longer but I printed on saturday and all the washing finished him off...


thanks to Harriet Gray for the tattoo tips http://harrietgray.blogspot.co.uk

show us your dogs

In another slightly hardcore printing marathon I printed dog stamps to keep the cats and birds company, I think they'll be a calming influence as the colours are quite un crazy, just a tiny bit of red...though it has to be said I kind of wanted to stop at this grey/blue stage...

  

  I can't stop myself from using gold though now I've perfected the mix

 I love the way all the separate layers come together at the end - it (usually) makes the hard work worthwhile!...above and below is the 'before and after' bit - with one layer to go...

woof, ouah-ouah, voff (as dogs say in britain, france and sweden)

colour clash

after a slightly sleepless night worrying about my splodgy, dodgy coloured bird stamp print I decided to re print it with nice new colours that don't fight each other...

 I love this blue and gold stage, I need to do some simpler prints with these colours

looking at this makes me think I'm bonkers as it's the old version next to the new one - spot the difference!! (there is a difference but I accidently focused the most on the old one) hmmm.

meow miao miauen (kittons for sail)

A while ago I mentioned that I had it in mind to do an international meow print...and after researching stamps for the 'Philatley will get you everywhere' print I found so many cat related ones that suddenly I knew how to do it (it was a beautiful moment - oh yes)...

so here it kind of is - these are the tester prints:

                           

scrap cats

I was trying to do something a bit different with my colours, and I'm really pleased with this particular combination (not so sure about the latest print that I did yesterday - I need help from the blog world and will be posting about it very soon in a hope that someone out there will say something that makes me feel better about it...look out, you could be the one who saves me) anyway here's a couple of highlights form the cat stamps...

blurry brazil cat (the brazilian shorthair, I believe), next to the big fluffy Birman...

 and possibly my favourite - the grumpy looking Persian kittens (or kittons as I once saw on the best handmade sign I've ever seen that said: kittons for sail)

and here's a sneaky peek of things to come...possibly dodgy bird stamps under wraps...

a few things...

last week was quite cat based (despite the dog postcards)...firstly drawing cats for a new print, lots and lots of them...

then I had to  face the grumpy woman in the post office, sending a couple of cat bags to far away places - very excited that one will soon hit the streets of Brooklyn...

sunday was all about printing the latest stamp print - and let's face it, screenprinting is all about the cleaning...

There will be photos of the cat stamps on the drying rack any day now - ish.

philately will get you everywhere part2

so time for more pictures of my large print in progress...now with the bright colours added, which was worrying me a bit as the blues and greys were looking so serene...

I think this is about layer 5, but I have to admit to having lost count!

good to see a pigeon back in my work - they used to feature pretty heavily - this prints got it all...pigeons, cats, dogs, hawks, bears (of course) llamas and a fish...to name but a few.

the gold layer was pretty tough going, as usual and may explain my arm/shoulder ache (which lasted for DAYS - ow!)

finished! 10 layers, or it could be 11...

and continuing my "the glamour of screenprinting" photos here's the all important pile of rubbish under the screen bed shot.

Philately will get you everywhere part1

After what feels like weeks of drawing I finally did some printing at the weekend...to celebrate I took lots of photos of all the different stages - whoo hoo (that was the plan but my camera battery ran out on saturday afternoon - always the way, sigh)

Anyhoo, it all starts with this stencil - without it all the colour layers would be total guesswork...(I've tried this - not fun, some penguins ended up with very dodgy beaks)

I don't often print such big prints and to start with I was getting very inky hands - would've taken pictures but had my camera to think about.

3 layers...

4 layers - and a vision of blue loveliness making me a bit scared of the bright bits coming soon.