Printmaking and a catch up

It’s been a while since I last posted. We have  had a Year 12 ball
Daughter 1 looking gorgeous!
Daughter 4 had a birthday party:

The theme was “Crafts” and the elder daughters made a mural which the party goers decorated.

You can see some of my hand printed cloth being used as a table cover!

9 years old! yay!
I have had two printmaking classes. Nothing to show from this week as we were making plates to print from next week . But these are samples of overprinting and ‘ghost ‘prints from last week.

I used leaves, lace,fabric and various other things to make prints.

And lastly I am playing in a concert this weekend.

Hope you have a restful weekend.
R x

Printmaking

I started a course last night on Printmaking. I  learned how to ink a plate properly and how to ‘Pull’ a print.  I made stencils using torn and cut paper. We used just the three primary colours.  Colour order of printing was yellow then red then blue changing the stencil each time.

After each print was pulled I made a ‘Ghost’ print using left over ink on the plate and manipulating the stencil:

As you can see it is a much paler print as most of the ink comes off in the first pull. 
Can’t wait till next week : )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have  been doing a ‘Hot Yoga’  beginner’s class- info here . Which is great. And no I was not very flexible at the start but after 3 classes I can already notice the difference.  I love the warm room to stretch in. It suits me but I can see how some people would not enjoy it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daughter 4 is turning 9 next week. Party this weekend  and the theme is ‘Craft Extravaganza’ . Also Daughter 1 has her year 12 ball Saturday night !
A busy time : )
Rx

Some new recipes

Night and Day cupcakes from Nigella’s book ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking’ (Though I have an older copy). Little chocolate cakes with cream cheese topping and grated chocolate. They were a big hit with the family.

South Island Cheese rolls – recipe found here . An easy recipe using cheese and onion soup. Apparently they are popular in cafes in the South Island. I quite liked them but not such a hit with the kids – a bit too ‘oniony’!

A finished project and more underway

Well,  a combination of a wet couple of weeks and a cold going through the family means some projects have been finished and some have had to wait their turn.  I finished crocheting the ‘Granny Square ‘ blanket and sewed it up this weekend . A total of 19 balls of wool and at least 12 colours I think. It looks good on the couch in my lounge :

It’s great for snuggling up under by the fire !  When you crochet the resulting garment is twice the thickness of a knitted garment so it’s toasty warm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have managed to spend a little time in my studio and made these two books from a couple of recycled whiskey bottle boxes.  They turned out quite well I think – I used my new ‘corner’ punch to round the corners of them . Each has about 30 pages of lined, graph and plain paper. Simple pamphlet binding.



Hubby  has already grabbed one – said he will use it for ‘tasting notes’  : )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also have made a new screen and have some fabric printing underway :

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And I found this book in a second hand shop and have ‘warped’ my loom again and am experimenting with ‘texture and pattern’ in some sample weaving :

I was really please to find this as the publishing date was 1980 and I don’t think it’s in print any more!

Hope you are keeping warm where ever you are.
R x

Quilting and more macarons ….

A quilt I have been working on – my first attempt at hand quilting . I quite like the effect ( I want the stitches to show)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
A macaron failure. I tried to make vanilla macarons but the mixture was too thick . They ended up more like meringues. However they still tasted ok when I filled them with a lemon curd and mascapone mixture : ) .
I bought this book at  'Bookfeast'  in Petone :

And my first attempt from it didn’t work either. So I’m going to have a go making the chocolate ones again . (the family is enjoying all these baking tests!)
I bought these macarons from one of my local French bakeries but they don’t look like the ‘Luxemburgerli’ or the ones from the book above, and they tasted like Chocolate Brownies.

When I get the recipe and technique right I’ll let you know ..
R x