Wednesday, 21 November 2012

Lino Prints

We had a week off last week due to me celebrating Diwali so class started again this week. We all went a bit lino printing mad this week. Oksana and Angela started making prints for Christmas cards, I made some owls for my niece's nursery and Markus created a very cute little monster!
Cutting the lino can be very therapeutic but getting just the right amount of ink so that it doesnt sink into the cuts can be tricky, so we made lots!

 



 




Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Good Morning everyone,

Well Community Art School is back this year and we were featured in the Prestwich and Whitefield guide a couple of weeks ago - if anyone is interested in coming along to Community Art School please get in touch.

Last night we tried out a new technique which I am planning to use with my Year 7's next week. The technique is a type of monoprinting which is much easier and cleaner than the traditional style using rollers and ink.

First you cover a blank piece of paper with oil pastels - you can use one colour or a combination. Next you place a piece of blank paper over the top and draw onto the back of the paper using a ball point pen. Where you have drawn will pick up the colour of the oil pastel so when you peel the paper back it will reveal a beautiful coloured design. We also relived our childhoods and had a go with a spirograph set - hours of fun!

We focussed on Indian Rangoli patterns as it will be Diwali in 2 weeks time and this is what I will be focussing on with the Year 7's next week.

Hope you like them!







Thursday, 8 December 2011

Tuesday 6th November

Our lovely projects this week....

A beautiful ink and pen drawing by Markus

A delicate ink painting on sugar paper which gives the blurry effect.




Siobhan's lino prints. The second one was printed with bleach onto green ink. It was quite fascinating to watch, when the ink was printed onto the paper the image appeared like photograph developing.


Screen prints by Angela





Some paper stars that Cathy showed my how to make, and in situ on my livig room door!


The texture of this batik on paper is fantastic. Markus used the clingfilm and ink technique but on more porous sugar paper. The texture is very organic, resembling rock or cracked earth.


Last class next week before Christmas!

Monday, 5 December 2011

Tuesday 29th November

 I have been rather busy over the last couple of weeks. Preparing for Christmas and craft fairs of my own. I am also now selling my work on Folksy http://www.folksy.com/shops/ZoeJamesJewellery

Some pictures of what we have been doing over the last few weeks.....




Christmas cards galore!!



Siobhan made a lovely big mess making her scrapbook


Anna's mum made me a beautiful Christmas decoration from ribbon.




Sissa made some paper stars, and showed me how to. Mine is now on top of my tree!


Tea, buns and bunting! I'm going to create a 'textiles techniques' bunting with these pieces that Anna brought for me.


Mounting for Christmas presents


Lovely new batiks on paper by Markus



Thursday, 10 November 2011

Tuesday 8th November

Inspired by Sissa I made a start on my christmas cards this week. I took a lino block home to cut into, and Oksana took some press print home. When we arrived on Tuesday we had both done almost identical designs and found that we had both used the same image for inspiration, even though I found mine on page 10 of a google search and Oksana's was on the back of a craft magazine! Spooky!
Siobhan continued with her scrapbook, Markus played around with some multi media experiments and Sissa had her first try at shaving foam prints having missed the class earlier in the year. We also talked about having a 'Community Art School Christmas Do'.

Is it too early to be getting extremely excited about Christmas?! I don't think so!

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Tuesday 1st November - Tie Dye, back to the 60's!

This Tuesday was the first week back after half term and we had all almost forgotten that we had the unveiling of the clingfilm work as a nice surprise. When we peeled back the clingfilm from the paper what was left was a beautiful, richly coloured and textured surface. It's almost hard to believe that the paper is 2D. We haven't quite decided what to do with them all yet, some will be used as backgrounds for printing or drawing, whilst others are just artworks in their own right.

After this I fancied having a go at good old fashioned tie dying! I havent done it for ages and as it's quick I thought we would give it a try. I also really like having something to come back to the following week and not knowing what it will look like until we unwrap it.

There was a bit of time left at the end and everyone got on with individual projects. Siobhan is making a scrapbook for a friend and started to use some of the techniques we have practiced to decorate the pages. Sissa made a start on her Christmas cards! I'm very jealous of the beautiful snowflake print she has created. And Oksana dabbled with monoprinting, copying some images she liked from her daughters school work.

All in all, a successful week!