Little Red Love

I was trying not to get swayed by "little red riding hood" mania, but who can't love her? I may have to do my own print of her, but for now look at these adorable reds. (teapot annejulie's etsy shop, then 2 cute stamps from milkcaramel corrabelle and a print from the etsy shop danita)

Blockprinting on Fabric

I don't talk about it much, but blockprinting on fabric is pretty hard. I have been trying different methods of printing on fabric for years, and attempting to find "the secret" by scouring the net and the libraries. What ink is best? What printing material is best? What fabric is best? Does anyone know?

Here are a few blockprinters to check out and see what you think.

-Galbraith and Paul how in the world do they do such huge runs of fabric? and what the heck are they using for their block print? -Make It she talks about this difficult subject extensively on her wonderful blog-and has some beautiful examples.

-Tobias and the angel in england, does india style wood block printing on vintage fabrics (among other things) -Jesse Breytenbach-does beautiful blockprinting on fabric tape. (I think you mentioned her, Kylie, a few posts back) -Folly Cove Designers from the 50's I think- I have studied the website at length to see how they get such clean designs, I saw an old article that shows them stepping on linoleum (without the block attached), but now I guess the descendants use a giant press. -Art Goodies It seems that she does single images on cloth with a press, but definately worth looking at (beautiful). -Elle Deco mag did a nice little write-up on blockprinting last dec. with some helpful tidbits.

so this is what I do- I use screenprinting ink and with a little sponge brush I tap the ink onto my blocks (rubber carved blocks) I use linen, or hemp, or cotton on a hard surface (though I have read about using a soft surface, it may depend on the hardness of your block...) and I push, don't rock, the block onto the fabric, and there you have it my "secret" until I can figure out something that works better-- and can print a bigger area at a time!

Another New Something...

no (eliana), not a baby...haha

Like many of us I don't have nearly enough projects going on at once, so I started another one. In a flurry of enthusiasm yesterday I started a new blog (even though I don't keep up on this one!), also a new flckr page and a new etsy shop!

WHY? you well may ask.... It all started with an art giveaway- I wanted to work more on my non-retail, non-functional art and not have money attached to it so I gave the art to the first 2 people that contacted me (Kleya and Kylie.) So then I guess I was inspired and wanted to do more of that type of work, but add the money back in, but not to be part of Moontea.

I don't know why I had the need to name it something else, and why not my own name? I just don't know, maybe it's safer not to use your own name. I'm calling my art project lily aimes (after my grandma) and what I intend to do is choose a subject each month and do art based on that subject. So the blog records what I am doing and what my topic is.

So this month's theme is SPRING- because maybe it is finally here... So the art of course will be garden related.

I'm using the backs of old countertop samples to paint/print on they're great because they already have a hanging hole, plus we have a ton of them because I could never bring myself to throw them out after they were outdated (R. did countertops for many years). I think the work is different than what I usually do for Moontea, which is usually bold color on a light background, this new stuff is more muted and has the look of old wallpaper (in a good way). You always hear how you should "develop your own style...etc." but if most artists are like me there are many different "styles" playing around inside them.

Anyway let me know what you think.......

New things happening

Here are some new bags I've been sewing- I blockprinted the linen and sewed them into bags. You might recognize the bag design.... I used to make the same little pattern out of my hand-dyed velvet a few years ago- (I may try it again in velvet for fall). Anyway, I like how these ones turned out.

So-I'm trying to figure out what (else) to make from these 2 fabrics- the sheep are new.

I wanted to make a baby oriented item, perhaps single diaper pouch- what do you think?