Scorpius and Seahorses

I made another linocut in the zodiac series - Scorpius the scorpion (associated with Scorpio, of course).



I printed an edition of six prints, 5 inches by 9 inches (12.7 cm by 22.9 cm) on lovely, deep blue, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with silk fibres.

And a couple of seahorses: Mirabelle (the bird watcher) and Seymour (the cryptozoologist with a sea monster obsession).




I've got some dinosaurs on the go too, but it's really too dark here for any proper photos.

I hope any of you celebrating Thanksgiving south of the border are enjoying yourself. Here apparently all the news is about whether or not Calgarian football fans could ride a horse through the Royal York hotel (eventually, they did). I swear that's all the mentioned on the radio, all day.

multimedia progress

I've been working on this for a long time now, and though it's still in progress, I thought I'd share my mediocre photos. It's hard to photograph, because of the reflectivity of the glass, and it's rather heavy, so I can't place it just anywhere. I made this with the group show in mind. She's in a submarine, looking out windows and thinking.



Most of the papers are Japanese washi, including all papers involved in block prints and chine collé, but the textured silver paper I bought in Amsterdam many years ago. Yes, I hoard paper, so what? I appropriated the old dials from our lab. I intend to wire up the LEDs and add a switch. There's a yellow LED in the anglerfish's lure, and a red one on one of the dials. She's painted in acrylic ink on water colour paper.

Seahorses & nautilus

Yesterday, I organized the back room and the fabric situation stash. It's actually organized by colour now. At least, the contemporary fabric is... anyhow, with this new-found organization, I quickly made a new seahorse and a nautilus pillow. The turquoise seahorse I've had for a while, but had not photographed. In fact, I was going to give it to a friend's son, but I made him a dinosaur instead.

seahorse & jellyfish/butterflies, blossoms and feathers

It's my mother's birthday on Wednesday, but since we had planned to go to the OB's (post hockey game) we just ended up celebrating yesterday. She asked me, yesterday for a silk scarf to go with a new gray dress. I said I would choose red, but she mentioned salmon (as a colour). Here is what I came up with. I had some striped greyish silk. I printed it with the jellyfish and seahorse blocks in salmony pink.


I had some hand-woven Thai floral silk (oh, the wonders of the Sidney Thrift Store!), which I embellished with butterflies, blossoms and feathers in black, and tints of salmon, peach, orange and pink. Honestly, it's less busy than that sounds:



I painstakingly sewed the two rectangles together. Silk can be tough and finnicky to deal with.





I actually wear a lot of silk scarves* but have never previously attempted to make one.

*Ok, actually, it's a running joke: how many scarves does have on her person at any give time. But they are the solution to style + unpredictable weather: 40 million French women can't be wrong. I have um, several.

Engelbert the seahorse

Engelbert the seahorse is a naturalist. He's fascinated by the ginkgo biloba tree. He considers it a living fossil and collects items ornamented with their fan-like leaves. He likes to imagine what it would be like to study these trees back in the Jurassic. He likes to share his wild ideas. Perhaps he would be a good fit in your home?

Engelbert is a hand-block printed seahorse in burgundy on mustard yellow cotton. The back of Engelbert the Seahorse pillow features a print fabric with ginkgo biloba leaves and dragonflies, in a patchwork with a burgundy fabric. He is stuffed with cotton/poly stuffing.

I love the French word for dragonfly, libellule.

Iguana, and um.. Geisha

Another pillow... cause it is easier (and safer) to sew than to carve when exhausted.




Oh! I almost forgot the seahorse:

Seahorsesss

I have been making seahorses. I got me some fabulous seahorse patterned fabric*. Here is the first batch:




I had a wonderful brunch with Faunalia, Reynardin and Blythechild, followed by a trip to Canadian Tire**, where R & I had way too much fun, then we got chocolate and art supplies, so all and all, a pretty awesome day. I feel optimistic about the future today. Thank you friends.

*people like me should not friend the workroom on flickr because I must confess to a wee fabric obsession
**How much do I love hardware stores?

Jellyfish and Seahorse Pillow

Here two of my most intricately carved sea creatures meet up, face to face (do jellyfish have faces, I wonder?) in this graphic hand-printed pillow. The jellyfish linoleum block is printed in pale mauve on navvy cotton. The seahorse linoleum block is printed in gold on irridescent green raw silk. The reverse is a modern print canvas in orange and red on white (complete with handprinted minouette label with tentacles in turquoise on vintage floral cotton). The pillow has a bold, luxurious and modern, yet handmade look. It is indeed one of a kind.

The pillow is 35 cm wide by 30 cm tall (or 13.5 inches by 12 inches).

Minouette's Home For Unloved Chairs

Yesterday, I joined and for PROJECT OTTOMAN, which entailed a Dark Horse coffee-fueled treck from the east end antique shops to the west end antique shops, looking for raw material. We failed to find a single ottoman. Where have they gone, I wonder. Instead, I got a $20 damaged antique chair (as shown, complete with spring bursting out from underneath), three lamp shades and yellow stocking (haha!). Apparently, I now adopt unwanted and unloved chairs. I have yet to finish the previous set, because I want to replace the one missing wooden bar before re-finishing... but I did re-upholster them in woven silk (salvaged from the designers who work below R & F's loft).


After a lovely day with the girls, I re-wired an antique lamp, placed the lamp shades on said lamp and the wall sconces in the back room and then attacked the broken chair seat. The seat contained a lot of burlap, horsehair and an astronomical number of nails, which I painstakingly removed.



Slowly, the back room is progressing.

In other news, i is for iguana. Thought you might like to know... Here is a short run of iguana lino block prints on mustard-yellow Japanese gampi paper in olive green water-based ink, drying on the lines. I will put the iguanas on gampi in the shop and use an iguana on fabric for the interminable alpahbet quilt project.