ships & unicorns & exotic papers

I haven't posted all of my most recent work. Here is some of what I've been working on.... partially because sending work off to be sold in shops has forced me to look over my inventory and my hoard collection of beautiful and exotic papers. As well as copious amounts of Japanese washi, I have Chinese papers, and everything from wood veneer paper to papyrus.

More Unicorns Amongst Umbrellas

Continuing on the theme of multimedia artwork printed on washi or ephemera, I extended the 'Unicorn Amongst Umbrellas' series.






Carved in linoleum, and printed on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, or mulberry and chiyogami and katazome-shi patterned paper) and Thai paper is a unicorn, strangely amongst a welter of lovely umbrellas. This piece employs the techniques of printmaking and collage. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. This is fifteenth in the series.
Dimensions are approximately 12.5 inches by 18.5 inches (32 cm by 47 cm).

Next up: Balloons.

Otter O & Unicorn U

O is for otter and U is for unicorn. Each is an open edition print on Japanese kozo washi (or mulberry paper). It is available in a variety of colours! Each sheet is 14.8 cm or 5⅞ inches square.

clouds and unicorns

The OB asked for a unicorn for his birthday, so I've been making more.

Carved in linoleum, and printed on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, or mulberry and chiyogami and katazome-shi) and European patterned paper is a unicorn, strangely amongst a welter of lovely umbrellas. This piece employs the techniques of printmaking and collage. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. These are the 11th to 14th in the series.
Dimensions are approximately 12.5 inches by 18.5 inches (32 cm by 47 cm).

Also, I made a third edition of my cloud classification linocut, because the 2^nd edition sold out. I found some lovely brilliant sky blue paper from Nepal, but sadly, it was not fun to work with. It do not accept ink well, and sometimes fibres would be stuck to the block. So much for the idea of more affordable coloured paper.

Unicorns Amongst Umbrellas

So I've been continuing my Unicorn Amongst Umbrellas multimedia series. Each one is block printed on to various washi (which, by the way, means 'Japanese paper') and collaged. Sort of a poor man's chine collé, where you use papier chine (which means 'Chinese paper', but of course, any special thin paper will do - thus chine collé means 'glued Chinese paper') for coloured detailed bits. Usually that involves rice paste for the paper and printing one onto the collaged paper, rather than multiple prints then collage, but the effect is similar. Except, people usually use unpatterned paper, and they usually use it more sparsely. Anyhoo, printmaking madness, now with more unicorns:

more unicorns

Unicorns & Umbrellas

So, the first three Unicorns Amongst Umbrellas are either sold, or framed on my wall... thus, I decided to continue with a fourth.

Carved in linoleum, and printed on variety of Japanese washi paper (kozo, or mulberry and chiyogami and katazome-shi patterned paper) is a unicorn, strangely amongst a welter of lovely umbrellas. This piece employs the techniques of printmaking and collage. I am making a series of these multimedia; each one is unique. This is forth in the series.
Dimensions are approximately 12.5 inches by 18.5 inches (32 cm by 47 cm).

Also, I've been making some bookplates!



My previous bookplates were all octopus-and-books, for some reason.

Unicorn Amongst Umbrellas Raspberry Pillow Too

So I made another Unicorn Amongst Umbrellas pillow, cause I needed one. This one is all mine. :) I sold two of the Unicorn Amongst Umbrella multimedia (i.e. paper prints) and I have a mega-package for !
Next week, I start my Power Printmaking course at Open Studio. I'm looking forward to doing other forms of printmaking.


In other news, I got a lovely free French/Spanish dinner with our visiting scientist and several profs yesterday, and you will be amused to know, despite learning many things about what science tells us about worldviews* and how scientists can use this knowledge to better communicate with those who have other worldviews, and um, the history of computing**, even when you go to a fancy dinner, with distinguished scientists, the conversation still lead back to Star Trek.

I tell you, it's hopeless. I feel like Elena in Victoria, and her heroic attempt to teach the earth scientists to enjoy fashion and not to wear socks with sandals and polar fleece every. single. day. It's a loosing battle.

*Apparently, there's a link between dopamine receptors in the brain and voting tendancies. You can classify outlooks into two broad categories - and these are 60% hereditary. I find this amazing.

**My mind is still boggling over the cathode-ray-tube memory (think: oscilloscopes) in 1957 and the description of 'peering into the memory of the machine'.

Unicorn on the Front Page!

A kind etsian pointed out my typo. Of course.

100 things from secret minouette places!

The one hundredth customer of things from secret minouette places is the one and only Gasolinequeen! She's snapped up the unicorn pillows in raspberry and pistachio flavours, chivalrously leaving the vanilla, in case Blythechild might want one too. It's great that the 100th customer is a friend, so I can happily finish the 100th customer loot, knowing it will be going to a good home. :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Gasolinequeen and all my friends who have supported my art and my shop. It's real pleasure to create, and to find receptive homes, so I don't drown in my own creations! ;)

happy unicorn coffee

I find this amusing or enlightening or at least something worth posting. My three most common words in the last year, on twitter: thanks, blogging, time.

vanilla, raspberry & pistachio

This time I printed my "Unicorn Amongst Umbrellas" block onto white cotton from a men's dress shirt to upcycle it into another pillow. The umbrellas are printed and cut from a variety of fabrics and appliquéd onto the white cotton. The stripe along the front and most of the back of this pillow are made from hand-woven Nepalese fabric, sent to me from Vancouver by my lovely friend Tanis. There is also a stripe of the herringbone fabric, from the Dagg and Stacy/Snoflake fabric sale. I like the idea of using upcycled fabric, designer overstock fabric and the eco-friendly (maybe pre-industrial is the word) hand-woven Nepalese fabric togther to make something desirable.





I always think that a minimalist white ground with colour or pattern accents can be beautiful, though it is a look I rarely use, because I can't contain my own need or desire for more colour.

Pistachio unicorn pillow

Another day, another flavour....







And because reynardin seems so curious, here is the cake I baked using 's recipe for devil's food cake and chocolate ganache frosting. I added raspberries.