succulent blossom en masse

It's really interesting how doing something repetitive for a long period of time can be strangely meditative. And I think it has to do with your frame of mind at the time and how you choose to see the task. This 1.7 x 1.2m piece of light-weight cotton fabric took me hours to block print my succulent blossom design yesterday afternoon, but oddly enough I enjoyed it. I didn't focus on my aching arms or the time. Instead I just went with the flow. I thought I might stop half way through and do the rest today but once I got into the rhythm it was strangely addictive. And moving about the fabric also kept me warm when I knew the room was becoming chilly. The hardest part was navigating a hungry cat who kept getting under foot for about the last 40 mins.

Then I baked an apple cake and had a glass of red as a little reward.

succulent flowers in red

Succulent flowers in red block printed by hand on cotton/linen blend fabric.

I had a lot of fun printing this piece. Unfortunately the light in these pics (especially that third one, what's going on there I wonder) makes the base fabric look slightly pink. Rest assured it's not. Instead it's a lovely natural shade. More like ivory. I have a piece printed with the succulent flowers in black ink that I'm tempted to sew into a skirt. I like the idea of using it in one panel at the front and perhaps the rest of the skirt in a dark light-weight denim. Sewers out there - is this idea a bit crazy?

carving the floors

I am completely awestruck by the sheer size of some people's vision. This project is grand. It's called 'Carving the Floors' and is about a group of college printmaking students in Brunswick, Maine (USA) who set the ambitious aim of carving up the wooden floors of 2 classrooms in a soon to be demolished high school and then print off them. They wanted to do all this in 20 wee hours!!!! All I could think about is how difficult it would be to carve into floors with old varnish on them. You can read and see more here. Thanks to printinteresting for leading me there.