TLC: Flax Paper-making Workshop

Saturday was the Flax Paper-making Workshop at TLC with Sue Blumsky. I was really looking forward to meeting her and to say Thank You for being a paper maker at the Learning Connexion. It is because of her I'm doing this Art and Creativity course...and I am so glad I am as it is changing and healing me...

I got there a bit early so was first to arrive and meet Sue.

There ended up only being about 7 or 8 of us and we sat around this drop-cloth slicing up the flax...and chatting and getting to know one another. One of the students attended in the print-making workshop back in October 2012 so it was nice to meet up again.

 The flax was cooked for several hours

..then rinsed and rinsed until the water ran clear-ish

You've gotta love kiwi ingenuity!!

It's an Insinkerator!

 Feeding the flax fibre through

 with lots of water....

 I want to make one of these!

 Straining the pulp

 and adding it to the vat of water

 with a good dollop of this stuff

 Using the mold and deckle

...pressing with a sponge to release it from the mold

and TA-DA...paper!

Any questions??

Then we got to do it ourselves. Good fun!

 Light sculpture

 Sue showing us how to apply the damp paper pieces

 Isn't it amazing?!

 I just happen to have an old lamp shade float around too

Time: 7 hours Flax Paper-making (9 March)

1 hour editing/uploading photos (16 March)

Total: 8 hours

Print-making Weekend Course - 13/14 Oct 2012

I am finally getting around to photographing and uploading some of my 

print-making from the weekend's print-making course

 I attended at The TLC campus in October.

The first thing I did was learn how to make a collagraph. 

I made several but my favourite is the Koru which made using textured vinyl 

I found in one of the drawers of supplies at TLC...

Then we were shown how to emboss from the collagraph

...and finally take a mono print..

I love the way this turned out.

Another collagraph..this time with strips of card adhered in a koru

an embossed image of the collagraph

and a mono print. I like the blend of green and yellow with this print.

My next collagraph was made using a mix of items: Hessian,a twig and the textured vinyl (heart)

..and a print (below)

Finally..an embossing using puzzle pieces

I have really enjoyed learning about print-making and during the week I went to the library and got out a stack of books to read up about print-making. I am really keen to continue to explore this art technique.

As well as print-making books I got some other art books of interest...

 I'm hoping to be able to purchase this one for myself

...and this one is of interest as it's been written by the print artist that has a studio in Keri Keri.

I was first shown a copy when I visited the Solander Art Gallery in Wellington 

but I didn't have the money to purchase it at the time.

Books about drawing, using pastels, fabric and making tiles...I love books!

I've just purchased this book from fishpond.co.nz...I can't wait to receive it!

TIME: TLC Print Making Course Weekend 

14 hours (13/14 Oct)

Time @ the Library: 1 hour (1 Nov)

Print-Making weekend course at TLC

Monday 14th October : currently, I am in Waikanae. I arrived here early Friday morning after travelling overnight on the bus. It was a good, but tiring journey so I spent most of my first day here resting and sleeping as you don't get much sleep on a bus! I am staying with my SIL and her beloved and so grateful for their hospitality. My BIL has been my faithful taxi-service, dropping me off at the railway station over the weekend so I could travel in to the city and then up to Taita for the print-making weekend course at The Learning Connexion. And he was waiting to pick me up at the end of a long day to bring me back to his home for a lovely hot meal, cooked by my SIL. What a blessing they both are!

The weekend's print-making course has has a wonderful experience. Overwhelming, inspiring, emotional and tiring...but all worth the journey! I learned a lot. About print making...just the basics which I'm still trying to understand (there's SO much to know..too much to absorb in a single weekend!) and about myself. Too be honest, I didn't cope very well and I feel disappointed in myself. Everyone around me seemed to have so much confidence and skill in what they were doing...me, I felt like I was floundering the whole time. Oh well....I guess, these things are different for everyone..and whose to say they didn't have those same feelings the first time they did a class?

So I have, to take home with me, some print templates I made, some embossed prints and some inked prints from the templates. I also have a small sheet of MDF to experiment with wood-cutting when I return...along with loads of ideas I got from observing what the other students where doing. I didn't take my camera so have no photos of the weekend's activities. It was a very wet and wild weekend, weatherise..though by the time I left to board the train home, the sun was out and the sky blue. Typical!

Tomorrow, and the rest of the week I plan on drawing, taking photos and hopefully visiting a few art galleries to inspire and stimulate my creativeness.