Another weekend! This week has definitely flown by, taking me closer to the next half term. Not complaining too much but at the same time, I do hate wishing my life away.
I've had a pretty good week though! A few prints have been sold which is always a bonus, I also decided to create a print simply for fun, not that my others aren't, but there wasn't a great deal of planning involved in this one, simply a doodle on a piece of lino...
It didn't take me very long. The lino print itself is just done on a piece of A5 lino, then printed onto A4 paper. Initially I wasn't even going to do a print run, I wasn't sure how the ship in a bottle would turn out, but after almost doing a little poll of support on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook I decided to go ahead and do a print run. However, as it was a pretty quick print, I've decided to keep the costs right down for potential buyers who're looking for something just a little bit different, I'm not getting these ones mounted (for now anyway) I'm simply selling them as they are for £10 each. Each piece is handmade and handprinted so quite a bargain I think...It's always nice to be able to own a piece of original art for an affordable price. On A4 paper means it will fit very easily into a shop bought frame as well, but with a bit of choice for the buyer as I've left a decent amount of background paper.
Here's one with the linocut...
Like I say, just a little bit of fun really!! But I actually really like it. The actual printing has come out lovely as well. I've taking to use a trusty large spoon to get the print to come out properly, but I have an idea for a different kind of brayer that I may get my husband to make me. If I can convince him I shall post a photo on here of my idea and the finished product!
I'm now weighing up the whole Christmas Card thing. Right now, I don't want to be making them to sell, but I am definitely going to make them for friends and family, so I have been playing around with a couple of ideas in my head, although I haven't drawn anything out yet, that may happen this weekend.
Last week the weather around here was pretty miserable. There was just thick low lying cloud for days and days. It was pretty depressing and was making me feel pretty glum. This week has been a lot more pleasant however. There's been some lovely sunny days. Yesterday was one of them so after a wander around the front a Friday night drink was needed in our local...good way to spend a Friday after school...
Right...frustratingly food shopping now needs to happen as well as other boring weekend jobs...hoping to find some time to get creative this weekend though!!
Is anyone else making/creating anything exciting this weekend?
Well, this week has been a bit of a quiet one, but I am exhausted.
Sadly my day-job just seemed to go on and on last week. It didn't help having to stay late mid-week but I was a day ahead of myself for the whole week as well, so things were a little bit depressing on Thursday night when I'd convinced myself it was Friday.
On the plus side, I knew come the weekend I was going to be able to pick up some blue mounts for my Shoal of Herring print. So after a rare lie in this morning, I was able to pick them up and get them mounted...
I'm really happy with the final result!! I only got 10 blue mounts as I wasn't sure what I would think of them. The issue I had was the paper is Japanese printing paper, and while it is lovely to print on, it is slightly off white. So getting a bright white mount I think would have looked a bit strange. What do you think of this choice? Of course, any new owners can choose to change the mount if they want, but I sort of thought the blue added something a little bit different.
Ultimately though, I am going to do 30 of these prints and then stop there. I prefer to keep the number limited. I'm the sort of person who after I've done so many prints I prefer to move on and do something totally different, so I think I'd get a bit bored if I kept having to come back to a print from a while ago. The lino doesn't keep it's quality either, so there's only so long you can print them for anyway.
I also finally put my Turnstone prints up for sale. I'm not 100% sure why it took me so long to be honest. I made them about a month ago- and only 3 at that. But then every time I took a photo of them, the photos just never came out right, so I just kept putting them back. Taking photos of the herring today though, I made sure to get a decent shot of the Turnstones. It was quite difficult as the print is 63cm long, so getting it in a square photo can be a little bit difficult.
Pretty happy with how they've come out!! And now I am wondering what I can make next...after I finish off a few more of the Herring lino prints that it.
Thinking of doing something a little bit different...will keep progress though and post it on here...
I'm also currently wondering about whether I should start doing the odd craft fair or not. I've never done one before. I quite like the whole selling online thing if I'm honest. I think it suits my working full time, crafting part time thing. However, I'm just thinking with it nearing the Christmas run up, whether it may be a good idea to get my work out there in a different way.
May have to weight up the pros and cons. I'm not sure the best time to do it...Do I wait until December when people are seriously thinking about buying Christmas presents for people? Or have people possibly purchased most of their gifts by then and therefore won't be looking for that much else? hmm...
Feel free to shed a light if you have any ideas or anything I haven't thought of.
These last two weeks have been interesting time wise...while I've been at work teaching (at the school up the road from me) time has gone quite slowly but has tired me out...but then on an evening and at the weekend time has just flown by.
It generally takes me a couple of weeks after the summer holidays to feel settled again. I only started in the school I'm at now in March, and they've changed a lot for this academic year anyway, so I think there's a lot to get my head around!
Not feeling as exhausted and overwhelmed as I was at the end of last week though which is good!!
Monday just gone, my husband Matt and I headed down to the North Shields Fish Quay, it's only a 2 minute drive away (about a 15 minute walk but we were feeling lazy and had both just gotten back from work)
Basically it was an opportunity to have a look around the freshly rejuvenated Old Low Light building right on the river. This is where The Net heritage centre will be...they're open this weekend for English Heritage weekend, but then won't be officially open until the end of September.
This one is just from the entrance...not a particularly impressive photo, but that balcony on the top floor gets a fantastic view...
The top room (complete with balcony) is going to be available for hire as well pretty soon...Would be a lovely spot for a celebration. Not that I have anything to have a party about coming up, but I will happily be a guest to something!!
So, I am feeling a lot more relaxed now when it comes to my work that is. But that means I have time to create!! And to continue with my herring linocut which I am determined to get finished pretty soon- maybe even this weekend.
I am writing this while taking a lunch break, but this is where I was up to just before I came upstairs...
Half way there!! Well, more than half way there if you include the fact that I've already carved out the background.
A little close up. So yes...I think I can get this finished quite soon...my back and shoulders are a little sore as it's been about a fortnight now since I was able to really have a good go at it, but I'm sure it will loosen up soon!
I thought I would film a little bit as well, just incase you're interested you can see how the process works...
Tried using Instagram's Hyperlapse again. I really like it, it's really simple to use. But I think the videos must use quite a lot of the memory as I tried to film the cutting out of the whole fish, and about half way through it stopped filming saying I have ran out of space...so this one is just a little snippet. I might try and sort out out soon where it films the whole thing...don't worry, I'll speed that one up too!
Right...need to go back to carving those herring...remind me not to do an A3 linocut for a while!
First week back at school is now complete!!! Got to admit, it was pretty full on! My school has changed a lot this year, and the things that I'm doing has changed a fair bit as well, so there was a lot to get my head around. First few days were very, very long...but by the end of the week I'm happy to say I had everything under control so felt a lot happier about the weekend.
The down side was I have barely found any time to carve those herring!
Thursday night I decided to spend some time in my studio and crack on a little bit...
So...It may not look a lot, but I managed to carve 2 more fish out in an hour, which means I have now spent six and a half hours on this A3 linocut. Still a way to go as you can see.
So, that's 9 herring carved, and 18 more to go. Hoping to get a few more done this weekend and over a few evenings this week...still think it won't be until the weekend after next though when I'm ready to print.
I thought I would also put a picture in of the month of August consolidated...
I'm happy to say the Mackerel prints have done very well. I only made 10 of them, and there are 5 left...so not bad over a few weeks.
The Gannet's are only a limited run of 5 prints, and I've not long had them up for sale so feel free to check them out!
Only have 2 of the little green avocet prints left as well, so please feel free to add a piece of my work to your art collection at either my Folksy shop, Etsy shop or at the Country Living Magazine online shop. (Prices are kept the same on all sites)
If you're also interested, you can find me on Facebook, on Instagram (as Curiousseagull) and on Twitter (as Curiousseagull1)
Right folks...best get carving some more of those herring! Can't wait to see it printed!
