My Creative Space: a Valentine's Day giveaway

Happy Valentine's Day!  I'm having a bit of a giveaway today, but first up, some blankets.  I've been working on some paintings of old blanket labels and finished this Onehunga Woollen Mills one this morning.  Then in a nice bit of synchronicity I found another Onehunga Woollen Mills blanket at the op shop this afternoon.  For the princely, or should I say princessly sum of $7! It is very gaudy in real life, with almost fluro pink stripes, but it looks much more tasteful in photos!  I think this "Princess" label will be one of my next paintings. 

And now for the giveaway!  I was hoping to have some Valentine's Day cards printed from this fox picture I drew, but I haven't had time to print them.  This gocco print is probably the most romantic thing I have in stock, what with an anatomical heart and a sacred heart dripping blood!  So if you would like to win a copy of this print, just leave me a comment telling me what you're up to for Valentine's Day.  I'll draw a winner from a hat next Wednesday night, and I'm happy to post it anywhere in the world.  

 Oh and what am I up to for Valentine's Day?  I'm hanging out at home with my cat.  That's cool, she's pretty cute!

 Joining in with "My Creative Space" over here today.

Happy Thursday to you!

My creative space: a giveaway

I had a birthday the other day, the kind that ends in a zero. And to celebrate, I thought I'd have a little giveaway. Just before my birthday I was walking down the street in a white dress with black spots and spotted a dalmatian dog walking the other way. After having a giggle to myself, I thought it'd make a good cartoon, but I couldn't think of a caption. So what I thought I'd do for my giveaway is get you to suggest a caption for the cartoon, like the competition they have in the New Yorker.

Not a self-portrait...I wish my hair was as tidy!

So if you suggest a caption, you will have a chance to win the cartoon, with your caption added, plus one of my gocco prints and a copy of my zine:
Here's a closeup of the print:
I'll get Mr. Millicent Crow to choose a winner next Wednesday night and I'm happy to post the prize anywhere in the world.

To see other people's creative spaces take a look at the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

Toasty

"You're going to be making a lot of toast" said the man in the Sallies as I left with three toast racks under my arm. Little did he know I had two more at home. Having your toast sitting in a rack getting cold has never seemed that appealing to me, but it turns out toast racks are perfect for drying gocco prints. They can sit neatly like this:

Instead of like this, risking muddy paw prints:Oh and this is my new print of my seedpod collection, hot off the gocco. I'm calling it "Treasures."

A little collection

A new drawing of my seedpod collection I've just finished. Hopefully in the weekend I'll have a chance to turn it into a gocco print...any colour suggestions?

My creative space

The other day I fired up the gocco:

Printed and printed and printed:

Printed some more:
And made these:

The colours remind me a bit of willow pattern

The lounge floor was so covered in prints that I had to make a little pathway for the cat to get through! How about you, what have you been making? Got any crazy production lines going on at your place?

To see lots of other people's creative spaces pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Hope you're having a good Thursday.

My creative space

In my creative space today I've got a few updates. Remember this drawing? The other night I turned it into a multicoloured gocco print:
It was my first go at gocco printing using more than one colour at once...after 10 or so prints the colours started blending together a bit so I think next time I'd put some sellotape or dureaseal between the images to keep them separate. I think it'd be fun to have pyjamas with this print on them!

And remember these owls? I've turned one of them into a brooch, which I think Mr. Millicent Crow is road-testing today. I printed the owl onto calico then sewed it onto some wool from a scrappy old blanket. I put a couple of layers of interfacing in the middle to strengthen it.

Here's another picture of it just because I love that old "Flight luggage" logo.

And remember this feather skirt I was making? I completely stuffed it up. But hopefully I'll make another one soon.

What have you been making? Pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog to see lots of other people's creative spaces.

Happy first day of Spring (or Autumn if it's Autumn where you are)!

My creative space

My Creative Space today is a bit of a his and hers effort. For some reason (I think because I was being scatty and not getting round to doing the drawing on time) Mr. Millicent Crow and I decided we would both draw covers for his new single, which you can listen to here. They're a limited edition of gocco prints - 50 of mine and 50 of his. We've been having fun getting people to guess who drew which one. Spoiler alert - I drew this one:

And Mr. Millicent Crow drew this one:
But I've been told that my one looks very masculine!

To see other people's creative spaces take a look over here.

Happy Thursday!

Owlcatraz*

I was mucking around the other night drawing an owl in the back of the scrapbook where I keep my inspiration pictures and I came up with this fellow:
I didn't really want to cut up my scrapbook cover to transfer him to a gocco screen, so I tried to redraw him on white paper, but it didn't work out, so I sacrificed the back of my scrapbook and cut it up.

Then I printed him in silver on some cream-coloured cards:

And some nubbly-textured red ones:

And I still had some ink left over so I made myself some owl envelopes for posting the prints I sell in my shop.

*Yes Owlcatraz is a real place! It's a bird sancturary in Shannon where they have owls with really bad pun names. Like Owl Capone. And Owlfalfa. And Owlvis Presley. I really want to go there, it'd be a hoot!

Seashells

Here's an ink drawing I've done of my shell treasures I collected the other day - the same ones that are in a pencil drawing in this post. Next up they're going to become a gocco print...

Charms

I've turned this drawing into a new gocco print...here it is hot off the press:

...and up close:

I've called it "Charms" because all the little symbols on it look like they might hang on a charm bracelet. A slightly macabre charm bracelet perhaps. I've been working on an exciting new project today, stay tuned!

Extra Curricular

The latest issue of Extra Curricular magazine is out and I'm privileged to be in it! This issue is printmaking themed and there's an interview with me about Millicent Crow and an article I wrote about gocco printing. As well as lots of other awesome things AND a bonus holiday book full of ideas for things to make over the summer.
And if you come through my front door today...
...you'll find that the floor looks like this! I've been busy printing up huias for Craft Country Wairarapa. Now to iron them, and zigzag them, and print some more...

In the works

I've been working on this drawing tonight - hopefully it's going to be my next gocco print. The crown is from one of the commemorative royal cups from my collection - I guess there'll be a whole new generation of those with Wills & Kate on them!

Little swallow

I made this little swallow brooch the other night - it's just one of my gocco printed patches sewn onto a scrap of wool felt and it has a safety pin sewn on the back. A nice quick project.

Complete with a sneaky rainbow from the window crystal thing...

Mr Millicent Crow reckons the swallow patches are also pretty handy for mending jeans!

New prints in my Felt shop

I've been doing a bit of this:
And I've added these to my Felt shop:
The printing was overseen by my supervisor, of course!

Just a few photos today

I'm working on a gocco print that wouldn't look out of place as a sailor's tattoo. Hopefully soon to be finished. In the meantime here are a few photos...

100 and a giveaway

This is my hundredth post, wow that went fast! To celebrate, I thought I'd have a little giveaway and thought it'd be fitting to have a giveaway themed with something that has been extinct for over a hundred years (the last confirmed sighting was nearly 103 years ago, anyway). So I've got a huia-themed prize pack up for grabs, featuring two fabric brooches (with huias gocco printed onto calico, backed with wool felt and with a safety clasp on the back), a gocco print of a male and female huia (the female one has the long beak) and a calico feather patch. Unfortunately it's not a huia feather, it doesn't have the white tip, but let's not be pedantic.



To enter, all you need to do is leave me a comment telling me your favourite home hint. My favourite home hint is that if you are as partial to a cup of strong black coffee as I am, you probably have the problem of your white coffee cups getting stained brown inside. Just rub a bit of baking soda on the stains and give them a wash and they'll be good as new.

I'll post the prize pack anywhere in the world, and I'll draw a winner next Sunday. Good luck and thanks for reading!