Yes!!!

I wish I could bottle this feeling! Hopefully you know the one – when you have an idea that something could work, and there’s some organising needed and you have to wait a while and you think maybe this won’t work out and then you get the bits you need and you give it a go and things start looking interesting and you try a few more things and then you feel like running around the neighbourhood shouting “yes! it worked, and maybe I can try this and this and…” and you feel a bit silly for being so excited, but you are that excited.

It’s a nice feeling.

You don’t have to get as excited as I am. In fact it could be quite a letdown when you see what I’m excited about. I’m excited enough for all of us.

Here it is.
On the left is my source sketch. On the right is my stamped interpretation, on white cotton homespun.

Thrilled doesn’t cover it.

It really doesn’t. I’ll try explaining.

Back here I chose an orange and black scribble as one of the potential design ideas for stage 5. Here in my sketchbook I jotted down some ideas for how I could interpret the source in a design. I needed some perspex squares and rectangles for the idea, so I found a local company who would cut all the small pieces of perspex I wanted. Today I collected the perspex.

This is the full piece I printed this evening. It’s about 53 x 47 cm (say 21 x 18.5 inches). The smallest square is 5 cm (2 inches) each side.

The ideas I jotted down back on March 11 include:

– print with orange and black on white

– paint rolled on perspex to give grid – a contrast to the scribble

– monoprint – direct on plain perspex; stamp with string relief

– mix up sizes and which colour base and line

– leave quiet spots

– work for balance with variety.

Well, I haven’t done all of that. This first sample isn’t particularly balanced.

After all, it’s the first experiment.

But there are a heap of ideas and potential in there, and it really is a wonderful feeling when one idea leads to another and another and it seems endless doors are opening in front of you.

So, calming down, using my words…

I have a set of perspex squares and rectangles, 5 cm, 10 cm and 15 cm sides.

I rolled on textile paints – black and orange.

At first I tried scraping in the paint before making the print. Then I tried laying string and yarn on the cloth to act as a resist to the print, then using the paint left on the perspex as another print. Then I tried using my jug paper snowflake (see sketchbook here) as a resist, then used the messy paper to print from, then used the leftover paint on the perspex, and the other part of the paper snowflake cut-out with the other colour and and and

yes, I’m excited.

I’m excited by the results, and that I can look at my sketchbook and look at all the steps and see how one thing led to another.

And I look at what I’ve got, and it’s not everything I wanted, and I can see lots more possibilities to take the idea further.

And while I’m certain the ideas aren’t original and that I’ve probably seen these things in the past and just don’t remember, it feels fresh and new and exciting (!) to me.

And today is my birthday and I’ve had a glass or two (well, 3) of sparkling shiraz, and I think it’s pretty good to be 54 with family and friends who care and be able to get excited about some bits of perspex and paint and cotton. Not everything in my life is good, but an awful lot is, and I know I’m a very lucky woman.