another new workshop at Sew LA

I'm going to be teaching a second workshop at Sew LA at the end of June (June 30th, 6:30-9:30 to be exact), this time on stenciling. When I'm working on silkscreen projects, especially when I don't have a lot of multiples to print, I often think: I should have just made a stencil. Stencils are super cheap, easy and best of all: immediate. You can have an image designed, cut & printed in an hour, No screens to burn, no wasted ink, etc. Plus it is a really great primer in designing graphics for silkscreen, and I love the look of images cut with a blade--the results often have the look of paper cut outs.

I didn't have very good samples on hand for the workshop--I've taught stencils before, but often in tandem with relief printing workshops, so I wanted to up my stencil-sample game. I had so much fun making samples, and was inspired to try so many things, that I kept making & have amassed a small pile of fun projects. I have a ton more ideas, but forced myself to stop: I have three fairs coming up in July & I've got to get cracking! Luckily, all this making has given me more ideas for Krank Press.

Anyway, my theory is that one of the best reasons for using stencils (assuming you have other printmaking means to choose from, and aside from how cheap & easy it is), is the fact that you can use lots of colors at once, and can get painterly effects within the sharp confines of the stencil edge. Ombre blends, in particular, create a fun op-art effect. I'm posting a bunch of photos below, pulled from my instagram feed, of various projects, including a couple ombre stencils I turned into bags: 

Sew LA workshop

I'm teaching a block-printing workshop at Sew LA June 6th, and prepping for it has been *so much fun*. It will be my basic block-carving, printing & pattern design class, but given that it is at a sewing store, the emphasis will be on printing on fabric, and on the methods of fabric pattern design. 

Carving small stamps is an amazing way to fiddle with pattern-making. It's probably not the most efficient way to print large swaths of pattern, but for small projects, it's VERY rewarding & is a loose way of experimenting with all the possible ways one can turn a simple image into a repeated pattern. I'm happy enough with how some of these experiments played out that I'm planning on transforming them into silkscreens for some short-run Krank Press sewing projects.  

Alex took photos of me at work, and I've added a few iphone photos to the mix, as well:

East Sussex

this time last year we were in East Sussex, at the tail end of my husband's gig working at the Paris Opera House. we holed up in our friends amazing blacksmith's cottage, on the old Ashburnham estate, and enjoyed the heck out of the spring days. then I took circa 9 months to process my film. here are a few highlights. 

more photos: spain

This blog has become more of a repository for my photos/travels than anything else, but so it goes. I've finally scanned in the rolls I took in Spain in January. I also think, after, mmmm, 15 years of owning this camera, that I finally figured out what is causing the film-loading issues I've always had. So these are still pre-learning-curve, and thus a bit more off kilter & moody. Also: it rained a lot in Spain in late January. I've just gotten back from the UK, and will post those photos when they're processed and scanned, maybe months from now...