In the post Christmas lull, after the excitement and excesses of the past week, I'm really looking forward to new year. I don't think I can handle another mince pie!!  I usually get quite reflective at this time, and full of optimism about what the new year will bring.

Plans for the coming year...

• to undertake a short business course at Morley college (Feb-Mar)
• to continue to develop my ideas for printing - mainly cards but also experimenting with fabric, incorporating themes inspired by my recent trip to Thailand
• to develop contacts in Thailand with a view to importing products that complement my own hand printed designs
• to get to grips with social media and the technological side of developing a business
• to have an online shop up and running by Autumn 2014
• to stay positive and inspired, and above all to enjoy what I do!

Regarding the last point, this venture is mainly for pleasure, and if I make any profit out of it, that will be a bonus (albeit a welcome one).  There may be weeks when I  have no time to do any printing - I have a job, as well as a very active 7 year old, who is my priority.  As for this blog, I will update it from time to time, but most of my efforts will go towards developing designs and learning about what it takes to set up a business.  This may be my last blog for a while....

In the meantime I wish everyone the best of luck in all endeavours in the coming year. 

Vicky, Tiger and Toby at the London Eye (Dec.2013) 

Happy 2014!!

First of all, a big thank you to all those who showed an interest in the gift tags and festive bunting. Through online sales and those who have bought directly from me, I have sold £48 worth of products, in the form of donations made by individuals directly to the Children in Need website.  By next Christmas, I hope to have my own online shop up and running with a greater range of products and continuing to donate a percentage of all Christmas sales to Children in Need.

Other news...

Unfortunately I have been unable to meet the target of 30 cards for my brother-in-law due to a bout of ill health from which I am still recovering.  I have however managed to produce one or two cards for family and friends...

                     

As for my plans this Christmas, Toby (son) and I are spending the week with my sister, brother-in-law and their two boys at their beautiful home in the heart of rural Lincolnshire. It's proper countryside here - country walks, fresh air, and plenty of space for the boys to burn off all their energy!  They also have a couple of cows....


Poppy the cow with her baby Cema

And I've found time for a bit of printing.  Here's a lino print of my sister's house...



This is what you would see if your were to peer through the ground floor window...
 

 The night before Christmas....

The boys are super excited about Christmas! It will be a job getting them to bed tonight!  So I will get back to my preparations.  I wish everybody a fantastic Christmas Day tomorrow and I hope to catch up with you next week for what will be my final blog of the year.

Merry Christmas and good night!

In one way or another November has been a pretty busy month.  Nevertheless, in between work life and family life I have managed to find some time for printing.  The kitchen table has become my work station; meals are now eaten on a mat on the kitchen floor. 

My workshop/kitchen

The focus this month has shifted from Christmas cards, to decorations and gift tags.  The reason….ribbons!  I’ve built up a small collection of them (working in the East end of London, I’m surrounded by loads of Asian textile shops selling cheap and colourful adornments), and I enjoy combining them with the prints that I make. 

Here is some Christmas bunting that I made earlier…

 

 

And these are some gift tags…

 

 

Products for sale...

In my ‘mission statement’ in the first blog, I wrote that these products “will be offered up for sale” and that “all profits will be donated to Children in Need”.  I am not yet ready to set up a shop on Etsy – I need to develop a range of products that I am proud to sell and to have built up plenty of stock. So far only two of my products match that standard, and, true to my pledge, I would like to make them available for sale.  Since I do not have an online store through which to process the payment, I ask anyone wishing to purchase these products to:

(1)    send your postal address to vicky.startprinting@gmail.com stating which product you would like

(2)     upon receipt of the product,  make the payment by means of donation direct to the Children in Need website: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008dk4b/features/cin-donate

The following products are packaged and ready to be shipped:


    Christmas Bunting

 

Price: £5.00 + postage

Product details: 5 hand-printed cards suspended on 80cm length of quality ribbon.  The cards measure 8x8cm.  The card is stiff watercolour paper (300gsm).  The prints are in black pigment ink (acid free), embellished in gold and with red glitter candles.

Quantity available: 10

 

 

   Vintage gift tags

 

Price: £3.00 + postage

Product details: 6 gift tags (3 with red ribbon, 3 with green).  The cards measure 8x5.5cm.  The length of ribbon is 30cm. The card is stiff water colour paper (300gsm). The back of the card is printed with "to/from".

Quantity available: 10

 

 

 

 

Please note that..

• the price quoted above is merely a suggested price for recipients to donate directly to Children in Need at their own discretion.
• due to the cost of postage, these products are only available to UK residents.
• this offer is subject to availability.

Targets for this month...  

My brother-in-law has made a bulk order of 30 Christmas cards to distribute to his colleagues at his hospital.  So this month I shall be designing and printing cards to meet that order, including customised envelopes.  The results will be posted on the blog before the end of the month.  In the meantime, I wish everyone a festive and enjoyable month!

 

 



I've been busy since my last blog, but have managed to find time to carve a few stamps and produce some Christmas cards!  Here are some of the the results...





 
I really enjoy using the lino cutting tool and have made this small kit of shapes for creating simple Christmas tree prints. They are made out of linoleum, mounted on a block of rubber for ease of use.

These are the resulting prints.  They were printed on paper made from recylced cotton rag.  I like the texture of the paper but it's a bit flimsy so will need to be mounted onto a stiffer background.  I've also used watercolour paper (300 Gsm) which is more rigid.  Both have a very pleasing texture to print on.  The texture makes for a bit of a patchy image, but I kind of like that effect.

 

 

 
And these are some gift tags which I made, again using hand carved stamps.

 And this is the vintage range!  The stamps where bought from a shop but embelished by hand.

 

 Coming up...

There's a vintage fair that runs in the pub up the road from me on the first Saturday of every month.  I checked it out this last weekend - just a few tables, nothing special.  Nevertheless I will book a table there for the first Saturday of December. It will force me to produce a whole load of cards and give me experience in setting up a stall, even if I don't end up getting many customers!  I've had a couple of bulk orders from friends and family so nothing will go to waste.  The proceeds will be donated to Children in Need.

So this month, I will focuss on mass producing the simple stamp designs.  I also have some more complicated designs in mind involving windows and 3D effects.  All results to be shown in the December issue of this blog...

 

 



This week I've been experimenting with a set of Christmas themed rubber stamps that I bought in a local craft store (Wimbledon Sewing in Tooting Bec, South London, has a pretty good paper craft section).  I won't publish the results of my experimentations; I prefer to wait until I have something finished and complete (I'm hoping this Thursday I will have the whole day to myself!).

I've also been browsing for inspiration during gaps at work.  Examples of my interests can be found on my Pinterest board called Inspirations.  Themes include reindeer, winter snow scenes, facades, town houses, fireplaces, Christmas, block printing, Buddha images and inspirational quotes.

Targets for this week...

• To produce some Christmas cards!

This week I attempted a more intricate design: a snowy winter scene with reindeers!

First I researched images that matched the 'look' that I had in mind.  I avoided anything 'cute' and bambi-like, preferring instead the rough and rugged stag-like images.

I then sketched my own design onto tracing paper which I transferred onto a cut of Soft Cut synthetic lino:

 

 

From here, I carved out the design with lino cutters:

 

Finally I dabbed the stamp onto an ink pad (ideally black) and printed!

Thoughts:

Generally I was pleased with the result.  Usually I would use black ink to give the effect of reindeers silhouetted in the moonlight.  I am currently working on the snowy background.  This will be made on a separate cut of lino (cross-hatching for the background with tiny scooped out circles to give the appearance of falling snow).  This shall be applied to the paper first, then the reindeers on top (into which I will have scooped out small circles so that the snowy effect is continuous with the background). 


Targets for this week:

• To continue working on the reindeer winterscape
• To play around with some rubber and gel stamps that I have recently acquired



Thursday:  Went shopping for supplies.  Cass Art in Central London (also online) proved to be the most successful place for me.  Having no particular opinions at this stage, I decided to go for a kit – EssDee Lino Cutting and Printing Kit (22 pieces).  I also bought a few different textures of paper to experiment with: 200gsm heavyweight cartridge paper (recommended by the shop assistant for a beginner); 300 GSM watercolour paper; and some paper made from recycled cotton rag.  In addition, I bought a sheet of clear acetate which, I was advised, can be printed on….will come in handy when I start card making..

Friday:  Bought some additional supplies from the local thrift store such as an oversized eraser which I shall chop up and carve designs into.

Saturday :  Toby designed a pumpkin which I traced onto a rubber block and carved out using my linoleum cutter.  I also made a couple of simple Christmas tree stamps.  I thought it a good idea to practise on rubber first before using the linoleum/Soft Cut  samples that came with the kit. We also foraged the house for interesting textures to experiment with tomorrow.

'Foraged textures'

Hand made rubber stamps

 

Sunday:  Wonderful sunshine illuminated my kitchen this morning – a perfect day to start printing!  Here are some of the results:

Finished prints drying in the sun

 

It's beginning to feel like Christmas already!

 

Rubber bands around a rubber block

 

Foam bullet from a Nerf gun

 

Original design....carved block....finished print!

 

Cork stopper from a wine bottle

 

Various Lego items

  

Abstract art

 

 

Concluding  comments:

It might look like something that you would produce at primary school, but I was pretty pleased with the results.  The purpose of today was to introduce myself and my son (as far as he is happy to join in) to printing, to experiment with different textures and just to have fun.  In this respect it was 100% successful. 

I didn’t use the proper block printing ink (I only had one tube of black which came with the kit). Instead I used sample pots of colourful green and red emulsion that were lying around the house.  They were very thick and gooey such that the brayer could not roll properly.  Instead, I dipped the stamps into the paint tray – when done with care, this seemed to work.  Also, I used some old paper from a sketch pad rather than the paper which I had bought.   For a first foray into printing, this was ok, but from now on, I shall practise with the actual ink and paper that I intend to use in my products.

Targets  for this week:

o   To attempt more intricate designs using the SoftCut synthetic lino provided in my kit, possibly venturing onto the harder linoleum material for a ‘crisper’ cut.

o   To find inspiration for my designs from Pinterest, old Christmas cards and other sources. 

Findings:

I've been browsing on Pinterest, mainly for design inspiration and tutorials related to block printing.  I think this is the good printing technique to start with as you don't need a lot of equipment and the materials are relatively inexpensive.  Plus I love the simplicity of the designs - no doubt the key is in perfecting the techniques and coming up with original designs.  I've seen much to inspire me!

As for tutorials, there's so much choice out there that it's a bit arbitrary as to which ones I end up following.  My favourite is probably the following short video clip from Geninne's Art Blog.

http://blogdelanine.blogspot.com/2009/04/mein-action.html

It has no instructions, just a 10 minute demonstration of an artist at work, as she takes you through the stages from original sketch through to finished print.  I love the fluidity with which she carves the block.

Tomorrow I go shopping for supplies.  Can't wait to start carving my first block!

I have decided to learn a new skill and make a business out of it.  Printing!  Having no particular skills or experience in the field, it somehow feels like completely the right thing to do.  Here’s how I arrived at this...

Background

I’ve always considered myself creative at heart though it’s only in the last few years that I’ve actually taken it on as a hobby - sewing mainly, simple household items like cushion covers.  Other ventures have included making a goblet out of a coconut shell that my son Toby won at a village fete, and various DIY experimentations around the house.  Last Christmas I became interested in bag making and my sister came up with the idea of making it into a business.  I’m not normally the business-minded type, but the fact that she thought it a good idea got me thinking...  After completing a short bag making course at Morley College, London, and being quite pleased with the outcome, I felt that this might be the way forward.  But when I factored in the time it takes me to produce a bag of a quality fit for sale, and the cost of the materials, I did not feel confident that I would be able to make a viable business out of it.

 Coconut Shell Goblet

    Leather handbag which I designed and made

                     
                                       
Last summer, Toby and I took a trip of a lifetime..... to Thailand, 6 weeks (one of the highlights of working in education!).  Actually we had already lived there before, but Toby, now aged 7, remembered very little of it.  The main purpose was for Toby to visit his Dad who had been back there for nearly a year.  

Toby (aged 2) and myself at Lok Moli Temple, Chiang Mai

Toby (aged 7) and Dad, Kanchanburi

While Toby and Dad spent quality time together, I took to browsing the local markets and temples of Chiang Mai. I had always loved the Sunday Walking Street (I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in hand crafted products) but this time, with my new design aspirations, I found myself looking at the products with an eye to adapting them and making them myself. I particularly like the Buddha image – so peaceful and elegant, not unlike the Thai people themselves (I’m talking Thai style Buddha, not the Chinese one!).

Sunday Walking Street, Chiang Mai

        

Multiple Buddhas, Chiang Mai

Now back in the UK, I feel inspired to incorporate some of these images of Thailand and novel designs into a range of products.  In short this involves learning a whole new set of skills related to printing, and creating products fit for sale at online market places such as Etsy, as well as at local craft fairs.  And to ensure that I remain true to my intentions, I have decided to commit myself in writing by starting up this blog! 

Any tips and recommendations as I chart my progress from complete beginner to professional crafter will be gratefully received, although I don’t mind if I end up writing this blog for myself.  It will serve as a useful tool for keeping me focused and it somehow makes my project feel more official.  So here goes.

Goal

To create hand printed products (decorative cards, hanging pockets, cushion covers, duvet covers…) to a professional standard for sale online and at craft fairs using a range of printing techniques.

How I will get there

• I will practise printing techniques by making Christmas cards.
•  I will focus on one new technique at a time.
• My son Toby will help me come up with designs.
• These cards will be offered up for sale, thus giving me experience in setting up an online business. 
• Since I am only a novice in this field, any profits will be donated to Children in Need.
• I will record my progress in this weekly blog for the benefit of myself, but also for those who might have similar ideas about starting out from scratch.

So far

• I bought Craftseller magazine (issue no.28) and followed up useful leads.  Discoveries include information about online market places, Pinterest, and how to start up a blog!
• I’ve bought two self-study books introducing the main printing techniques :- "Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils and Silk Screens" by Lena Corwin; and "Print Workshop" by Christine Schmidt.
• Toby and I have come up with some rudimentary designs for Christmas cards.

Targets  for this week

• To read the relevant chapters on block printing in my self-study books – EVENINGS.
• To supplement this by viewing you tube videos (time permitting).
• To go shopping for starter materials for block printing – DAY OFF/THURSDAY.
• To convert Toby’s bedroom into a studio.  (This might seem mean, but he is more than happy to have a good reason to come and sleep in my room).
• To start printing! – WEEKEND.

Request for advice:

Can anyone recommend good and reasonably priced suppliers of paper/printing equipment within the London area?  My only thought at the moment is Paperchase in Tottenham Court Road.