Fabric design: Chair covers

One of my customers needed her pair of Biedermeier chairs re-upholstered. We chose unfinished cotton canvas as fabric for the chair seats which were covered by a professional upholsterer. I then decorated the fabric with a pattern and colours complementing the warm wood tone of the chairs, without being too conventional. The pattern was applied with soft stamps.

 Cotton canvas, Setacolor fabric paint. 2010.

Painting: Watercolour

At the moment I'm taking classes in watercolour painting and I read a lot of tutorials about different techniques. Painting the negative space around a shape instead of the shape itself appeals to me, so I did this exercise, inspired by a book by Linda Kemp.

Bog Forest

SAA watercolours, 

Winsor & Newton Cotman NOT paper, 190 gsm. 2010.

Recycled furniture: Chair

Francesca, the wife of a gallery owner in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, once gave me a set of four chairs which needed to be stripped and refinished. I painted one of them for display purposes, in glossy black with a bright pattern. It is called Francesca's Chair, of course.

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 2000.

Work in progress: Waiting Room

Waiting for the train to go to or from Cardiff there is always time to watch people in a state of forced inactivity. I am trying to capture these observations.

Smooth textured crank, still unfired, brick.

Work in Progress: Man walking away

Body language as an indicator of emotion is interesting to explore. I am making larger clay sculptures now, with the expressivity of body language as the main theme.

Stoneware clay, still unfired.

Size: 30 cm

Here is the female part of this sculpture group:

Stoneware clay, still unfired.

Size: 30 cm

Printmaking: Intaglio print

I chose dramatic red and purple etching ink for my print Desert Storm. It was made using the the drypoint and carborundum technique, where lines are engraved into a metal plate with a steel needle, and areas that are meant to print dark are covered with a mixture of acrylic medium and fine carborundum powder. The powder holds a lot of etching ink.

 Aluminium plate, drypoint, carborundum.

Caligo waterbased etching ink

on Fabriano Rosaspina etching paper. 2010.

Fabric design: Place mat and napkins

In my opinion place mats look always more stylish when complemented with matching napkins. Therefore I spent time practicing sewing neat seams on my vintage sewing machine and started hand dyeing and painting / stamp decorating napkins and place mats together. The stamps for 

Water Lilies were cut in hard linoleum which creates a less opaque, painterly print.

Cotton canvas, cotton twill, 

Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint. 1998.

Sizes: place mat 40 x 30 cm, napkin: 45 x 45 cm

Recycled furniture: Book shelf

Plywood Chic is an original piece of early plywood furniture. It was probably built in the late Forties, when the growing demand for home furnishings after the Second World War was met with cheap plywood.

This bookshelf was in surprisingly good shape, so I chose to just refinish it instead of repainting it. A slot in one of the uprights shows that something broke off and got lost, most likely an ornament. I replaced it with a metal disk, cut according to my design by Colin Southwell, the local 
art blacksmith of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

I also had the straight end support replaced by one repeating the tapered front line of the mid support - work done by 
Alex Marcuzzi in North Vancouver - you already know him from several entries further down.
 

Plywood, oil wood stain, oil varnish.

Tarnished steel disk. 1999. 

Printmaking: Intaglio print

This sinister Temple Guard was created using a drypoint needle and carborundum powder on a metal plate. Yes, he does resemble some stoney faced man waving from the garden gate, wearing nothing but a buttoned shirt, but the temple behind him, and the mediterranean vegetation clearly define him as a temple guard.

Aluminium plate, drypoint, carborundum,

waterbased Caligo etching ink on Somerset etching paper. 2009.

Fabric design: Place Mat

I am showing you an early design of an experimental series of place mats which I prepared when I applied for space at the weekend market on Granville Island, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The top sample is handpainted; below you can see the screenprinted version. No need to explain why I called the image Perspective.

Cotton cloth, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 1995.

Size: 30 x 40 cm

Recycled furniture: Small cabinet

This more conventional looking small cupboard had been on death row in an open shed in western Canada for almost a decade. Encrusted with filth, of the doors only the hinges and some broken pieces left. But solid oak and the elegant curve of the top plate, together with those delicate original handles were speaking of better days, back in the 1930’s. 

So I decided to bring out the noble past of this piece. My furniture maker Alex Marcuzzi in North Vancouver, British Columbia, rebuilt the missing doors, and I chose a wood stain in a colour that nicely contrasts the brass handles. Also, I added a contemporary rendition of a lace doily - which made me find a title for this good old piece of furniture as well: Arsenic and Old Lace.

Acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 1995.

Printmaking: Intaglio print

My recent visit to Cardiff, Wales inspired the motif of a Welsh mining village with chimney stacks belching dirty smoke, the miners' houses in rows on the hillside, village church and the mine owner's mansion well at a distance in a parklike setting. 
I wasn't thinking of any identifiable place, the print Welsh Town is more a summary of my impressions.

As for the printing technique, please refer to the entry of 11 February 2010.

Aluminium plate, acrylic hard ground, 

lift ground, waterbased Caligo etching ink 

on Fabriano Rosaspina etching paper. 2010.

Size: 29 x 30 cm

Fabric design: T-shirts

Layering rolled-on fabric paint and stamped patterns is a way to create one-of-a-kind T-shirts in endless variations. My stamps were made from many different materials: meat trays for the dotted areas, bottle corks, cardboard cut-outs, shapes carved into Speedball Speedy Cut... These T-shirts were made in my Canadian design studio in Deep Cove, North Vancouver, British Columbia, and sold at local markets.

Cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, 

Setacolor fabric paint. 1998.

Design: Wooden boxes

This blue box with a hinged lid is part of a series  intended to be sold at craft fairs and in galleries. Yet again, Ted Martin in Pitt Meadows near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, took my design drawings and made the box for me (compare the blog entry from September 5, 2009). Ted thought up a way to keep the two parts of the lid from falling into the box by adding short stopping-pins.

MDF, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 2001.

Size: 20 x 20 x 20 cm

Printmaking: Intaglio print

Here is another non-toxic soft ground print (compare 10 February 2010), this time using BIG (Baldwin's Ink Ground) which is really pleasant to work with.

The print is called Neighbourhood - just look at the people hanging out, and the bottles.

Aluminium plate, BIG acrylic soft ground, waterbased Caligo etching ink 

on Fabriano etching paper. 2010.

Ceramics: Bowls

The first time I came across the term "bisque ware" and the concept of "paint your pot" was in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The small shop in Kitsilano with shelves full of bowls, plates, pots, mugs had attracted my attention and I finally booked a session, chose much needed bowls, got some basic instruction and started painting. It was a lot of fun. I remember being quite excited when I came back to pick up the fired bowls. I rode my bicycle very cautiously back home, the bowls in their paper wrapping in a basket. 

I am still using them.

Porcelain, underglazes. 1995.

Diameter 15 cm, height 7.5 cm

Drawing: Ink

When I visited Galway on the west coast of Ireland for the first time, I really liked all those quaint and colourful little shops lining the city's pedestrianised centre. Like all tourists do. I took photos and later made an ink drawing, leaving out the throngs of people shuffling through the streets.

 

Ink on paper. 2003.

Ceramics: Container

Here is a small clay container for odd bits and pieces that tend to vanish if left out anywhere else.

Red earthenware, earthenware glazes. 2009.

Fabric design: Hand weaving

This wall hanging goes way back - I think I wove it around 1988, after returning from Sweden where I had learned how to use a loom. Strictly speaking this isn't my own design -  I found it in a catalogue of the company I used to order weaving yarn from: Blomqvist/Nordiska Textil-garner AB in Överlida, Västergötland, Sweden.

This type of wall hanging is called gubbatäcke and it always shows rows of shapes like figures, flowers, ornaments. A gubbatäcke is woven in a technique called bunden rosengång. The close-ups show you details of the decor: Sankta Lucia, papparkaksgubbar and tomtar (welcome all you Swedish speakers!). The Christmas theme explains the name of this weave: Juletid, or Christmas time.

Wool, cotton. Rosengong binding. 1988.

Size: 46 x 124 cm

Recycled furniture: Chest of drawers

Aaah, colour! I could have removed the jelly bean background of this photo, but it goes so well with the colours of this chest of drawers...

Blue Confetti is yet another sample of my work with recycled furniture. This piece was a custom order, so it didn't need much fixing up, just surface sanding. I painted the original wooden handles and screwed them back on at an angle. This slightly "deranged" look is matched by triangles and a sprinkle of confetti dots.

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. 1998.

Printmaking: Intaglio print

Here is another print done in the hard ground / lift ground technique (see entry 11 February 2010). I tried out a different grease medium this time: olive oil mixed with a small amount of artists oil paint. Parts of the figures in Encounter are drawn with this oil mixture, other parts with vaseline. Vaseline renders rough brush strokes quite nicely. The non-toxic etching solution is a mixture of copper sulphate, salt and water.

Aluminium plate, acrylic hardground, lift ground, 

waterbased Akua etching ink on Fabriano etching paper. 2010.

Painting: Acrylics

I often went for a walk across the bog while I was living in Curryaun near Swinford in County Mayo, Ireland. The path lead past a shallow valley with tumbled-down stone walls around small fields, once used to grow flax in. Beside the path stood a near barren willow tree with bizarre withered branches, grasping the sky. I needed to paint this.

Flax Valley

Acrylic on board, acrylic varnish. 2003.

Fabric design: T-shirts

The theme here is Rain, obviously. After all, I designed this series of T-shirts in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Canadian province of rain forests. People with umbrellas are walking past the highrises of this beautiful city.

Cotton fabric, Procyon fabric dye, Setacolor fabric paint.

Stamps carved in Speedball Speedy Cut block. 1997.

Recycled furniture: Chest of Drawers

Great quality: beechwood! I swapped this chest of drawers years ago in Canada for some graphic design work. But you wouldn't recognise its original look: base and top plate with arched lines... My trusted cabinet maker Alex Marcuzzi in North Vancouver beautified the piece with a pedestal base and a straight top plate according to my specifications and was kind enough to drill about 130 small holes along the edge of the top. I had this idea that I wanted a piece of furniture with beads.
I bought copper wire and beads and started threading. This decor explains the name Wired.
Then I started thinking about knobs. I made a design drawing and showed it to a welder I knew, Dan Llewellyn in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada. He made the knobs for me. He even thought it was fun work because he was allowed to be much less precise than usual.

Beechwood, acrylic wood stain. 

Steel knobs, copper wire. 2000.

Size: 81 x 43 x 125 cm

Printmaking: Intaglio print

The marks on the plate Ash Grove were made using a combination of hard ground and lift ground, the etching solution is based on copper sulphate. This non-toxic intaglio technique is explained further down (11 February 2010).

Aluminium plate, acrylic hard ground, lift ground, 

waterbased Caligo etching ink 

on Hahnemuehle etching paper. 2010. 
Size: 17 x 21 cm

Clay sculpture: Gossip

If you look up the blog entry of November 26, 2009, you'll find a group of talking females very similar to this one. When I sculpted the first set, I made three figures, but decided to use only two of them. One was left over and I modelled a companion for her. 

The body language of these two definitely says something about their conversation. Unlike the more philosophical topic of the older group, this scene is mundane. It is about gossiping.

Air drying clay, acrylic paint, beeswax, concrete. 2010.

Fabric design: Stamp swatch

When I started making linen tunics I needed to design pattern stamps to go with the simple lines of those garments (see entry 2009 08/18).
Here are two swatches showing the stamp People:

Linen fabric, Setacolor fabric paint. 

Handmade stamp, cut in Speedball Speedy Cut. 1999.

Size: 19 x 15 cm

Recycled furniture: Bedside table

I found the night table Memories of Grandma in the Deep Cove area, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was in pretty bad shape, because the owner's wife had tried to strip it and given up when she hit the coat of rock solid white alkyd paint under two layers of black and blue latex. The "white phase" of the piece had been enhanced with golden lines around the door and the bottom brace.

I was able to dig through the alkyd layer and found oak veneer that had been scorched with a torch to darken the surface in an irregular pattern. While preparing the bedside table for painting, I suddenly remembered that my grandmother's bedroom and living room furniture had had the same dark look to it. That's why I gave the piece this name.

The knobs were handmade by local blacksmith  
Colin Southwell of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, to match my design.

Wood, acrylic paint, acrylic varnish. Steel hardware. 1999.

Size: 41 x 38 x 69 cm

This is what the bedside table looked like before I gave it a makeover.

Printmaking: Intaglio print

I did another print using acrylic hard ground (compare the entry from February 11). The motif for this one is Church Scaffolding.

Aluminium plate, acrylic hard ground,

waterbased Caligo etching ink on Somerset etching paper. 2010.

Size: 17 x 23.5 cm

Fabric design: Chair cushion

Apart from clothing and table linen I also designed fabric for cushions in my studio for functional art in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. These designs were custom orders for a craftsperson in the neighbourhood who made bent willow furniture.

Here is a sample, hand dyed in burnt orange, displayed on a magnificent willow chair.
Below I've added a photo of a geometric design in pink.

Cotton fabric, procyon fabric dye, 

Setacolor fabric paint. Handmade stamps. 1999.

Printmaking: Intaglio print

On this plate I tried some more non-toxic etching techniques: hard ground and lift ground. An acrylic ground is poured onto the metal plate and let dry. Then one draws into this ground using a steel needle which scores the metal surface lightly. These scores will later be widened and deepened through immersion in an etching solution. 

There is another way to expose the metal surface: drawing with different greasy materials, like lipstick, shortening, Vaseline etc. Grease prevents the acrylic ground sticking to the metal plate; it can be washed off, thus exposing the plate to the etching solution.

The winding street in My whole World was drawn with lipstick, the trees and other dark features with shortening.

Aluminium plate, acrylic hard ground,

waterbased Caligo etching ink on cartridge paper. 2010.

Size: 17 x 20 cm

Fabric design: Stamp swatch

I needed quite a few stamps for printing garments by hand. Foam lining for ski boots proved to be an interesting material because of its softness which makes incised lines appear a bit blurred.

Here is Woman, one of my favourite stamps, overprinted with other stamp patterns.

Linen fabric, Setacolor fabric paint. 

Handmade and bought stamps. 1997.

Size: 15 x 20 cm

Printmaking: Intaglio print

I have started experimenting with etching, using  non-toxic materials, mainly acrylic and waterbased.

The print Procession is an example for soft ground etching: lines are drawn into a soft resist that forms a barrier between the metal plate and the etch bath. Only where the drawn lines break through this resist and expose the metal surface will the etching solution start biting the metal. Thus depressions are created which will later hold etching ink during the printing process.

Aluminium plate, acrylic soft ground, waterbased Caligo etching ink 
on Hahnemühle etching paper. 2010.