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.