In the Studio...

This week I've been going square-eyed in front of my computer as Annabel and I put the finishing touches to the Through Our Hands book. It's been an exciting project to work on. We're showcasing the work of all the Through Our Hands Affiliate artists (I think 27 at the last count), but it's much more than just a catalogue, we also have feature articles from several of the artists and a foreword by no other than Maggie Grey. I'm breathing a sigh of relief, it's at the printers as I type and with everything crossed and a favourable wind, it should be back ready for Festival of Quilts. I'm looking forward to being able to share a sneaky peek at the cover very soon.

If you're on the Festival of Quilts mailing list then no doubt you've also been receiving their emails reminding us that it's just one month to go etc. etc. I need no reminding. I have to make a quilt before then!

This one's a collaborative piece that Linda and I have both been working on. It's been in the thinking and talking about stages for ages. We've made a digital collage (using Photoshop) bringing together three of my paintings and several of Linda's drawing and paintings of birds. I love this way of working, I real must do more of it! Above you can see the final artwork that we've settled on.

Finally it was time to get dye on fabric. Here it is being digitally printed to cotton fabric.

We've been printing fabric at Fingerprint for years now and I must have seen 1000s of metres printed. Nevertheless it's still thrilling to see one of my designs printed for the first time. Seeing how the marks, colours and shapes translate from screen to cloth is always exciting, and it has to be said, there is still some unpredictability which I love.

Here I've holding up the original painting in front of the print so you can see how it's been enlarged. The trompe l'oeil effect on fabric that convinces me those marks must be scraped through wet paint is great!

Linda's bird paintings and drawings were worked into sketchbooks so they too were scanned at a high resolution so they could be enlarged and added in.

The techniques I use for the digital collage create some really interesting effects that are only possible  with that method. I'm looking forward to quilting them.

 So that's the last you'll see of this one until Festival of Quilts. It's going to change quite a bit before then, but my lips are sealed, you'll have to wait and see what we do.

Thanks for visiting.
Laura
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