daff-o-dilly
I’ve been looking everywhere for one of my old blocks, one I carved to make some daffodil card designs with. As I couldn’t locate it in any of my block boxes or drawers, I decided to carve a new one inspired by a similar design. I liked the small scale of the repeat pattern where all the petals line up together. Seeing the daff’s beginning to bloom in the garden reminded me of this old design. I’m happy with the way the new block turned out + instead of carving just the one, single flower, I went with two. This makes printing by hand a little more quicker.
While I was mixing up the yellow ink to print with, I decided to dig out some of my yellow plant dyed cotton I have on the rail. It’s hard to see the vibrancy in these pics but the yellow fabric is a lovely, rich buttery yellow. Hand dyed with the zingy-green Alchemilla mollis flowers from the garden last summer.
It’s been good to revisit some more of my plant dyed fabrics. I had a reshuffle in the shedspace last week + sorted through my many, many lengths of coloured, botanically dyed cotton. I have them all hanging in a better order now - fabrics for making lampshades, fabrics for making cushions + the left over pieces are for other smaller projects. I’m hoping to show you some more unique items I’ll be working on over the next coming months.
My web shop still has plenty of one-of-a-kind designs available to purchase but my designs hand printed on plain, natural coloured cotton are on ‘hold’ for the moment due to the materials I source becoming unavailable, such as the water-based inks I’ve been working + mixing with for the past ten years being discontinued. This has been a nightmare if I’m being honest. Over the years I’ve offered my customers my prints/lampshade + cushion designs in bespoke colours + have relied heavily on bespoke orders. Without good quality water based inks for these products I’m reluctant to have these on offer until I can find a suitable, like for like ink quality + brand. I found sourcing the right block printing ink consistency difficult in the past so I feel it will be a tricky + expensive time finding the right inks. I hope to find a route back in offering customers unique colours again but realistically, for now, I’m focusing on my original, plant dyed fabrics with the inks I do have for these projects. What a funny time. Things happen for a reason though + maybe something will fall in to place + other creative ideas will evolve??