Pause...

 

Printing paused at present. Waiting for the lighthouse prints to dry and the printing table is full of bike bits being cleaned.

The car has had two new boots and an alternator...tracking being done today.  My bank balance will be saying OW!  As will the other account that the  pots prints and bike bits money goes into...I am buying a secondhand cage for my gas bottles..£150....but would be £700 new.

At least I will be legal and they will be safe.  

I am still trying to source ceramic fibre, adhesive and stabiliser to finish the flue section.

It's either out of stock or they don't reply.....keep trying. I may have found the manufacturer....

Inky fingers

 Oil based ink gives the best results..but is the devil to remove! 

The reason that printing apprentices were called printers' devils?!

A day for tidying loose ends and starting jobs that have been waiting...

Pirate has started cleaning the next batch of eBay sales items. I might put some clothes on there that I hardly have worn, no point them packing out the wardrobe.

We have a gardening job coming up...not a huge one, but we keep on saying that we won't work there again....it's a nice place to go, however!

Pirate is out for his daily bike ride..then on his return we will be watching track racing from St Petersburg, a world cup meeting moved from Newport in Wales.

Friends are competing in it. So it is good to watch.

tissottracktv.uci.org if you are interested.

Grow, grow.....

 

So far so good...far behind what we would expect, but as weather patterns change we have to work with them.

In the front garden we have a newcomer ....Ladies Smock! In a rough meadow type edge.

In another meadow patch the creamy yellow orchids' leaves are appearing...two places so far. The edge shrubs are coming along..I will try and photograph them tomorrow.

Other news..good news I have bought a secondhand Adana letterpress....brother is to collect it for me, luckily it is not too far from where he lives. I don't think I would trust that to a courier.So I will be able to print the backs of cards without battling with the computer and the printer!!

Bad news but not unexpected.. pirate's PSA count is rising again, which means his prostate cancer is creeping back again. He will be back on the hormone therapy again we think. The next check in three months will decide that, we think.

Positively, we have had seven more years than if he had had no treatment from 2013.

And also the therapy will keep him ok all being well.

Printing

 I am back in the laptop now for design work, and have wrestled with software new to me...plus remembering the old from a couple of years ago....

I have even got the laptop and the printer talking.

However I have been fooled by the printer not seeking to understand custom sizes...yet...

I want to print the back of some square cards....

Meanwhile I will stick with what the printer knows .....for now!!

The square card will have to have hand written backs...for now! 

Then they can go in the Etsy shop. High time I put more stick in there.

Needing Practice

 I am not happy with the finish yet..but the new book press is making it lighter work on my hands.

Just not sure how to get them better using water based printing ink..I thought go for quicker drying than oil based ink.  I know, I should have been doing this at least a month ago!!

Inside and out

 It is straight and level!  Not permanently in its place yet, just checking. We hope to get the bricks finished tomorrow, and the wood that goes between bricks and frame has been painted .

I have been dispatching a few more sales, which is great, apart from eBay, Etsy and artwork all demanding the same place in the study!

The new design has been finished as far as first pencil rubbing..next step a trial print.

After sorting the printing desk!

Job started! Tomorrow we will change the lampshade to a downlight instead of an uplight, and put a stronger bulb in it, to make working possible in these short dark days.

Busy..but not as intended

It rained again, so we got busy, Pirate on his new bike build..going steadily...and after collecting a new (to me)chest of drawers I got most of my knitting and sewing into them.

I say most...there are still three boxes of cloth stash and mending on top..and a jumper waiting to be finished on top of a dresser!

Then it was the turn of the study, as my friend who runs the secondhand emporium had managed to find a book press for me...and £30 less than I had feared I would have to pay.

Still not cheap...but I am looking forward to printing with less strain on my hands.

Still everything stacked up but more organised and two useable tables.

Then as the bats flew outside, a plane flew into Prestwick Airport, and the sun set, and I could catch a glimpse of Goat Fell on Aran between the houses.

I had intended to bake today...as it was , it was home style fast food all day! Lunch came from garden, freezer and larder and supper from garden,salad,  eggs from a neighbour and cooked potatoes. No point in making extra work.

Staying dry

We ventured out for Pirate to get a tooth mended...but apart from that we have stayed indoors out of the cold and wet!
I'm now working on the study.....three empty boxes and a bagful of paper recycling so far. I must really sort all of my printing work..hand printing and printer printing....
I have a bagful of ideas and tryouts for cards and prints, so organising these will be sensible!

planning

Planning our next visit to NZ..its getting nearer and nearer and my head is in a panic about how we'll afford it.
Pirate reckons that this will be his last visit, being 80 next year.   I say "never say never"...but I can see his point ,it is one heck of a journey. 
Our usual 'digs' wont be available, friends are downsizing...others are not well...lets say we'll be living exceedingly frugally!!

The full preserve jars are stacking up..shelves are being built...not easy on a flimsily built house with limited space. I'd like to get back to more bottling ("canning") next year instead of freezing.
I've bottled and processed one batch of fresh apple juice to see if that works. I'll have to stick with freezing in plastic bottles for now until I'm sure, but I want to get away from plastic and from worrying about power cuts and wasted food.

The next vege beds in the garden are planned and staked out, but Pirate says no work on those until the kiln is ready!   I've designed them so that I can put a mesh polytunnel over them..I know, that's plastic..but with the kids next door I'm not risking glass!!

We've been given some unused surplus engineering bricks and a few breeze blocks.  These are from a garden we cut grass and tidy. The owners will be moving in a year, have already sold, and are tidying the property slowly before handover.    We'll be sad to see them go,they are good friends...and also we work on their garden in exchange for specs...they are opticians!

The bricks and blocks will support the new  kiln flue. I have HTI ( High Temperature Insulation) bricks to build the flue that will go horizontally from the rear of the kiln to outside the shed wall. Then it will be metal flue from there up,which I also have.
After building that it will be down to mending the bricks that were damaged when the kiln fell on its side during the last move, and working out how to prop up the subsiding arch.

All good plans...all feasible..

 I haven't got my head around any of my printing work for months.  Head space is limited!! It is giving me that itchy feeling of should be -

Afternoon escape

We deserted the housework and shed sorting and headed South!!

There are still patches of ice around, even on the main roads. Better judgement won and we stayed on the main road as far as we could. The weather wasn't too bad, a little drizzly and misty, and as we went further south, warmer...even a degree or so when you start at just over freezing point, counts!

The first stop was The Gallery at Lauriston to talk to Phil Mcmenemy
A fantastic photographer and artist..and fellow veggie to boot.
I took my prints there for his opinion....and it is good...relief!!  He had some good observations and relevant advice...and if I develop my work a bit further,I could be in with a chance for the next Winter mixed exhibition. Gives me time and confidence to work in directions I'd already thought about.

Late lunch at the Harbour Lights in Kirkcubright.  No paper supplies as the print studio I'd planned to buy them from was closed.
Onwards in the dusk to Castle Douglas, a visit to a print shop wasn't fruitful...far too glossy for linoprinting. Down the road to another Emporium..Gem..a place packed with all sorts of art and craft goodies!
I was very lucky...a parcel had just arrived from Italy...paper made from 50% cotton..made for hand printing...not the usual A sizes, I'll get five A4 sheets and quite a few smaller sheets from each one..not bad at £1.25 a sheet..but I musn't waste any of this lovely stuff!

Castle Douglas is a lovely friendly small town. I love to browse around the small shops..and there are no huge supermarkets sucking the life out of the town. Just a couple of smaller ones...and one of those is the Co-op!

No time for browsing, we turned for home and nearly sixty miles to drive in the dark.

Now to get printing...bigger...and smaller!!

Victoria Plums...and weather..positively

Spicy Plum Chutney so far, ready for the Winter....

Today has been progressively wetter...so no ride out on the bikes today.

However today has been positive, despite the rain. The scaffolders have reached our house, and a large pile of poles and planks awaits them for tomorrow.
Home Energy Scotland has been organizing insulation and our home is about to be wrapped and rendered..that should hold it together for a few more years.
The schemes were built in the 30s, 40s and 50s with a twenty year life expectancy...metal frame and single skin brick...

Then a friend of the Pirate called by and ended up leaving, after coffee and talk, with the rocking chair that I'm always tripping over and some air mechanics memorabilia...and the offer to construct the exit flue/ damper section for my kiln.

I've been pushing on with lino printing, using linseed oil based inks this time.
Messier, but worth it for the better finish .  Enough to inspire me to cut some more....

celebrating

 Four years together....chocolate cheesecake, Kiwi wine and ....

half the workshop floor painted!   Everything will be moved over any time now,and the other half done before the weekend.

Me, I've been looking at photos taken, working out a theme starting on the linocut prints I did a year ago...there is a small seed of hope....

more progress...

The first deep bed ready to fill, and the "lawn" getting its first cut,despite the damp weather. I'm not sure what we'll do about the front lawn yet..it is mainly moss...at least it is green!

 and indoors,more construction work...

 ready for card and paper for printing, so as I don't mix the different grades and can easily find them

Some days simple things are enough.They are still progress.

printing...

Making seasonal cards using a photo from our working visit to Skye last January. Funny how it can be easier to see the value in an image after a while...
must put some on Etsy tonight.

printing!

I've printed a batch of cards this morning, getting used to the new printer and 250 gsm card...very nice indeed!  Even on the lighter card this printer gives a better finish because of different ink.
We delivered thirty to Murray's Cafe Restaurant in the High Street in Prestwick.
They've started selling there, and I've taken a few photos there to use as cards.
As you can see from a couple of the cards, they have different pepper and salt pots on each table!  
It is worth going there...and a good excuse....no, reason!..to have lunch there!!

Now to print more and get the Etsy shop re-stocked.

making time

We're back, but sorting after the cycle jumble ready for the next is taking time.
There just seems too much to do keeping the basics going and getting up in the morning is hard!

I've managed to source some nice 250gsm card for printing cards and possibly linocut prints too. I'm trying to buy locally but it isn't easy...it would probably be cheaper to buy online and pay for several hundred sheets instead of buying card priced per sheet.
Still, it isn't too exorbitant and does help keep an art/craft/office supplies shop going in Ayr.  At best I can just walk to the village and catch the (2 hourly) bus in using my free bus pass...so I can get supplies within an hour and a half of leaving home!

No hope yet of a site for my workshop caravan -

This has been offered to us free...yet no-one will consider renting us a small patch to site it.  Probably it is the bias against Travelling folk and it isn't being seen as a shed on stilts....

I MUST this week re-stock my Etsy shop and get printing....

meanwhile it is nearly time for my turn on the turbotrainer.  We are not risking bumps and fractures by going out on the bikes when there is ice on the roads.

printing in progress

 I'm busy building up a stock of cards for the Gala Day in Barr this Saturday, while the builders hammer above...hopefully the leaky roof will be fixed..unfortunately it looks as if the roof has no felt!
All sorts of pots and seats have to be moved to erect the scaffolding, and we found this handsome beast.

We curse slugs when they devour our seedlings....but they are just clearing out the garden rubbish, and the weakling plants. It  would be a mess without them.

new cards on the way

I'm using more of my drawings and photos.   Still no linoprints YET....I need more time!!

Some of these will be in my Etsy shop very soon.