Handmade Rubber Stamps

 Last week I mentioned that I was going to do a stamp making post inspired that this blog that I found on Pinterest. I actually did Printmaking in college for my degree, so I'm pretty used to doing this kind of thing. I'm far more familiar with using lino for block printing, but lately I've started hearing about this carving rubber which is lots easier to use. I ordered some online, but funnily enough a few days after it arrived they got some in my local craft shop Silkes.

I cut my 6"x4" piece into 4 sections easily with a scissors.

 I then did some quick sketches in pen. If you are not used to doing block printing it might be helpful to use a marker to block out the bits you won't be carving, these are the areas that will be black. Also don't forget that your image will be reversed, so write it backwards if you are doing any text.

 The area you will be carving is the white part of your picture. Go slowly and carefully, as my tutor said it's not a race, once it's carved you can't fix it. The rubber is much easier to carve than lino, and it also doesn't crumble at the edges which is good. I did have a box of beautiful carving tools but over the years I must have lost them when I moved house, I used these very basic tools which you can pick up in any craft shop.

Use a scissors to cut off any excess rubber at the edge, but leave an outline of your image.

 I used the ink I use for card making, it leaves a mottled texture (rather than using printing ink) but it's faster a cleaner and I quite like the texture anyhow.

 Press firmly onto your paper, the nice thing about the rubber it that if you hold it really still you can lift it up at the corner to peek and see if it's printed properly.

 My end result! I think I'll be using these to make lots of Christmas stamps, they are fun, quick, and most importantly they make your cards totally individual.

NOTE: Be careful to keep your fingers behind the tool when carving, this is lesson number one in Printmaking, I can't believe I made such a rookie mistake! Morto!

Lino Printed Xmas Cards

At long last I finished my Christmas card sets, it feels like it's been a long upward climb getting them done. I used the same lino blocks that I carved last year, but I used oil based ink this year instead of water based. It gives a much richer colour and shinier finish. It's a lot more work with printing and cleaning, and a longer drying time too, but now seeing the end result I think it was definitely worth it. I'm not a member of the Limerick Printmakers so I had to print them at home, using a large sheet of ascetate as an inking table. Then a lot of sweat and elbow grease was involved in hand printing the cards using the back of a spoon to instead of a press. If you are curious about the method check out this youtube video.

After printing each of them in one colour, and waiting for a week or so for them to dry, I added an embellishment to each of the cards. You can see that the robin, angel, and teddy all have a small bit of extra water colour on them. The Rudolf has a red button nose and the parcel has a printed tag. I wasn't necessary to add these extras but they really finish off the cards nicely.

The cards are 12.5 square cards, there is 5 in the set for €10, which I think is good value at €2 per card. I'll mostly be selling them at the market, but I've listed them in my shop too in case I get any lat minute online sales. I printed 250 cards to make 50 sets. I have another 250 blank cards but seeing as how long it takes them to dry I'm not sure if I'll have time to make them.

You Can't Take the Print Outta the Girl

At heart I'm still a print nerd, you can take the girl out of the print room but the ink will never leave her veins. I had a suitable droolish fanboy moment when watching this video, so I wanted to share. Hope you enjoy!

Printed Bags

Our house has turned into a print sweat shop this week as we were printing up paper bags for Roisins Boutique in Inistioge. I got the custom made stamp from jlmould on Etsy for only $40, which is a total bargain considering how much money it has saved for making bags. I had initially researched getting bags printed and the cost was astronomical, so this seemed like a really good alternative. But be warned it's pretty labour intensive if you decide to do it yourself. On Friday night when I was printing them by myself it took about an hour and a half to do 50. I then remembered what we used to do it college, to get a second person to remove the printed bag, place it somewhere safe to dry and replace with a fresh bag. This meant I was free to re-ink the roller and stamp. John thought this was a stupid idea when we started but it really saved time as we got 150 in just over an hour.Go Team!

We have another 200 left to do but we'll get it done in no time if we do it together. I'll also be printing my own bags later in the week, I think they'll look really cute at the market.

Ps: as you can see my computer is fixed, but UPC is still acting up so I may be sporadic in my post for the next while.

Christmas Cards

Here are a couple of quickly scanned images from the Christmas Cards set that I'm selling this year. There are 10 in the set for only 12 euro. Here are just a few samples as I don't have the full 10 scanned in. I must say it was really nice to do some lino printing after such a long absence( I did print in college and have don't any since I graduated in 2004). I could help but stick on some lovely buttons to finish them off.

Christmas Ball Rolling

Ok it's official I've been really crap at blogging lately, but life seems to be running at high speed at the moment, with one week rolling into the next. How is Christmas upon us yet, I think a part of me is still waiting for that non existant Irish Summer to happen. I think I caught a tiny bit of sunshine in Doolin one weekend and that's it it's time to whip up the Christmas tree again. I went into work yesterday( I do 2 days a week in a local restaurant-Luigi Malones if you are wondering) and they have all the Christmas decorations up. I know it's just me in a panic wondering how I'm gonna get all my stock sorted by Christmas, and also where the miracle will appear from to have money for presents. Whatever happened to the days that you would wake up with a bag of toys at the end of your bed and all you had to worry about was if you got everything on the list....ah well.

So far I've got a good bit done:

-About 15-20 mini hampers of handmade Christmas decorations. In them there is 3 felt baubles with lots of cute ribbon and buttons, in a pot wrapped in plastic, a premade gift. I figure they would be handy gifts for those people who have everything or when you get a co-worker as a kris-kindle and you have no idea what to get them. 15 euro

-25 sets of 10 hand printed lino cut Christmas cards. Yes you did the maths right thats 250 prints, and yes that did hurt my little arms. 12 euro

-500 new mirrors. Yey I'm so chuffed these arrived, I love the new designs with the 1950s pinups. I also got large buttons with the same designs. Mirrors 5 euro or buy 2 get one free

Very sadly I still have no camera (damned burglers!!), so I can't take any pictures to show all you nice folk. You are just going to have to take my word for it that they are lovely.HA!

College Reminiscing

There have been lots of ads on tv as of late for college, and college choices, and it made me think back and get all dewy eyed about my college days. So I thought I'd take a little trip down memory lane for you guys...
Firstly I'm not from Limerick I'm a Dublin/Kildare hybrid who had aspirations of moving beyond The Pale(for my non-Irish readers that means outside Dublin),and away from my parents, it's not that I didn't love them they are just very strict. The choice was pretty easy, I always knew I wanted to do art, so I applied to everywhere in Ireland and made my decision after the interview stage. The Limerick School of Art and Design seemed like hard work, and that they would push me really hard, so I chose there( i cried in the interview). Now for the benifit of the non-Irish among you I will explain that Limerick has a very bad reputation for stabbing, murder and gangs. I deserves some of this reputation,in my time here an aquantance has been beaten to death, another stabbed, and my place of work was burnt down due to a gang fued , but a lot of the time it's over blown to sell newspapers. So my parents were more than a little nervous when I informed them of my new choice of residence. So at first I rented a room in a family house and, got food poisening from the landlady, and locked myself in my room for months drawing or texting on my phone. Not a good way to start college.
It took me a long time to make genuine friends, and found the first year very difficult, socially. When I look back I see someone who was very young, and wanted to be accepted but I was tired of pandering to a cool crowd. Somehow I thought these things would cease to exist in art college, and that all the bullshit of school would be left behind. Thankfully in my second year, I made some really great friends that suited my more bookish(less partying) sensibilities. We sat in old man pubs, drank guinness, talked art and philosophy, and were generally blissfuly pretentious. The friendships I made over those tasty pints have seen me through the past 9 years, and I'm sure will continue for a lifetime. I think being down here without family has enabled me to make really strong bonds with people, it forced me out of my comfort zone.
As for the actual art side of things, it was amazing, I learnt so much, and yet I could have done so much more. I was a pretty swotty student, but even now looking back I realised I squandered most of the facilities/time/information. I suppose hindsight and age are a great things. I took in as much as I could, but sometimes I wonder if it would not be better to be a mature student. I could see myself valuing it all a lot more if I did the course now. But I don't think I could would like to be in college in my late 20's, in a way there are somethings only life-not college-can teach you.
It's taken me 5 years to come close to figuring out how to make a living off my art/craft. When I finished college there was a huge anti-climax, especially after I had done so well. I felt cheated to go back to working a part time minimum wage job, and yet I couldn't see a way forward into doing what I wanted creatively. It's been a long meandering path, but at it's centre there has been the knowledge, that I am compelled/addicted/need to make things, be it digitally, photographically, painting,drawing or sewing. I'm really glad I made that random choice of coming to Limerick, I've found this crazy sense of home here, a city that feels like a village, with warts and all, but I love it.

A document of random memories before they disapear into the ether:
Popping giant bubble wrap with John for hours waiting on assessments results, sneaking into the haunted attic and finding loads of human hair all over the floor,doing all nighters and ordering pizza, living with a german ex hermit who thought he could time travel, flinging a packet of butter out my kitchen window that had been infected with slugs, climbing down 'that' cliffside, getting that wonderful surprise of The Lord of the Rings book smuggled into my luggage on the trip back to Limerick, hiding under a coffee table while my landlord busted in on a house party of 200 people, daytrips to the freezing seaside with Sharon, butter pasta with black pepper at 4am, no heating for 3 years relieved by the odd fire when we could afford coal...and so many more

Twitchy Fingers Syndrome

I was showing someone my website last night in work,and I realised with all the market and clothes stuff that I'm doing lots of people don't know that my background is actually in visual art. I studied fine art printmaking in Limerick School of Art and Design. I really loved it it there,it was like a warm safe bubble where all I had to do was think about myself and what I wanted to make:an artists dream. Even though I worked really hard I still look back now and think I didn't take full advantage of the resources; the library,the print studio, the endless tech skill of the tutors. But these insights come with a few years of experience out in the real world and I suppose I was very young at the time. I still don't think I would choose fashion as my discipline if I had the choice now, I'm glad that I happily landed in this, rather that fretting over technical issues. I think I'm freed somewhat by my ignorance, I just look at the clothes and fumble through until I get where I want-it makes for some experimental and interesting results.I'll definitely go back to doing fine art and graphic design, diffent projects always seem to pop up randomly. My boyfriend accuses me of being too scatty and that I should focus on one dicipline, but I think all the diffent creative threads feed each other. My graphics is not slick and cold like others because of my art background, and sometimes my clothes feel like drawings.I would be afraid to stick with one thing for a few years for fear it would get stale. On top of the fact that I don't think I could stop myself endlessly tinkering with different things. If I have a few projects on the go at all times it keeps my twitching fingers happy.

So here are a smattering of pictures I've created in various media over the past few years.