Sunday 4 April 2021

Springtime Primroses - lino printing

The primroses have been flowering beautifully this Spring, probably because of all that rain we had over the Winter - they do prefer it wet. I've joined a Facebook group - Handprinted Collective, and each month they have a prompt for a print to do. It's been great for me as I had more or less stopped printing except for my Christmas cards. March's prompt was "Spring" so I did "Primroses beneath the Beech Hedge" and having got a fairly good print or two on paper, I also did one on calico for stitching.

I finished my picture with a border that looks much like a picture frame and added the backing by the bagging method where you put right sides together and sew all the way around - and yes, I do mean ALL the way around.This was a tip from Brenda Thomas who sews all the way around and then cuts a slit in the backing to turn her work the right way out. This slit is covered by her hanging sleeve. I covered mine with a label.

This is the same print on paper:

After rolling the green onto the lino, I stippled on some brown for the hedge, using a stencil brush, before printing, and then I stippled yellow onto the flower centres after printing.

Another prompt from Handprinted has been "Morning" when I did "That Early Morning Feeling"

And this is the print on paper

After printing on paper I found it quite difficult to make the transition to fabric as you have to put a lot more ink onto the lino. I print paper with the lino underneath and fabric with the lino on top - it seems to work better that way around ......... well not always as you can see!! :)

Having fun - Anita xx