I’ve been wanting to try lino printing for quite some time now but I don’t have the correct tools or the inclination to buy the tools. I do however, have a pack of vinyl floor tiles and a series of gouges that Alasdair uses for his carvings.
Ever the type to make do with what I have, I decided to see if the vinyl tiles could do as good a job as lino. I think the outcome is passable although nowhere near as clear as those I’ve seen from lino…this could also be to do with my lack of ink and brayer and my improvisation of kids paint and a spongy paint roller (also designed for kids).
Not at all bad though. I printed the outline shape and then cut the same piece of vinyl further to create lines, which I then painted black. I love all the extra bits that are created from the carving. Many would remove these ridges but I think they add something of a handmade quality.
I’m thinking of combining this technique with some of my handmade paper and a more elaborate picture for some more luxurious prints.
In spite of the fact that it should be summer and we are being teased with rays of sunshine trying to break the clouds, the small furry one decided to make a snowman today. OK, so it’s a red snowman and it doesn’t actually resemble a snowman but she says it is a snowman so a snowman it will be…in the middle of summer!
This was really easy and quite enjoyable once I got around my anally retentive everything must be perfect way of thinking.
First we drew our shape on a piece of paper and cut it out. Then we pinned the paper pattern to an old felted jumper and cut round it, leaving a seam allowance. We then chose buttons and sewed them on…that took forever; if you have kids you’ll be aware of the thrills of the button jars and just how long they can occupy them for. I held it and showed the small furry one where to put the needle, which was fortunately a blunt tapestry needle. Of course I had to finish sewing it up when she got bored. She stuffed it all by herself though before I sewed up his bottom.
I think this is a huge achievement for someone who only just turned 4 last week. He’s sturdy and she is over the moon with him. He’s been exploring caves already today and I think, by the sound of it, he’s about to learn how to draw!
BTW…she’s known affectionately as ‘The Small Furry One’ because she is indeed small and has a very hairy back! And, I’m sure she’d hate me forever if she was old enough to know I’d told the world that.
A few weeks ago I came across this tutorial on Holidash but it uses glue and I’m really not a glue person. Nonetheless, I saved it in my favourites and last week I finally decided to have a go, using stitches in place of the glue.
I won’t pretend it wasn’t fiddly but I’m guessing it’s fiddly with glue aswell.
For some reason my petals ended up encroaching on the area where the centre of the flower should be so I sewed some seed beads in there instead to cover up my joins.
This tutorial was created by Megan of Not Martha and she has provided some further guidance on her blog.
Following Jolene’s last post I couldn’t resist the post title, nor – I’m afraid – could I resist including a little musical flashback to my youth … I’ll leave that till the end though!
As Jolene said in her post I have been making more bonnie birds and taking her through the process at the same time, I could be wrong, but I think it falls into the harder than it looks category. Certainly I think it’s taken a bit of practice and development to get them to the stage they’re at now, I only wish I had saved the original prototypes to share with you by way of a comparison with the ones I’m making now … the difference is quite startling!
I’m working on something else now and have saved the prototype of that one so you can see that these things don’t simply materialise without any thought … although that’s often the way these things begin, with a random convergence of whimsical and divergent partial thoughts! Anyway these will be my last Bonnie Birds for a while so that I can concentrate on other things.
Alasdair has been guiding me through the process of making one of his Bonnie Birds…it’s not a process I will be repeating in the near future!
First you have to make the armature, which is quick and easy enough. Then comes the mache, which refuses to stick to the armature. Alasdair’s most helpful advice was to keep squeezing it together until it looked body like…yeah, ok…the more I squeezed, the more determined the stuff was to stick to me and not the armature! Then, and I am not the most patient of people, you have to wait overnight for the body to dry…
…next night you can make the tail in the same way…mache stuck everywhere but where it was supposed to be, and once again we had to leave them overnight to dry. The next night was a repeat performance for the head…I nearly threw it on the fire that night! My beak was huge, then too thin, then it all fell off…argh!
Alasdair assured me that it would all be ok in the end and to just try and get a sort of shape that sort of resembled a bird. I trust him, because he’s my husband, so I persevered, tried my best and created something resembling a bird.
This is Alasdair’s bird after sanding. Mine was too ugly to contemplate at this stage.
The next stage was to sand it all down…I needed to wait for the weekend for this…I won’t bore you with the whys and wherefores. Alasdair insists that sanding is key and other than advising me ‘not to be shy about it’ his other top tip was to mind my fingers!? That exercise went a whole lot better than I imagined it would and I ended up with the shape you see in the finished article. Alasdair was right…all of the mistakes I made earlier were wiped out at this point.
The final stage of painting and varnishing were nerve-racking for me. I’d spent all week making this bird and was about to ruin it all with one wrong brushstroke. Fortunately the Bonnie Bird is a forgiving creature and I was able to rescue it from an overzealous paint job by imagining target practice where the wings should be.
This is me fixing the bits that I missed the first time I varnished it…oops!
As I said, it took me two weeks to make mine from start to finish…Alasdair made five in that same time. See them all in the background laughing at my bird’s short legs and lumpy backside…still I think it’s pretty good for a first (and only) attempt.
It’s funny how an idea can sprout wings and take-off (dreadful pun entirely intended), such as it has been with these bonnie birds. It’s rather refreshing to have something I can make out of papier mache that doesn’t take forever and a day and that isn’t a bowl! Aside from this pair I’m hatching three more and they should be fully fledged in the next few days (and yes, that was a couple more of dreadful puns that were entirely intended).
This pair seem to be diametrically opposed in terms of form, one’s short and fat and the other a bit leggy with a great fan of a tail, the tail’s something I can see me repeating and refining on future versions.
Of course, like all birds that flock, it doesn’t take long for them to catch-up with more of their own kind …
… I imagine this flock will be growing as they, ahem, get to know each other better … well, it is almost Spring!!
It’s been commented on in the past that there are strange things going on in the dark recesses of my mind, that they seem to bleed out into the light through what I create … I think ‘they’ may have a point.
I seem to have a raft of canvasses lying around and despite repeated attempts to paint something of any worth on them I seem to fail and fail again. The canvas here has been used so many times now that I can’t recall how many images lie beneath this final effort, perhaps it’s a furious amalgam of all that went before, a seething anger at the ineptitude slapped on the canvas below.
Whatever it is, using a canvas as a base for some wall art/sculpture is an avenue of interest to me and something I feel sure I will pursue further at some future point. In the meantime I can think of at least two (more conventional) sculptures that deserve to be finished after well over a years worth of idling!
Jolene and I spent a couple of hours last night collaborating on this Christmas Wreath for the front door last night, we’re fairly pleased with the end result even if I did get pricked so many times by the pine needles that my hands broke out in a mild allergic reaction that made it look like had small pox or some such … oh, what fun!
We actually collected the pine cones for these a couple of months ago and they have been sat in a bag waiting for us to do something with them since then, they were actually intended for the local playgroup but there were far too many and so we resolved to use them ourselves.
The cones themselves were initially sprayed silver, before a quick dash with the gold spray. The berries are beads cut from a beaded Christmas tree decoration and the pine branches and Sitka Spruce from the garden (I was out cutting these in sub-zero temps last night.
We mounted the whole lot on willow branch (also from the garden) that we bent into a circle and twisted around itself, we used wire to secure the first layer of pine branches before using thread to secure the last couple of layers. The pine cones were then threaded on, as were the ‘berries’.
I think if we do this again I’m going to find myself a pair of light gardening gloves!
printer
paper
sharp needle
sharp scissors
6″ x 4″ piece of felt
36″ of 6 stranded embroidery thread
stuffing
Stitches used:
Blanket
Lazy Daisy
Instructions:
Click on the pattern below and print and cut it out. It’s sized to A4 so you’ll need to make sure your page size is set to 210mm x 297mm so that the picture doesn’t distort.
Pin the template to your felt and cut two bird shapes. You may find it easier to do this one shape at a time.
Separate two strands of thread by holding one end of the strand and gently pulling it from the group.
Using lazy daisy stitch, Sew three small flowers on each bird shape around about the belly of the bird. Pay close attention to make sure you stitch on the right side of the bird shapes.
Separate another two strands of thread. Using blanket stitch sew the two bird shapes together starting at the mid back and leaving about an inch of a gap for stuffing.
Stuff the bird quite tightly and sew the gap closed (with blanket stitch). You might find at this stage a pencil or chopstick is useful for getting the stuffing into the corners but be careful you don’t poke it all the way through! Secure your thread with a few small stitches.
Thread the last two strands through your needle and double them up to give you four strands. Starting on the back of the bird, roughly where you started the blanket stitch, sew a few small stitches to secure your thread and then create a loop. Sew some more small stitches to secure the loop.
If you wish you can sew a few loops onto the tail end of the bird to resemble feathers.
Hang from your tree/door handle/peg and marvel at the cuteness.
Pattern:
The copyright of this work belongs to MadeStuff. You may use this pattern to create as many ornaments as you wish for your own personal use and to give as gifts. You may not use this pattern in any shape or form for commercial gain.
If you can’t be bothered going out to buy the materials you’ll need to make this lovely bird ornament, I have some kits for sale in the shop. The kits contain the pattern, including instructions for the stitches, thread, felt and stuffing…enough for one ornament.
2 September, 2010 2:09 pm | 
