The Joy of Printing (and Boxing Day)

If you are a regular reader you will know that I get a great deal of happiness and comfort from all stages in my creative process but I especially love printing. Taking a white piece of fabric and adding colour, mark, texture, line and shape is just joyful. And occasionally I print a piece a piece of fabric that puts a great big smile on my face. Yes even after all these years!

And it doesn’t have to be a piece of fabric that I’m printing for my art. It could be a demonstration piece from a workshop or show. It could be a piece that I print for inclusion in my Wonky Print packs. But this week it was a piece of fabric that I printed for inclusion in my next book. It is a piece of breakdown printed fabric (of course!) where I applied thickened dye to my screen and stood the screen upright so the dye could flow before drying. When I look back at my original breakdown printing book, the sample made using the same technique looks so basic; it doesn’t have the depth that comes from printing multiple layers. The piece I printed this week reminds me just how much I have learnt and continue to learn. It makes my heart sing!

We’re coming up to my favourite day of the year - Boxing Day. Maybe it is the calm after the storm (I’m not a big fan of Christmas) but mostly it is because it is one of the few days of the year when I am truly ‘off the clock’. When the kids were still young it was always hectic - visiting family, visiting the wretched Trafford Centre if they had xmas money burning a hole in their pockets, putting together the toys they had been given and finding there was a part missing etc. But these days I can get up when I want, I can eat leftovers when I want, I can do what I want …. which is usually to sit and stitch. The family have been well trained - they know where the fridge is! No emails, no shopping, no housework, no deadlines, no expectations Blissful!

Whether you are on your own, with friends and family, wherever you are and whatever your plans are I hope you have a Wonderful Boxing Day and a Print Filled New Year x