Paper Printmaking

One of my dearest and most talented friends, Jay Dee Dearness, hosted a Press Party last Saturday at her lovely Queenslander.

I was excited to go along to learn a new skill as each guest had a chance to try printmaking. Jay Dee had prepared a metal plate the previous night for us to use. Here she is demonstrating how to ink it up.

On the printing press, Jay Dee had marked out for us the position for placing the inked plate face up. Each individual sheet of pre-moistened paper was laid down over this and covered with 2 sheets of felt.

Jay Dee demonstrated the wheel turning with on-lookers KT Doyle and ever supportive spouse, Pete Ward. The press, since christened Shelley after Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein, may look old-fashioned but is brand new. The design has basically remained unchanged for decades.

This is what the finished product looked like printed on cotton watercolour paper. It is the design for Jay Dee's new gallery space "Myrtle Street Studio" located under her fabulous house. This will be an exciting new exhibition space for Brisbane and I will be announcing more as plans progress.

This is Jay Dee helping Eleni Papadatos. Other Brisbane bloggers present included Alarna Zinn and Georgina Lewis. Thanks to Pete for the great barbeque that followed!

P.S. The inking of the plates uses a lot of paper and Jay Dee has discovered that the pages from old phone books work best. If you live in the Brisbane area, please contact her via her blog if you have any you wish to recycle.

Hand Made Bowl and Fabric Winner

As a craftsperson, I can't ever imagine giving a gift that wasn't hand-made.  Last Friday night, I attended a surprise birthday party for my artisitic friend Jay Dee Dearness, successfully pulled off by her husband Pete.

Part of Jay Dee's present was this adorable little hand-sewn bowl from Finki, which was traded in return for my mushrooms fabric.  The bowl was then filled it with guest soaps and accompanied with a Thea & Sami pistachio, organic cotton "Blossoms" bath towel.  It was sheer coincidence that it matched Jay Dee's decor perfectly as I hadn't visited her new home until Friday.

Speaking of mushrooms fabric, I would like to thank all of you who entered my blog giveaway which has now ended. There were so many clever suggestions as to what to do with the fabric that I had to put everybody's name into a bowl (twice for those who commented on their own blogs) to draw a winner.

The winner is Wilma from Newcastle, Australia.  Wilma of Empress Wu Designs plans to use the fabric to make a little forest/woodland creature doll.  We will be asking Wilma to show us the finished results in the near future.

Decorations forever

Hand-made Christmas decorations to keep and treasure are what I love.  I was pleasantly surprised to receive these two ceramic birds in the mail last week from my dear friend Jay Dee.  They are beautifully crafted by Brisbane-based ceramicist and artist Kylie Johnson of Paper Boat Press.

This talented lady is also an accomplished poet.