Steel colony

the original photo

I'm trying out a few titles for the flowers and decay piece. Personally I find naming a piece means it is out of my system and I can move on. Although I often have a few general ideas, it is not until the piece is nearing completion that its personality is revealed. There are not many things I have made for a challenge or class where the subject was prescribed.

I am working on the borders now. Rather irritatingly the borders have grown and want to be as wide as the fabric I have cut, and that is actually a little bit wider than the batting. That means I have to graft on some more batting. I went to the picture framers this week to talk about framing it, and it's going to cost around $100 for something fairly simple, no mat, just glued to acid free card. I think I will try the people who do Jane's framing.

Some friends came to lunch today and were talking about the kind of money I should be asking for it, and that was about 3 times what I thought. No idea what people will pay, but it's not something I want to give away cheaply.

The other thing I started this weekend was my screen printing projects for the class I am doing at QU. I did a newspaper stencil yesterday - which didn't excite me. Then today I cut a stencil of a poppy leaf and stem out of freezer paper and that was reasonably successful. The only problem is that a weak colour oozes out of the inked print while it is drying. For a lot of things that won't matter greatly, but it could be an issue. I am using the Fasttex inks, which seem very thick and gloopy. I am lucky that I bought a remaindered book of flowers and stems stencils when the fashion for stencilling every wall and cupboard door went out of the window, so to speak!