25.05.11

I've been playing with tea and tea-bags due to the fact that it's a constant , both day and night in my home. It's something that's there to sooth, comfort, quench , wake you up, help you sleep and it's shape is echoed all over the home ; tiles, windows, tables, pictures and I just love it like my home.

 I have been examining the shapes of the leaves in drawings and embossings and I'm now playing with colours of tea , which is varied to say the least. I've emptied my cupboards and found enough of an assortment to get a good colour mix and have been trying to get prints off the bags.

Cake made from loose tea with a ribbon on the top

This is a print of a tea bag, which  has all sorts of possibilities

Print of the image off the roller after I inked up the tea bag for the print above

Another print of a larger tea bag.

Decided to combine the idea of a tea bag and an image from my kitchen looking into the garden into a lino cut. 

I printed this at home after cutting it,  with water based inks which is why it's patchy as it was drying too quickly. I have used brown paper because it is a domestic material and because of it's colour and texture which remind me of a tea bag. It's very simple but I'm beginning to appreciate that  and I just need to use that simplicity to it's best advantage.

Printed using oil based ink, a much cleaner print and the ink has more depth to it.

I like the feeling of the room being darker , I'm inside looking out into the light. It's calm and light which is what I wanted to show. I would like to see the table in a different colour and I'm not sure about the outdoors. I think I need to play with different methods of putting colour into the print in different places.

I used tissue paper under the linoprint to bring some colour in, but I'm not happy with the green as it s not soft enough and makes it look twee. It also pulls the outdoors in so flattening out the whole image.

Tried using a single colour tissue, it's more harmonious but still pulls the background forward. I'm going to try a few other things to see if I can get a soft harmonious look which is like looking out through a door into a sunny garden.

I printed a monoprint over the lino and I really like the effect, it's soft appears as though you're looking out on to a bright day. The background is no longer coming forward so the cat is in silouette which I think works and the pattern added into the monoprint adds interest without making it fussy.