Making Gum Leaves from silk threads

posted in: Arts & Crafts, Textiles, Tutorials

Free motion embroidery on water soluble film I recently experimented with water soluble stabiliser, a film that is used in the machine embroidery process. I came across it on an internet wander, and I suddenly realised that I could use it with some Mulberry silk strands I bought nearly 2 years ago at a Halls Gap craft fair, from a … Read More

Frame free watercolour mount method

A fresh, modern way to mount and protect watercolour paintings It’s quite a simple process: glue a painting to a wooden board or panel and give it a protective coating. I have used a cradled wooden panel as my mount and protected the painting at various stages of the process with varnish and wax, to create the look of a … Read More

Sticky masking fluid – solution

I had a problem recently with masking fluid that wouldn’t come off my paper. I’ve been producing a series of Jacobean flower inspired paintings. Part of my process is to mask off certain parts of the painting to help keep the images light. We’ve had some extremely hot days so far in our summer down here in Oz, and I … Read More

Making pictures from paint splodges!

I’ve always been a fan of painting and drawing exercises to loosen up my work. This is a technique I’ve hit upon to look at some colours other than my usual palette (greens & blues if you hadn’t noticed!) and also improve my pen and ink line work. I used my (very old) Rotring ArtPen – which has a lovely … Read More

using Inktense pencils with an airbrush

posted in: Arts & Crafts, Artwork, Textiles

I have been experimenting with my Derwent Inktense water-soluble colour pencils again.   I’m obsessed with their luminosity and intensity, but must admit am finding it hard to maintain those attributes across a large area of work without things getting diluted on every stroke of my watercolour brush. Inktense pencils are easy to use, but I find when activating the … Read More

Half drop pattern repeat design

posted in: Pattern Design

I’ve added a new design to my Gum shadows range of fabrics. For this pattern I used a half drop pattern repeat. This is a really useful  pattern repeat technique if your initial design appears too regimented in a regular linear design repeat format. This particular design is based upon gum tree leaf silhouettes. I began the design process with … Read More

Gum Doodle Fabric Designs

posted in: Arts & Crafts, Pattern Design

Continuing with my botanic pattern designs, I have recently been designing some patterns specifically for printing on fabric. Designing for large scale printing: fabric, wallpaper, wrapping paper etc. usually involves creating a pattern repeat. In this post I’ll detail the process I followed to turn my original field sketches of gum trees into an abstract print pattern series I call … Read More