Texprint Nomination!

Ooh, get me! A handful of 3rd year printers (Wai Ting [Trelisa] Ho,Leigh Spencer & Helen Proudlock) have been nominated for the Texprint graduate award which is SO exciting!  I've also created a new Artsthread portfolio - http://artsthread.com/p/ingridhudson if you'd care to take a peek.
Back to college for more print room mayhem - just when we thought we could kick back for a spell to gather energy before the degree show.
I'm hoping to get down to Brizzle to start work on my new house which I hope will become ingprinting HQ his summer.

So much to do.  Thank goodness the sun hasn't made an appearance yet or I'd be tempted outside...

Last week!!!!

Well this year has passed in the blink of an eye and I can't believe final submission is exactly 1 week from now! Eeek!!
I've been doing battle with my repeat layouts for 2 and a half metre lengths of silk and I'm fit to freak out.

To mellow out and regain composure I've taken to the gentlewomanly art of needlework & embellished my passionflowers with red glass beads.  Nothing like making like a Victorian lady for a few hours to subdue the aggressive side of one's personality (arf arf).

Also I thought I'd show my fabulous printing blocks.  These provided backgrounds for drawing sheets and digital prints (haven't seen the results of these yet).  They're a little crude but I love a bit of texture within my work and they certainly provide that.  I got a little woozy from the glue gun whilst I was making these and it'll probably show in my designs.

Easter break already!

This year has flown and no mistake! Team PromoPack have done us all proud here at CCAD & those babies (rather gorgeous little wallets of talent on disks) are off to the Big Apple very soon.

I finally managed to get 3 scarves into the Folio shop yesterday thanks to the nimble fingers of Rachael Johnson (http://johnsonrachael.blogspot.co.uk/) and Becca Wilson (http://textilesbybex.blogspot.co.uk/). Cheers girls.

Kudos to Pauline Easby (http://embroidererspicnic.blogspot.com), creator of incredible embellished textile stories; thanks for the mention Queen - your work's not too shabby either!

This Easter break is gonna be a time of reflection, evaluation and new layout hand cramp, methinks.

Some more stuff

I'm still working on more designs - and layouts and kodatraces (my favourite!) but progress has slowed as working on scarves for our fabulous shop 'Folio' here in Church Square has taken priority.
Pictures of these will follow shortly (as soon as they're ironed, to be accurate) but here's a couple of new furnishing prints I've whipped up.

The pink sample has a funky batik ground but isn't yet finished; all it needs is my skill as a Photoshopper to add linear detail and sort out the printroom mishaps (which sadly happen to the best of us). The batik took AGES so I'm definitely not wasting that!

The other two samples are the same design in two colourways which are off on holiday to Nu Yawk for Easter at Printsource. It's a sad day indeed when your work goes Stateside but you don't!

More final print experimentation

I'm getting through silkscreens like billy-o now! My hand's getting cramps from drawing kodatraces and my eyes are starting to go weird and I've only just begun - Yikes!


This orange piece to the left is another example of my highly skilled shibori technique (?!) which will serve as a ground. The idea for the batik and shibori grounds I'm using stem (hehehe) from the textures found in the plantforms from which all my imagery is based.

These prints are not in their final stage yet, I'm playing with the imagery by mixing and matching motifs and they will develop in a highly appropriately organic manner.

Next week I have to forsake the print room to run a huge errand in London (life outside college just will not wait till I'm finished dammit!) which I must admit I'm not happy about. They've been so quiet and peaceful and the luxury of space is something that surely can't last.

Final Major Project Underway!

I've made a start on some final design ideas - just about 150 more kodatraces to draw!

I've been trying some batik grounds and some crazy shibori techniques but there's so much to do I almost don't know where to start!

Anyhoo, here's a print I've begun this week that's looking pretty good if I do say so myself!

Last month I spoke to a lovely man by the name of Michael Wong who works for Bay Plastics Ltd based in North Shields, Tyne and Wear. He and the company agreed to sponsor me for my degree show by donating acrylic mount which I'm using as printing block mounts. They were really helpful and generous - thank you guys! The transparency makes placement and registration of imagery easier than traditional wood. I'm hoping to try a few different ideas so watch this space!

Final samples

Massive thanks goes to Abby (see Colour Bluh in my blogs list just to the right there) who helped me beyond the call of duty and to anyone else who I wasn't aware of. Apparently the team spirit was strong that day - huzzah to you all - you know who you are!

I have to hold my hands up & say that I was completely exhausted by the hand-in day. Despite many disappointing results with my final sample prints, there are a few stand-outs among these which I'd happily put my name to (try & guess which ones these are!)
P.S. Has anybody got an iron?