Purple Steampunk Elephants!

Steampunk Elephant Collagraph Print

 
Today I decided to have a look at some of my older collagraph printing plates and do a bit of experimentation with them in different colourways. I really like my Steampunk Elephant printing plate with its cogs etc as it was great fun to design and make. I only ever printed it in a gunmetal grey so wondered what it would look like in my favourite printing ink purple!
 
Here is the printing plate just starting to be covered in a lovely rich purple ink!
 

 

The printing plate all covered in purpleness and being wiped to uncover the elephant beneath!
 

 
 On the etching press ready for the exciting part the printing!

 
Hot off the press - a Purple Steampunk Elephant!
 

 
Here is a sneaky peak at what is going on in the background when I am printing! My printing press is on the dining room table and even when Morpheus the cat is no where to be seen as soon as I start printing he appears to supervise and today to make a nest in my tissue paper!

 I think he liked the print although he was a bit upset I wasn't immortalising him in print like I usually do!

The finished Steampunk Elephant collagraph print looking good in purple!

 

 

Clare xx

 

Printing a Steampunk Cat

Steampunk Cat Tote Bags

My Steampunk Cat tote bags have proved to be one of my most popular designs ever and I'd almost sold out of them so I thought I'd better get busy printing a few more this weekend! I took a few photos of the process too so that you can see how and where they are printed, the model himself was too tired to pose for any photos though and was fast asleep in his radiator bed!

This is the printing plate made from a piece of lino so that anything carved away will stay white and anything left will print black or in this case raw umber.

My ink rolled out and ready to go! I use the Caligo safewash inks as they are very good on fabric and really easy to clean away with soap and water.

My first mini tote bag hot off the printing press! The linocut printing plate is placed on the press on some waste paper and the bag is placed on top of this. The blanket covers everything and I roll the whole lot through the etching press on a light setting so that nothing moves.

A turquoise blue bag coming off the press.

And a red one!

Here's a comparison of the printing plate with the finished print on the bag. Note the image is always reversed.

This is one of the larger tote bags coming off the press. These are slightly more difficult to print as they are bigger than the actual printing press so have to folded very carefully so they don't get trapped under the rollers!

And this is where all the magic happens - the corner of my dining room table! Complete with Dalek cookie jar, bottles of wine etc!

A few of the finished tote bags all drying on my improvised drying rack otherwise known as my spare room bed!

 

A very fun afternoon of printing a Steampunk Cat!

Clare xx

From a Ginger Cat to a Pirate!

How to turn a simple photo of a ginger cat into many prints and paintings!

This is the naughty ginger cat that comes and visits us and very often steals my cats food! He had such a cute face that I had to take a photo of him and I couldn't resist using him in a few of my artworks!

This is a quick photoshopped version of him as a pirate about to raid my cats food dish, which I used as a template to paint him from.

Pirate Ginger Cat Acrylic Painting

 I then decided to paint him as one my Cats in Hats series of square acrylic paintings. Here he is with my tuxedo cat Morpheus in his various costumes!

Cats in Hats Acrylic Paintings

He proved really popular so I had to make him into a greeting card.

Pirate Ginger Cat Greeting Card

Next I decided to make him into a lino print to go with my Steampunk Cat lino print.

Steampunk Happy Cat Linocut Print

Pirate Ginger Cat Linocut Print

Once I had the lino printing plate ready I just had to print up a few Pirate tote bags.

Pirate Ginger Cat Tote Bag

Pirate Ginger Cat Red Tote Bag

 And of course a cushion!

Pirate Ginger Cat Hand Printed Cushion

I don't know his name but when he nexts visits I will have to give him some commission in the form of some crunchies for giving me so much inspiration!

Clare xx

Crazy Cat Lady!

I've been doing a lot of arty networking recently and I have been finding sometimes when I introduce myself as soon as that person hears my name they say "Are you the cat lady?" I always then think of the Crazy Cat Lady from the Simpsons cartoon!

I admit I have been doing a lot of cat themed artwork recently especially since I got my very cute black and white cat Morpheus a few years ago!

Who could resist this little face!

 My very first painting of him when he was still a kitten.

Kitten Acrylic Painting

 My very first and still my favourite collagraph print of him as a kitten!

Dreamy Collagraph Print

 I started doing quite a few collagraph prints of him dressed in his finest hats!

Captain Jack Kitty Collagraph Print

 Even printed him onto bags!

Steampunk Cat Bags

I also do an ever expanding range of acrylic paintings of him in various disguises! Also occasionally featuring his mortal enemy the ginger cat who is always trying to steal his food!

Cats in Hats acrylic paintings

 He even has his own Christmas card too!

Christmas Cat!

And he has been featured in the Printmaker Cat book with a double page spread of all my prints of him!

 

Printmakers Cat Book

So I suppose I can see why people know me as the Cat Lady, hope they don't start adding the Crazy part soon though!

Clare xx

Printmakers Cat

In the beginning of 2013 I was contacted by a book publisher Mascot Media to see if I could like to contribute to a new book they were publishing called the Printmakers Cat. Of course I couldn't refuse. I wasn't sure what to expect but sent over a couple of images of my cat prints and wrote a small piece about myself and waited to see what would happen. At that time I didn't have a cat as sadly my 20 year old cat had died a few years previously so all the neighbours cats and every cat that came into the garden was fair game to be made into an artwork!

A few months later a parcel arrived with two copies of the book and I couldn't wait to get to my page!

Of course all my friends and family got a copy of the book for Christmas too!

The beginning of this year I had a message from the publisher saying they wanted to produce a revised softback copy of the book with added artists and if I wanted to add a few more images I could. By this time I had a new cat Morpheus and I had done loads of artworks based on him! It was difficult choosing which prints to send in as I had so many!

I narrowed it down to a few favourites a "Dreamy" collagraph print from when he was a tiny kitten!

Dreamy Collagraph Print

 And a "Play With Me" collagraph print too.

Play With Me! Collagraph Print

  A couple of my very popular cats in hats prints!

Captain Jack Kitty Collagraph Print

Happy Kitty Collagraph Print

 And a couple of linocut prints.

Kitten Cute Linocut Print

Kitten Play Linocut Print

 I was pleased to see all of these were accepted into the new book and I ended up with a double page spread and one of my linocut prints also featured on the back of the book!

Morpheus the cat really loves being in a book!

The book is available direct from the publishers Mascot Media or from Amazon 

Clare xx

Cat Helper!

My mews Morpheus the cat turned two a few weeks ago so I thought I'd look back on some of his adventures and a few of the many artworks he has inspired!

Here he is tiny and curled up with his mum Pixie, I couldn't resist that little face!

And here he is two years later helping out with printing some bags with his smiling face on them of course!

Steampunk Cat Linoprinted Bags

He likes to help out when I'm painting and for some reason loves hiding behind my easel and also grabbing any paintbrush he sees!

My easel always has legs!

He can also be a bit of an art critic and can't have liked this painting as a few seconds later he pushed it to the floor in disgust and it ended up with a huge hole in it!

He also likes to help out with framing, usually making sure he leaves a few of his hairs inside the frame as an extra special touch!

Dreamy Collagraph Print

At Christmas time he likes to send out his special Christmas cards to all his friends. Here he is surpervising the design process!

Christmas Kitty Card

 

 

But the one thing he loves the most is posing in costume for the many Cat in Hats series of paintings! (Don't tell him his arch enemy the Ginger Cat has posed too as he won't be happy!)

Cats in Hats Acrylic Paintings

There will be lots more cat themed artwork to come as I still can't resist that little face!

Clare xx