A herd of deer

I spent some time recently in the uni screen printing studio. My self set brief was to design a repeat pattern that could be screen printed onto fabric which could them be made into a variety of things. The repeat pattern bit turned out to be more challenging than I had first appreciated but it was great to do and I learned loads.

The screen I used was huge! Much bigger than I had used before to print t-shirts. It's always really exciting to see my design appear during the first wash.

I wanted to turn my designs into cushions and t-towels so I chose a heavy linen for the cushions and a slightly lighter weight linen for my t-towels. (I'll post pictures of my t-towels in my next post)

 Getting the bench set up to make sure the repeat pattern lines up correctly, and... repeats!

Three panels screen printed first onto the fabric, then off to wash and dry the screen... then back to finish off drying my wee deers with the hairdryers. Once these panels were dry I repeated the process for the final two linking panels.

The scary bit!  Make sure that line is straight...
 

A 'herd' of deer living on my sofa!

I then wanted to make some t towels... so I got my lighter weight linen, mixed some dye and got to it.

I had to stir the fabric with a big spoon for half an hour!!! This is so it wouldn't end up patchy. Then I rinsed with cold water.

After a quick spin around, the fabric not me, it went into the bake cupboard to dry. 

Tada! Now I have lots of deer in my house!

wild goats

I briefly headed along to the Wild Goat Park in the Galloway Forest Park this morning for some 'on location' sketching. I arrived just as the goats were having their breakfast and so got great views of them close to the car park. Such great characters.  

Hare! Where?! There!

I quite often see red kites flying above my house which is brilliant, I never tire of watching them as they athletically glide across the sky.