Panda and Sun Bear hand carved stamps - at the Bear Party!

"Nature is my friend" is a wonderful blog by artist Jessica Gowling. It's fast becoming a favourite stop as I love reading about printing processes and viewing great work and Jessica combines both really well in her posts. This week Jessica made a call out on Twitter for Bear themed submissions and many artists responded!

Here's what I submitted

Sun Bears are my favourite of all bears. They’re found it various parts of South East Asia and spend much time in trees. Numbers are declining due to horrendous actions such as poaching them for fur and bile (the bile is for medicine despite there being a synthetic substitute).

Panda’s are of course well known. There is no question that they are adorable. But short of adding thick rimmed glasses and a pocket protector – I can’t draw them with anything but vacant stare.  Pandas are an endangered species. They have a low birth rate and can’t contend with the loss of habitat.

You can see lots more bear art on Jessica's collaborative blog post!

My Creative Space - Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Linocut Print

This week an order of gorgeous hand printed cotton tape and fabric arrived from Jesse Breytenbach, a printmaker from South Africa. All of the things in the package are beautiful. The red scissors hand printed cotton tape is the inspiration for this linocut project.

I've made a linocut of a Singer Sewing Machine similar to one that sat in our bike shed when I was a little. Usually black ink feels a bit "heavy" for my style of linocuts, but for this one it reminds me of the heavy black metal base frame and broad pedal of the machine. After a few more trial runs on paper I'm aiming to try printing with it on fabric. 

More Creative Spaces at Kootoyoo.