Lists of lists of lists of lists

This week has been a week of lists and lists of those lists and so on. I always find November busy. There are birthdays to think about, Christmas to start organising and generally lots of things occurring.

Every year I try to make myself more organised. I am great at planning exactly what it is I need to do. Wonderful in fact at making list. However I am not so good at completing the tasks on a list.

On Wednesday I attended my wonderful print making class. Over the last five weeks I have learnt so much about print making from the wonderful Claire Palfreyman. I am rather sad that next week will be the last week of the course.

This week I continued with the bird linocut that I had started the week before. This linocut consists of four separate blocks which when registered correctly (not something that I am particularly good at!) will produce the complete image in any combination of colours that you want.

Here are the four blocks of lino

I found creating this project an enjoyable challenge and learnt a great deal about composing a more complicated image through it.

Here are some prints using some and all of the blocks in a range of colours.

As I had some time left at the end of class I decided I would have an attempt at a screen print using a simplified version of the bird design that I had used for my lino print project.

It has been so long since I have done an screen printing that I had forgotten how simple it can be and the impact you can create with even the simplest designs. I loved messing about with the colours although I do not think some of the shades of colour are lost in photographing the finished prints.

Here are some of my screen printing experiments

Next week I intend to come up with a design to print on some tea towels and bags for Christmas gifts. Also as next week is our last week I have talked myself into baking a scrummy carrot cake to take along for all of us to scoff.

Speaking of cake I have baked the two Christmas cakes that I soaked the fruit for at the beginning of this week. They are happily tucked up in a tin being feed brandy at regular intervals. I will ice them in a couple of weeks.

I am very much looking forward to this weekend which is full of fun things. Tonight I am off to see Caster and Pollux at the ENO with my little brother and Father. Very much looking forward to this.

On Saturday I am sitting for a portrait for Nadja Gabriela Plein. She is a local artist who is painting local people for a exhibition for next year. I volunteered thinking well I may never have another opportunity to have my portrait painted so why not?

We also have friends coming round on Saturday Evening for drinks and nibbles. It is far easier to entertain at home rather than go out when you have small ones.

Well I am off to make a start on one of my various lists. Hope you enjoy your weekends.