Why I’m creating a new one off print each day in December.
I’m so lucky to have a beautiful open garden that is surrounded by lanes & fields, however for the past year I’ve hardly been in it, never mind tended it. With my youngest daughter turning 1 last week I realised that I had spent the past year fire fighting my home-life and my young business, squeezing my printing & other business needs into her lunchtime naps! I had stopped looking at things, I mean, I’d stopped really seeing.
In the summer its easy to take to take nature for granted, there is beauty everywhere, its obvious.
In winter you really have to look a bit closer.
Last week the weather was really foul, stormy, wet and nothing but grey! I started to wonder if it was possible to go out each day and find something literally on my doorstep that could inspire a new print. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it & I kept popping out to have a look around in my wellies & raincoat – madness? but the ideas were already buzzing, so here we are!
Geranium, Grasses & Sycamore Keys
Each day from December 1st until December 24th I will create and post a unique bowl print using various printing techniques, including silkscreen, monoprint, botanical & jelly prints, you can follow my progress on Instagram (kathyhuttonprints) using the hashtag #bowlsfordecember
What will I achieve? I’m hoping to start really seeing things again, the little things that are just passing through the seasons, they deserve to be noticed & perhaps documented in my own little way.
I’m also hoping to get to know my plants a little better, I might even look up their names!
By using the plants I find as inspiration I might break away from the blue’s & grey’s I’m so comfortable with, I’m going to take a few risks. With my marks too, nature might teach me a few new tricks!
Mostly I’m hoping that this project will help me to see the beauty on my doorstep even on the murkiest of days.
Roses & Rosemary
I was initially inspired to start this project by Emma Mitchell of Silver Pebble who set up ‘making winter’ a way of sharing the little things we do to see us through the grey months (including making Parkin!). This got me thinking about winter in a new way, you can read more about this on her Blog or join in on Twitter & Instagram with the hastag #making_winter
kathyhuttonprints 
Love this idea. Is the geranium print using a jelly plate? I so need to try this.
Hi Liz, the geraniums aren’t jelly printed, they are what I call Botanical prints ( not sure there’s a more technical term)!
You roll a layer of ink onto a surface, place the leaves (vein side down) onto the ink.
Place a sheet of paper on top and press firmly down.
Remove the paper then carefully lift up the leaves and reposition inky side down again on your printing paper.
Place a clean sheet of paper over the top, press down again and when you remove paper & leaves they will have left their mark.
Simple but effective ( and rather messy!)
Give it a go!
Lovely words Kathy and lovely prints too. So looking forward to seeing what you create each day.
I too had ‘stopped looking & seeing’, IG has helped me open my eyes.. sad but true! x
Thanks you Lisa, I’m so new to IG and didn’t really get it at first but there are such inspirational images out there, you just need to find your own way of doing things I guess. I’m also finding the little community on a twitter so supportive! Never thought I’d belong in a cyber world!!! X