Notan Leaves

I needed a summer project to keep my hands busy while watching the monsoon rains, unfortunately we did not have a long monsoon season in the desert this year but I finally finished this fabric study. Notan is a principle of the balance between light and dark, and I decided that viney leaves might make an interesting piece.

I rusted the light fabric using muslin in an old rusted coffee can and lots of vinegar! Although I washed the muslin well, rusted fabric often continues to disintegrate which I hope leaves some interesting holes in the process of deconstruction.

The leaves were drawn free-hand on freezer paper and I hand-appliqued each block separately.

For now, the scroll will hang against a wall but I backed it with scrim so it can free hang with light passing through the piece.

The rusted fabric was difficult to hand applique as there were metal "bits" embedded in the fabric, I went through a lot of needles!

This is a detail of two of the blocks:

Beetles

These could be spot-less ladybugs but they resemble more the dreaded Japanese beetle that used to devour my beloved antique roses! Ticks, mosquitoes, black flies, desert crickets, scorpions, and locusts are on my non-friendly insect list.

This is the last in this series, I have just sketched out a small lino block along the same leafy format and will post when printed.

This block is 12" x 12".

Aphid

The reason I never minded a few aphids on my roses was because it brought the ladybugs around! Printed on honsho, 12" x 12".

Firefly

Another bug in the series. I "etched" a few places very subtly with diluted Drano. It must be done carefully but linoleum responds to this technique and depending on how deep you let the Drano etch, an aquatint look can be achieved. It is painted on with a brush and this is a technique to be done outside or with plenty of good ventilation, and with gloves.

I was trying to use as fine a line as I could to carve this piece. This block is 12" x 12".

Leaf Bug

This is one in a series of linoleum blocks I made a while ago and printed them out on fabric. This print is printed on honsho but I think it would be interesting to print it out on paste paper.Block is 12"x12".