#projectperegrine

A couple of weekends ago I went to hang out with the taxidermy at The Herbert Art Gallery. Sketchbook in hand I spent a 'lovely' hour or so looking at, sketching and photographing the birds. Although not ideal (as in the fact that all the birds are dead, but at least they sit still for you!) it is the closest I am going to get to some of these birds, and they have been stuffed for a very long time; I remember going to see them as a child....! Since the linocut workshop I did there with Aide and #projectblackkite I've had it in mind to do some more raptors and at school our class have been following the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's webcam of the Peregrine Falcons in Leamington. (That should hopefully link to the webcam too.) The children have affectionately called the Peregrine pair Peggy and Keith, so making the decision of the Peregrine to start with was reasonably easy, although there are still other raptors I want to do! We have some local Peregrines in Coventry nesting by the Catherdral too.

This is the first time I have worked in the little room upstairs as well - I suppose you could call it a 'studio' of sorts!! We had a sort out and I have put a desk and some storage stuff into the little boxroom for my printing stuff and papers so it's not taking over the house so much. It was a very chilled afternoon listening to some good retro tunes too. I'm still printing in the kitchen though as the desk is too small upstairs. Today that involved moving Dave's cooling cake.... (more later!)

For this print I used 'normal' grey lino again rather than the Japenese Vinyl. It has a different quality to cut and also when printing. The surface seems to soak up more ink than the vinyl, so I am going to have to get used to that when printing further copies. I've also tried printing it onto one of my card backs too, and if I may say so myself it is looking alright! ;-)  I've also got some corks for the end of my pfeil cutters and they are now living in a tea caddy tin!

As you might have seen from the front page I've added to the website, this year I am exhibiting as part of the Warwickshire Open Studios. This fills me with a mixture of trepidation and excitement! I went to see a printer yesterday about getting some of my drawings turned into greetings cards that I can sell alongside my hand printed lino prints too. I'll be making sure the link is added so you can see where and when it's on if you are interested to come along. It's also made me realise I need a bit more of a rocket to get stuff done too! I got the page from the brochure through the other day to proof read - seeing my name and one of my prints next to it, albeit very small was quite exciting. And then I wibbled again!

Right, time to make a slideshow, and as husband has been off work today too, he's been in the kitchen baking chocolate cake :-) And my husband makes Very Fine Cake indeed :-) It Does Not have the extra added ingredient of printing ink.

Hopefully more very soon, as it's been a fair while since my last blog! I *still* have #projectmagpie to finish!

​alix x

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