artandpaper

I have been printing lot recently using Gelli plates and acrylic paint. I love the gel plate to print with. It holds the paint nicely and doesn't dry the paint too quickly. Anyhow should the paint dry too fast its not a disaster. Lay a thin coat of transparent medium and you can pull the print. Or a thin layer of white paint - if your paper is white of course.  I have also been thinking of how to use up all those prints. What I like doing is using the prints to cover boxes made from recycled carton. They are quite small but quite rigid at the same time but are also quite inexpensive.  Here is a selection of recent prints. As you can see it was made with leaves that I collected from the garden. Dark colour printed first with the leaves then red then yellow. I often use thick tissue paper to blot the paint which leaves a nice texture which I like.  This was a transfer from a magazine. You need to use high quality glossy photographs from the more expensive magazines like Vogue or Elle

 Hey, I'm back! Again?  😁 Ok I have been out of touch for a bit, Ha a bit sez you! More like a bit much.  But hey ho, here I am.  So now I am full of ideas and energy and I have been hard at work. I got really into Gelli printing recently so I will start with that.  First what is Gelli printing. Easy, its printing mono prints on a plate made from a type of glycerine. Wow cool. Yes its fun too. I bought the gel plate from Gelli Arts or on Amazon and you can suss it out here and see if you like the idea. Personally I love it. There is so much you can do, so many different textures and transfers you can make. And you use acrylic paint which means it dries really fast. Although if you want to slow it sown you can with a slow dry medium. But don't worry I'll take you through all the steps and before you know it you will be having great fun and coming up with all sorts of ideas for your own work.  Here is a sample of one of my prints. It's a photo transfer from a magazine th

 Hi everyone, I havent been blogging for quite some time but with moving house, covid restriction and sorting out my life I've been quite occupied. However I am back and I am going to get into selling online. So this is where you come in. I need your advice. I know more or less what to do, i.e. get a Facebook business account, link it to Instagram and other social media, such as Pinterest and arrange for payments etc. But still, thats not enough is it? One can do ALL that but it doesn't bring in the customers, does it? NO! So what else? I'm interested in any help or ideas.  Looking forward to hearing from you.  Thank you in advance.  Love and Peace.

We are artists trying to make a living from our work. It's not easy and most of the time it's frustrating and downright depressing. But do we give up? No, we continue, we persevere and hope that one day we will find success. Success is different for everyone. For some it's to have a gallery take them on, for others to have an exhibition, for some it's to earn a living from their work, and others to sell enough to cover the cost of their materials. However, we don't give up. We've been told that social media is the way to go. We've read about success stories. Artists making enough from internet sales to give up the day job. But the reality is this. You get likes and the more artists and people you follow, the more likes you get. You write up your blog. You put your photos on Instagram, and FaceBook, you pin on Pinterest, you open a shop on Etsy, you link on Linkin. But tell me, how often does it translate in to sales? Less than most would admit to I guess.

I made this screen print in three different colours, blue, red and turquoise. Take a look, tell me which you prefer. Image size 30x20cm, paper size 50x35cm If you like them enough to buy, then contact me and we can arrange it. So as you know the cost - well, I recon it's a reasonable price for a large scale print. €20 euros each or three (one of each) for €50 euros. Post and packing €10 euros worldwide. Only with PayPal as it's the most secure for everyone. Anyway let me know what you think. Love to hear from you. mcloughlinhelen7@gmail.com

Next phase after putting the chapters together is binding the sections, glueing, and attaching the boards. I covered the boards with lovely blue paper and am ready to attach the book block to the boards. I use extra strong vinyl glue to be sure all will hold together and the advantage with this type of glue is that is it dries quickly and I can wash the brush with water. I'm really pleased with the finished book. There are nine in the limited edition, so it's a bit special. I will make some others which will be slightly different, so a separate edition.