I guess if I do this daily project for any length of time, there are going to be some days where I’m not feeling an ounce of creativity and today is one of them.

The only thing I’ve printed today is this piece of fabric. I’m not keen on wet cyanotypes really but I thought I’d have a play on fabric for the first time. I’m not a convert as yet!

I love running workshops here at the studio for various reasons and one of those reasons is that I’m constantly learning from and being inspired by the attendees. The last workshop I ran, one of the attendees accidentally doused one of her unexposed papers in water so we decided to expose it anyway to see what happened and there was still a lovely ethereal result that was much paler than usual but still beautiful.

Today I thought I’d have another go at immersing the print in water first and then immediately exposing it with this fern. I love the watery result but my little fern was destroyed after contact with the wet paper so next time I’ll wait for the pre soaked paper to dry before I use it.

Today is another printmaking day and this one caught my eye first thing. I like the pre-rinse colours and details.

My choice for today’s slice of creativity is a photo taken just now of one of my favourite plants, Virginia Creeper, which isn’t actually ours but our neighbour’s. It grows over their garden wall and I love it. It’s lush and incredibly fast growing and I love the patterns the leaves form. I need to get pressing plenty of these beauties before summer is over.

Busy day with lots of visitors to the studio today (and lots of lovely chats!)

In between all the chats, I was making new cyanotype prints for the shop.

Lovely light this afternoon too

I made up this honesty seed lamp today which I think is very sweet and goes well with the other two in the shop display. I made up a feather lamp too but frustratingly, one of the rings must have been wonky as the lamp has ended up ever so slightly wonky too which is a shame as the feather print had worked perfectly! I did think that the shape seemed a bit off before I started constructing it so more fool me for ploughing on regardless - lesson learned.

I thought today’s post could be some of the photos I took on my walk to the Craft Centre this morning. There aren’t many days where I don’t take at least one quick phone pic as I walk through Manchester. I love this city and am frequently inspired by it.

I printed these fabrics for my lamps today as I’d prepared them last week with the cyanotype solutions but they’d been in my photography blackout bag since then and I didn't want the fabric to start to oxidise. I particularly love the feathers one. I’m looking forward to making that up into a lamp tomorrow. I’ll post it here if I do.

(2 x linen and 1 x cotton)

More random objects for cyanotypes

I was stuck for inspiration earlier until I spotted my fabrics ruler. I like it! I can imagine it as a lining for a suit.

(Cyanotype on sateen cotton)

I’ve had some beautifully plush cotton upholstery fabric for a while and have been reluctant about printing on it for fear of ruining the fabric but I finally coated some up with cyanotype solution last week and got the chance to expose the print this morning (using tree peony leaves). At first I wasn’t sure and thought the fabric might be too thick but as the day has gone on, I love the results. I’ve not made it into a cushion yet, I just draped it over an existing one to see how it would look but I’ll definitely be printing some more using this cotton and making more cushions- it feels very luxurious!

I’m realising that I don’t have much headspace for being creative on a Sunday so just a simple phone pic of these lovelies will be enough to answer my self imposed brief of 100 days of creativity I reckon.

I just picked this crocosmia for future prints

I’ve had these skeleton leaves for a while after somebody very kindly collected them for me from her garden. This particular beauty works so well with incredible detail and I adore those rich shades of blue.