Carved stone dogs - a bit more work

Having got my carved stone dogs finished off, I noticed the same thing as I did when I first did Wow: unless the light is on it just right, to cast a shadow, the design can all but disappear. So, I decided to do the same thing as I did then: paint it.

As before, I primed the surface of the stone with a sealer meant for stone tiles - it's colourless and matt, and so doesn't show up at all, but will stop the paint from sinking into the stone.  I then applied a layer of gesso to the areas to be painted:

As you can see, that's all the carved areas; the intention is to leave the uncarved design as the natural stone.

I'm using the same light gold acrylic paint as for Wow (well I like gold!), and did the fiddly bits in the centre first, with a fine brush:

Then the outline of the dogs:

Then finished off the rest of the background:

It looks quite yellow in the photo, though in real life it does have a proper shine to it.

The design certainly stands out better now!

I think this might turn into embroidery...

Lindisfarne Beasts: completed

The embroidery was already finished, but to finish the piece I needed to do a few more final bits and pieces.

I first damp stretched it, to get it nice and wrinkle-free:

I've had a frame in mind for this from that start, and had made sure that the piece of linen I was using for the embroidery was the right size to fit.  I retrieved it from the cupboard, and got it ready:

Using the mount board that came with the frame, I pinned the fabric in place:

and mitred the corners:

And then laced the back tightly:

Here it is from the front, nicely stretched:

And finally, in the frame, on display:

Finished!

I'm going to enter it for the the Embroiderers' Guild exhibition in Durham Cathedral later this year - I'll let you know whether it's accepted.

Stone carving workshop - decorative motifs

You may remember that last summer I went on a stone carving workshop, at the Mushroom Works in Newcastle.  I did lettering carving then, and was very pleased with the result, 'Wow'.  I've just been on a second workshop at the same place, this time on decorative motifs.

The course was run by the same tutor, Peter Graham, and followed much the same format.

Peter had standard images we could use if we wanted, but we were encouraged to bring designs of our own to use.  Being quite keen on all things Lindisfarne Gospels at the moment, I selected a motif from that, featuring dogs again.  Unfortunately, I'd drawn it up for a piece of stone about the same size as Wow, but the stone provided this time was bigger, which meant hurriedly redrawing it.  Plus, Peter advised me to simplify it a bit, to make it easier for a beginner like me.

Here's the original design and the redrawn version:

I traced this onto the stone using carbon paper:

The first thing I needed to do was to carve out the outline of the design:

And the outline of the fiddly bits in the centre, though not the mouths and eyes, which were too fiddly to attempt just yet:

I took out the rest of the fiddly bits:

And then, using a claw chisel, started removing all the stone around the main design:

This was hard work and took ages, though at least I could sit down - it was done with the stone fastened to the table with a clamp, to stop it moving about, at least as much.

But I got there in the end!

I rather like the textured effect of the claw chisel, though as I didn't have time to work on a smooth finish, that's just as well.

I then, and almost finally, I needed to add the detail - the places where the dogs' tongues overlap, ears and teeth and so forth:

After that, it was a case of improving what I already had: deepening the cut around the design to make it stand out better, and neatening stuff up.

It would have been nice to round it off a bit so there wasn't quite such a severe edge, but I ran out of time.

I'm slightly ambivalent about it; I don't think it's come out as well as Wow, but there was a lot more to do in not much time, and I am a complete novice after all.  It improved a lot after a good clean-up once I got it home - a scrub with very fine wet and dry sandpaper and water:

Freshly spruced up, in the winter sunshine:

What do you think?

Lindisfarne Beasts: the rest of the dog - and finished!

All the stitching is now finished!

There was just the dog's back end to go.  The second half of his body and one leg:

Then his second back leg, plus filling all the dog's and birds' claws in gold:

Finished!

Well, finished the sewing, anyway - there's still a little bit of work to do to get it in a displayable condition.

Gocco printing: progress

Following the slightly disappointing results with my first attempt at Gocco screen printing, I've read up a lot more on using it, and have made a breakthrough.

To recap on the last Gocco-related post, the original artwork used to make the screens has to be carbon based, usually photocopies or laser printouts.  Inkjet printouts won't work as they use black dye rather than the carbon used in toner.

Or that's what all the instructions tell you, anyway.  In a forum thread (which I've lost, I'm afraid, so apologies for the lack of link), a contributor said that some inkjet printers do use carbon in their ink, and so printouts from them will work.  According to him, HP printers are the best, though only if you use proper HP ink rather than cheap non-branded stuff.

As luck would have it, my inkjet printer is HP, and I use HP ink as I don't entirely trust refilled cartridges not to leak.  So, worth a try.

Using a version of a different design of mine, Fire Lizard, I printed it out using my own printer, and flashed the screen without the blue filter (as the chap in the forum thread advised), as there isn't enough carbon in the ink for it to be necessary.

And it worked!  It came out much better than the first, photocopied, attempt.  There are still a couple of minor issues with it, mostly down to the fact that I'm still learning what I'm doing, but on the whole I'm very pleased with it.

Here are a tableful of prints, drying:

And a close-up of one of them:

I'd like to do a few more designs based on my embroidery, and see how they compare.  At the very least they're a lot quicker to do!

Lindisfarne Beasts: the inner dog

Just the inner section of the dog to do now, and I've completed his front end.  I felt that yet another bright colour would be a bit much, so I've gone for a pale yellow, Madeira 0102.

First his front leg:

And then the rest of his front half:

On its own, that shade looks slightly peachy, but next to the green edging, it seems to take on a greenish hue itself, which is rather nice.

Nearly there now, though there's still a fair amount of stitching to go to fill in his back half.  Not long now, though!

Lindisfarne Beasts: dog outline

Back to the sewing today, after my excursion into screen printing.

With the birds finished, it's time to start adding the colour to the dog.  I want another bright colour, but different to the ones I've already used, so this time, for the outline, I'm going for a bright emerald green, Madeira 1301.

Here's the outline for most of his front end:

And his front leg too:

Then most of his back end:

And his other back leg:

Then finally his tail and ear, also in 1301, and his muzzle and eye, in 1306:

There's only the inner section to do now, though there is quite a lot of it.  I think another bright colour here might be a bit much with everything else, so I think I'll tone it down a bit.