A day of falconry

I am super excited. Today I finished my first ever slip case! I wanted a thumb tab so it was easier to pull my falconry day prints out, but think I need to find a better way to finish it off in book cloth as it looks a bit shoddy. In the end, the prints were a bit 'hey-ho' per the tutor comments at my review, but my main purpose was to try using different ways to print in colour, including jigsaw blocks, roller, addition and multiple colour prints so I am not too phased, though I do heed their comments. I think I need more development time. It is one thing to print something initially, but then I need time to figure out how to improve it to be what I want it to be. Anyway, I had a couple of friends who liked the prints. Oisin liked the lip of the older man holding the bird which I really struggled with and thought I had made a muck up of, so that was nice of him to say :). Will post a couple more of the pieces from my final review for second year soon. I am in the process of doing my documentation that I need to submit for my final grade so all in good time...

The Modern Thinking Bird

There was once a girl who asked a boy what he thought the most fragile thing in the world was. And he cupped his hands in the shape of a bird's nest and said to her that in his mind, a bird's eggs protected by a hedge of twigs was the most fragile thing in the world. And every time she looked high into the trees and saw a bird's nest made of twigs she thought of what he had said. 

And I wonder sometimes if we, humans, birds, fish, other animals, insects, plants aren't made up of all the same stuff. But not exactly the same stuff which is what I think makes it so perfect. I was thinking as corny as it is, that maybe it's just like a big painting with different textures and colours and lines and shapes and that with one or another part missing is just isn't going to be the same. And I know when I was a kid, I remember someone talking about weaving, and that if there was a mistake, the pattern on the rug could still be beautiful and maybe that's where I got the thought from. 

You can probably tell it's late at night here. I've got to print 7 lino cuts about 35 times tomorrow and I'm still cutting them. I've decided to make a little black book cloth covered square pouch with gold writing to put them in and call it The Modern Thinking Bird. Hope you think that's ok. Here is one of them, which I am going to try using chine colle on. It generally is a bit of a disaster when I do it but I'll see, you never know what might happen.

Man and Kestrel at Scottish Deer Centre