I've gone Gocco! (and Etsy!)

Yes, that is what has been keeping me busy and away from blogging - I got a Print Gocco for my birthday last year, and while I still had essays to write it had to sit quietly and wait. But free from all that for a while, I've been printing up a storm! And loving it!

Birthday Cake and Cup Converge is my first print working from a series of paintings I did previously, where the wonderful (and the weird) 'converged' with my coffee cups. I printed it in black ink and then hand coloured it with watercolour paint. The original painting is large, so working it down to a printable size was a challenge, and then realising I didn't need to be limited by the sides of the board to a square format, I let the cloth, saucer and candle smoke expand outwards.
This print, Cards and Cup Converge is of one of my personal favourites. I have the original painting in my private collection and use a snapshot of the Queen and Jack's faces for my avatar. I love the graphic nature of cards. (I'm still working on my series of hand drawn cards and will post again about them soon.) I printed this in black ink on my trusty Gocco and again hand coloured it with watercolours. The colours are actually more vibrant than I could capture in all the photos.

This gorgeous print Fabric and Cup Converge is printed in indigo and mauve inks and then gently hand coloured with watercolours. I love pattern and I particularly love visiting fabric shops mainly because I love being surrounded with pattern and colour. The great thing I realised about doing these prints from my original paintings, and using the Gocco to do it, is that I am not limited by the original colours of the works. I had great fun completely changing the colour palette for this print and when colouring them, I could do each print differently.

Mocha Kenya is another cup 'converging' with something strange, this time a herd of zebra! Don't ask me why! I'm not sure either. I think it came about because I love the graphic nature of the majestic animals, and am somewhat bemused by the way 'animal prints' can turn up on just about anything these days. Again this is a print worked from my original painting of the same name. It is printed in black ink on my Gocco.

There are so many strange words in the digital world. I'd never heard of a Gocco before I read others blogs about it. It took me a long time to find out how to pronounce it (Gocco rhymes with loco) let alone figure out what it did. The other strange word of the day is Etsy. I have loved browsing, and occasionally buying, on the Etsy website for a long time now. Getting my Gocco was the incentive I needed to go ahead and open my own Etsy shop.

The Little Shop of Horus is open for business right now! These four prints are up for sale in it now, and today I will be adding more of my creations to the virtual shelves. Why don't you click on over and have a look!?