It's All in the Print

This was a workshop being run yesterday by Art Van Go. As they are in Knebworth and I am working at Duxford (about 30 minutes away) I thought I would go along for a play.

The first thing we did was to grid up the white fabric with masking tape

One colour was added using a roller directly onto the fabric or by using a variety of mono-print techniques. We rolled out the fabric paint onto a sheet of plastic, made marks in the paint and then printed this onto the fabric. The paint was sandwiched between two plates which were then printed onto the fabric. Stencils were also used.

When the paint was dry we removed the masking tape

The masking tape was saved to be reused

This masking tape was then repositioned on the fabric

A second colour was added

The masking tape now needs removing again but as I want to keep and perhaps use the tape I will wait until I get home before doing this.

In between printing on fabric we practiced on paper and also made sure that all paint was used up so that none was washed away.

Buenos Aires continued

I forgot to mention that we visited a number of museums and art galleries where we saw some fascinating work. There was also lots of art for sale at all the street markets we visited.

It was strange for me to see the trees starting to turn colour as in England it is spring rather than autumn. The streets are wide (one I crossed was 16 lanes wide) with plenty of trees and other greenery.

There are plenty of magnificent buildings, many of which reminded me of Paris or Budapest.

Casa Rosada is where the President works but we were allowed inside to have a look around. The courtyard photos are taken inside an old townhouse in San Telmo.

The shops are colourful and contain an eclectic assortment of goods.

I thought I would share some of the starters and snacks that I had.

 If people weren't dancing or playing they would sit and watch.

Buenos Aires was a lovely place to visit, everyone I met was friendly and helpful, even though my Spanish is poor. I would definitely recommend a visit.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

I recently spent a few days in Buenos Aires - it is a fascinating and very beautiful city. As my internet connection was so slow in the hotel I decided to wait until I got home to post some pictures. I had been sent there to do some training (I know, how amazing is that?) so I worked on the Friday that I arrived but at the weekend ...
On the Saturday we started by going to Cementerio de la Recoleta. It is a huge necropolis that was started in 1822 and is still having people interred in their family tombs. There were streets and streets of over 150 monuments.

Some of the doors and gates were stunning

The door on the left belongs to the tomb that contains Eva Peron

After the cemetery we went to an area called El Caminito. This contains many buildings made of painted zinc

The variety of windows and balconies were stunning

If you've visited my blog before you will have seen some of the yarn bombing or graffiti knitting that my students have done. Here they had graffiti crochet - all the trees had some.

Of course, being Argentina you expect to see dancing and music. We were not disappointed. In the cafe where we stopped for lunch there was Tango, there was dancing and musicians in the streets as we walked around.