June Arty News Continued...

Part 2 - Wildflowers and Sandy Toes...

My previous post was getting quite long. I decided to turn it into two posts for the month of June. An extra bonus for you this month. I hope that you will enjoy this post because it is arty, there is a little wow moment, it’s definitely different and hopefully you will find it inspiring…

My family and I spent a week on holiday enjoying the beautiful coastline and beaches of the Lizard Peninsular, in Cornwall, during May half term. It was a lovely week of warm beach days, sandy toes and coastal walks.

Kennack Sands

Just a 15-minute from our accommodation, following a footpath through the woods, we arrive at the picturesque beach of Kennack Sands. Rock pools emerge among the granite and serpentine rocks when the tide is low. The sand and shallow water are the perfect invitation for an enjoyable swim, if a tad cold. We spent hours playing in the rock pools, finding shrimps, and tiny fish. Building sand forts for the tide to breach, and collecting rainbow pebbles of serpentine as soft as soap and pretty limpet shells.

Kennack Sands sits along the coastal path that travels all the way around the Lizard Peninsular, and from Kennack Sands it’s just a two-mile walk to the fishing village of Cadgwith Cove. Here is where you find sea glass in among the pebbles on the stony beach and watch the fishing boats arriving laden with the daily catch.

Kynance Cove, Mullion Cove, Kynance Cove, Cadgwith Cove.

By car, we visited coastal villages and beaches further afield, enjoying a walk on the harbour walls of Mullion Cove and along sandy Poldhu beach. We spent a couple of mornings walking the cliffs and playing on the beach at Kynance Cove and even ventured as far as Penzance and St Ives when the weather took a turn for the worse.

Photos from the Coastal Path between Kennack Sands and Cadgwith, Boats on the beach at Cadgwith.

All along the coastal path were beautiful wildflowers. From the tall foxgloves, delicate Red Campion and white sea campion, and the tiny pink thrift. The hedgerow was a wash of colour and texture that drew me in. The rugged coastline views were stunning, breath-taking, and occasionally a bit precarious under foot -‘just don’t look down’. It was the beautiful hedgerow wildflowers that were a constant distraction for me.

I tried to capture lots of these memories in my sketchbook. Pages were painted and lightly collaged before I left. I shared a short video of this, featured in my May Substack entry. Here is a look inside my ‘not yet finished’ holiday sketchbook…

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my sketchbook progress. These pages are unfinished and as they were when we left the Lizard to come home at the end of our holiday. I hope to dip back into them over the coming weeks as a lovely reminder of my holiday, using the photos I took to help me develop these pages further.

Since arriving back I home, I have wanted to test out an idea. I have been developing a workshop for my students using Tetra Pak printing. We have been using the big printing press to produce our Tetra Pak prints, and they have been very successful so far. A bit of a wow moment for the students as their prints are looking very professional.

This method of printing is a type of dry point or intaglio printing whereby a printed image can be achieved by working on the inside of the Tetra Pak, drawing, cutting into and removing layers of the shiny surface. The ink absorbs into the soft papery inner layer. On the surface ink can be wiped clean to leave very clear and detailed marks, lines, and textures that have been created.

I have used a page from my holiday sketchbook to develop a Tetra Pak print. I wanted to see if I could print this at home on my TODO press, using just cheap school style water based ink (available on amazon for around £5) and some 250gsm card stock. Let’s see how it goes…

I bought this TODO press second-hand on Facebook Marketplace for £30. Its original purpose is for die cutting and embossing for crafts and card making. I have used it for collagraph prints on beer mats and it has been quite good. I need to invest in some printers blankets next rather than the makeshift scrap paper layers that are doing the job for me at the moment.

I am quite pleased with how this print turned out. There is definitely room for improvement, and investment in better quality ink would be worth while. Next, I will try printing onto fabric. There is potential there for some hand embroidered wild flowers next.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. If you have, I would really appreciate it if you would consider subscribing and sharing my post with others who you think might enjoy this content.

Thank you for following along,

Sarah x