Floral Heart Shaped Stamp

Everybody likes hearts and all girls like flowers, so this lino stamp is a hit. This floral heart-shaped stamp took me two whole days to carve. It started out as a good idea and ended up being a labour of love.

It was all worth it though because everybody loves this stamp and I have used it to create articles for Cratwise Magazine and I have used it to print on canvas for Show Me How on DSTV. I have printed it on many different materials in many different colourways. I have used it to print on fabric, card, paper, wood, leather and pvc.

Many people have asked me if they can buy this stamp from me, however it is irreplaceable. The fact that I can keep printing images over and over again means that it has almost infinite value.

I have found a supplier who can produce a nice quality stamp for me and they can even make it in pink! I am very excited about my new pink stamps. They will be available at R150 for the 20cm x 20cm stamp. Let me know if you would like me to add your name to the waiting list at

info@dyeandprints.co.za

I cannot wait to see what my students make using these new stamps!

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie

0835689150

www.dyeandprints.co.za

mot selefi by Marle Drotsky

I always get VERY excited when I see what my students get up to.

Last year, Marle Drotsky attended my lino block making class to learn how to do her own print detail on her garments. She is an up-and-coming young fashion designer in Gauteng.

I popped in at SA Fashion Week Pop-Up Shops this weekend and was delighted to see how she has used the knowledge.

I just love her "Bokkie" design, and the way that she has detailed it with a screenprint and felted heart. She has used this on her childrens' wear to embellish tops and hats.

She also printed bows and roses using the technique.

SA Fashion Week is going from strength to strength and this year's Pop-Up Shop concept was a hit that I am sure will be repeated in years to come.

Well done Lucilla Booyse. You are an invaluable resource to the South African Fashion industry. Your event creates an amazing platform for young designers to get exposure to their target markets. I look forward to seeing what new innovation next year will bring?

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie

+27835689150

Lino Block Prints

Hand carved blocks have been used for centuries for stamping graphic images and designs onto cloth and other surfaces. Traditionally they were made from wood and metal. In the 1970's it became popular to carve the images into linoleum floor tiles which were softer to carve. The softer medium allowed more women to step into the printing arena because the new material was more suited to their physical capabilities.

Linoleum floor tiles were made from a linseed oil mixture, that was dehydrated and rolled flat onto a hessian base cloth.

When linoleum floor tiling went out of fashion, and was replaced with other more modern floor finishes, manufacturers continued to make lino for the craft industry.

I discovered lino blocks for the first time in 1993. The first time I worked with it I fell in love with the versatile potential of this craft. The leather in this picture was printed with an ornate lino block that I carved in 1999. This delicate block took me three weeks to make.

I was priveleged to see a collection of Penny Le Roy blocks from the 1970's some time back and I was very interested to note that the modern lino that you buy from a craft shop is a fraction of the thickness of the material that was a available back then when it was more widely used for flooring. Today it is just a sliver of tile that you work on. Although the thickness of the block does not affect the printed image, it does affect the handling and lifespan of your modern blocks.

Lino tiles are inclined to become brittle and cracked, especially if you use them with water-based inks. I am no longer able to use the one in the picture above because it has just become too brittle with age. Old lino blocks can be rehabilitated and cared for with a coating of linseed oil to feed it.

In the mean time, I have discovered a wonderful new material that is available. It is a rubber sheet that you can buy at craft shops to do the same job. The rubber is butter-soft to carve, flexible to work with, easy to clean and it does not become brittle when used with water-based inks.

Although we live in the modern age of full colour digital printing, it cannot beat the charm of a hand made print for me. I love hand crafts. Hand made items give you a glimpse into the mind of the creative behind the work. The level of care required to produce beautiful prints can only be carried out by a true artisan with a love for their medium.

In our mass-produced world, hand made prints represent individuality and a love of old-fashioned processes. While machines can deliver quicker, better, more...they cannot deliver the love and care that lies behind authentic hand made prints. They cannot translate the language of love that the artisan speaks through his medium.

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie

Penny Le Roy

Penny Le Roy was a South African fashion designer who made a big name for herself in the 1970's with her lino block printed garments that she sold in her own retail stores here and abroad.

This is one of her signature prints on a black velvet A-line skirt.

The Penny Le Roy story runs like a golden thread throughout my life and it was in her studio in 1993 that the dream for my current business acquired another layer of colour, and another way of getting it onto cloth.

All through my years in high school, I was friends with a beautiful girl called Justine Le Roy. We hung out together. At that time in my life I wanted to become a science fiction writer and I had no plan at all to go into the textile industries. I did not know about tie dye or lino block prints.

After I left school, I was less sure of what I wanted to be and I ended up working in casinos as a croupier to earn a living in the mean time. In 1993 I began to experiment with dye and lino prints. I shared a factory in town with a leathercrafter called Fern. One day we were talking and when she heard me speak about Justine Le Roy she became suddenly animated. She wanted to know if Justine was related to Penny in any way. Once she found out that Justine was Penny's granddaughter, she would not rest until Justine had organised for us to go to her home in Melville and meet her in person.

I will never forget that day. The light in the room. The smell of ink. The sense that this room had seen the birth of many, many ideas... I had been friends with Justine for all these years, so that it could distill into this one fulcrum moment in time where I fell in love. Head over heels. In this moment my fate with fabric was sealed forever.

The story does not end there.

As is usually the case, we do not understand the significance of some events in our lives until much later. Perhaps it is because the scale is so large it can only be fully understood from a great distance?

I lost contact with Justine after that, for more than ten years. One day the significance of the Penny Le Roy thread became more clear to me, and I decided to write about it on my website. A short while later I received an e-mail from Dominique Le Roy (Justine's younger sister). She was collecting all the material that she could find online about her grandmother, when she stumbled on my site. Penny Le Roy had passed away in the mean time.

This thread of events re-united me with Justine just in time for our 20 year school re-union, and we drove there together, giggling, lost, fashionably late...

The Le Roy family continues to inspire my work with their colour, creativity and laughter. The granddaughters are both intensely creative. Dominique works in stained glass and Justine sews, prints, paints, makes and tinkers with anything she can get her hands on. The gene is alive and well.

The Le Roy's really know how to have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie

What Do Ten Year Old Boys And Quilters Have In Common?

What do ten year old boys and quilters have in common?

They both love lino block prints!

In my recent in-store activities to promote my book, I have been delighted by the response from the young boys. I was at Chamdor Faktry Sales in Northlands Deco park demonstrating how easy it is to print with lino blocks. These two lads could not get enough and wanted to try out every stamp in my box. The smiling faces tell the rest of the story.

It is such a magical moment, when a student realises that they have just laid down their first print on cloth...and it was easy! Even kids can do it!

Before the Industrial Revolution, all fabrics were made by hand. Prints were applied with hand carved wood blocks and hammered metal designs. In the Hippy era, linoleum floor tiles became the favoured method because they were soft to carve and easy to handle. Printmaking became more accessible to women as the medium changed to a softer material that they could handle.

Today, linoleum floor tiles are only really used by crafters and, since nobody is putting it on the floor anymore, manufacturers have made it thinner and thinner and the artist's lino that you buy today is only a sliver thick.

I have converted to the modern rubber version that is butter soft to carve and work with. It is not prone to "chunks" coming out with the blade in cold weather like the old version. Rather, it gives smooth crisp cuts and clean prints.

Have a great day in full colour!

Kind regards

Melanie