Autumn Leaves

the colours of Autumn captured on paper!
© Teresa Newham

September has been chilly, and despite last week's sunshine it's clear that Autumn is upon us.  So I thought I'd better make some more leaf monoprints before the leaves I needed dropped off my Acer tree - as I'd sold all the prints & cards I'd made before!

the obliging Acer
© Teresa Newham

In the past I've fiddled about with templates for the background, but this time I simply applied the roller straight to the paper, making sure to keep it straight and even.  Then I layered the leaves on the top, using red, gold, silver and copper inks in different combinations depending on which colour lay behind them.

layering with metallic ink
© Teresa Newham

I love the shape of these leaves; they are a work of art in themselves, and sturdy enough not to break when the ink is applied.  The technique is completely different to my other printmaking - the ink is water-based and applied with a brush.

inking a leaf
© Teresa Newham

For the greetings cards I mixed some shades of base colour that I hadn't tried before, keen to see how the metallic inks would contrast - some shades simply don't work!

greetings cards with a single leaf print
© Teresa Newham

The biggest leaves made a wonderful design just as they were . . . but I couldn't resist doubling up some of the smaller ones, just to see what they looked like:

experimenting with double layers of leaves on some of the cards
© Teresa Newham

I used various sizes of leaf for the prints, and let the larger ones spill over onto the white paper. So the prints have turned out bigger than the ones I've made previously - luckily I've found some big mounts to show them off . . .

finding a suitable mount
© Teresa Newham

Each print and card is unique, because the leaves are positioned randomly.   I like to think that they evoke the spirit of Autumn and of my little Acer tree!