Are you being pursued by a bear?

Exit, pursued by a bear is one of the most famous stage directions in theatre history, from Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, Act II scene iii.

I wonder how it was done in the Elizabethan theatre. I have decided to celebrate it with letterpress and knitting.

I am rather proud of my mohair bear, with eyes and a nose - a nose most unusual for my knitting, but it had to be done.

And poor Antigonus, looking a little dejected, with mad crazy orange hair, and a motley body.
It's printed with a lovely big wooden font, with stylish buttons to loop the puppets into place.

I sometimes feel like there's a bear chasing after me with a list of thingsI have to do, brandishing deadlines and expectations and frantic stuff. Hmm. But I suppose if it's a mohair bear with no teeth then that's ok.
Exit pursued is in my Etsy shop, and is coming with me to the Dinefwr Festival this weekend. http://etsy.me/1yhxTxu

Getting Shakespeare ready for an outing to Dinefwr

Back into the printing shed, and preparing for the Dinefwr Literature Festival on 20th to 22nd June.  Today I am getting some Shakespeare cards together.

I really like the come-on-get-on-with-make-your-mind-up tone of this quote, when you leave off the final to be!

The cards are laser prints of the letterpress original, machine stitched onto a white card. I have given up trying to get adhesive to behave, so I have reverted to the sewing machine. This old wooden font gives a lovely print.

I have used a big wooden O for the Muse of fire quote. I really like it!

It's also been used for an O brave new world print, still hanging up to dry. And then the fluttering pennants of words draping down for the inspiring once more unto.

That middle E is really showing us its history, I love it.

And then, from As You Like It, all the world's a stage, using four different types of letter.

A couple more to go, and then moving on to Dylan Thomas.

And after that, preparing my own poetry, although I hardly dare admit it, in such exalted company!
The cards are in my Etsy shop, with a few more images, if you'd like to look.
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/quarto17

Prospero and Table Mountain

I walked up  Table Mountain outside Crickhowell, starting on the valley floor, next to the river, and looking up at my destination.

The 'table' makes a wonderful circular viewing platform, with the valleys below and peaks stretching above and away on all sides. In the damp air, the colours were intense and magnified. Breathtaking.

The noise of the wind blotted out all other sounds. Clouds rushed past, ragged hounds in full cry streaming over the ridge. I thought of Prospero saying to Ariel "Thou shalt be free as mountain wind," and thought what a fierce freedom that would be.

How wonderful to see Prospero giving his "this rough magic" speech up here. Breaking his staff and giving up his tiny place in the elemental magical world. I had a tremendous desire to follow the path on the next ridge, and keep walking, into the clouds and away.

Shakespeare's Birthday. Letterpress. Poems While U Wait.

I thought I would celebrate Shakespeare's birthday with some letterpress and knitting. Of course - how else would I do it?! Here are some of my new cards, awaiting posh photos before being offered to a discerning public.

It seemed a shame to make a Richard III, when I could do a horse instead. The horse represents the absolute limit of my ability to knit. The font I used for the word 'horse' has a Wild West saloon poster look to it that I really like. 

The most famous stage direction of all, from Winter's Tale. I don't usually stitch noses on finger puppets, but thought the bear needed one.

I have a soft spot for Mark Antony, one of the sexiest of all flawed heroes. I hope I have done him justice, in his Senatorial toga.

 The Shakespeare puppets will be coming with me to the Big Skill Crafts Festival at Racquety Farm in Hay on Wye on 24th to 26th May. Here's a link to their Facebook Page, https://www.facebook.com/thebigskill
I will also be doing Poems While U Wait at the event. Very much looking forward to that. I hope William would have approved.

A shed full of print & Shakespeare

At last, I have surrendered and made my shed solely into a print studio.

Very proud of my shelves - strangely enough, Ikea didn't have shelves specifically for trays of type, but these are fine.

The proofing press is on the floor. It's so heavy I figured it would probably end up there anyway.  I quite like leaning down to print.

I have been in a Shakespeare frenzy, finding quotes and bits of quotes. It's amazing how much Shakespeare we know and say without realising. I am planning some less literary printing, but it's been just William so far.

And this card has sold to several parents with children doing course work and dissertations. The big O is fabulous.

I decided to sew the prints onto cards rather than stick them. I don't know how adhesive is done commercially, but I never manage to get a card completely flat, despite my book press (that's still in the sitting room, doubling as a sculpture). And I like the look of the stitching!

The machine complained a bit, but it's been with me a long time and used to make pantomime costumes, so it's used to some extreme sewing.

Some of the cards have finger puppets on, of course. Here's Hamlet.

The cards, with and without puppets, have already been out to a couple of craft fairs, and will go onto my Etsy shop, as soon as I have photographed them successfully. And then away from Shakespeare and into Bride & Groom, Congratulations, Happy Brithday, and You Know Nothing Jon Snow territory. The last phrase is a Game of Thrones thing!

Letterpress printing. Wooden letters. Shakespeare. White spirit.

I have transformed my kitchen into a print room, with the proofing press on the floor

 and a washing line strung between two shelves, in front of a rather exuberant Susie Perring print.

I am making Shakespeare prints,

with my trays of wooden letter on the floor, and on a small table behind the kitchen table.

The proofing press is a beast. I love it.

And I have learned two very important things this morning. First, that white spirit DOES remove printing ink from a stone floor. Second, that it does NOT remove it from pyjama trousers. I suppose there is a third thing. Put on printing clothes before beginning to mess around with ink and type.

Knitted Literary Cohort ready for Diffusion Fair

Here are a few of the cohort of Literary and Operatic finger puppet collage cards, ready to travel from Hay on Wye to the Diffusion Festival Publishing Weekend in Cardiff.

Celebrating some of the great characters and stories of opera and literature, the idea for them came to me in a vision as I awoke at the end of Act 2 of a concert performance of Parsifal.

The cards have knitted finger puppets, text either handwritten or typed on my ancient typewriter, and collage. Here are King Lear and his Fool,

and Caliban and Ariel,

My current favourite is Don Giovanni, who you can see with the Commendatore on the bottom left of the first photograph.

I am really looking forward to bringing the cohort to Diffusion at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff at the weekend, 25th and 26th May.
www.diffusionfestival.org

Be careful. I think the puppets come alive at night.

Hamlet. A Tribute.

 Here is Hamlet meeting his father's ghost, in a tribute to the new production at the RSC.

It's a collaged card, with finger puppets.

An economical way to have Hamlet in your home, so much more convenient than great big actors who would no doubt need feeding.

Hamlet and other Shalespearian finger puppet cards can be found on my website, under the For Sale menu.

www.francescakay.co.uk

Shakespeare. Calphurnia. Dreams of Doom.

Here is Caesar's wife Calphurnia, awaking from dreams where she foresees Caesar's death in Act III.

DO NOT GO FORTH TODAY, she says, but he goes forth and - well you know what happens. Perhaps going forth after a Dream of Doom isn't a good idea.








You can see more gift cards featuring finger puppet characters on my website;
www.francescakay.co.uk

Sir John Falstaff

I never liked the way Prince Hal treated Falstaff.

Sir John loved him unconditionally, and Hal used him and then rejected him.


Hal is beige, all beige,
Falstaff a tattered rainbow
Washed away with tears.