Greetings all,

The Etsy shop is open and ready. You can access it on my website or on Etsy at April Gavin Textile Art. Etsy is an unruly stew and getting the listings to the fore is something I'm learning all about. I've listed a small sample of items but will list more in the coming month. Share the shop with your friends.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a technique I tried. The technique is called a grisaille. I subscribe to James Gurney's blog. He's an amazing painter and storyteller. He mentioned this technique in a recent video and it seemed like something I could do. I attempted the technique on Woodpecker. This is a little sloppy, but I enjoyed the drama of it.. I used gray ink to cover the whole background. I then transferred Woodpecker onto the fabric. The technique is to start with mid-tone gray and then bump up the darks and lights until you achieve the values you want. You can then add color from there.

Maybe, I'll try this technique on Opossum next.

Enjoy the holidays!