Project Ideas
When life hands you lemons, make art (and cake) with them!
In addition to being essential for gin & tonicand lemon curd, this humble fruit can be the starting point for printing, painting, pattern and much more…..a light-hearted look at lovely lemons to see what we can squeeze out of them!
Craft Foam& Polystyrene Printing:
1. Cut simpleshapes from a piece of polystyrene (pizza base is ideal) or kids craft foam
(they will print in reverse so if you want them to be a particular way round draw them first onto tracing paper with a soft pencil then flip it over and transfer onto the surface of the foam by drawing back over the image with a biro or hard pencil.) Make a collection of lemony shapes to use individually or in combination.
2. Stick ontopieces of cardboard or clear plastic food containers with double-sided tape to make them easier to handle.
3. Draw lightlyonto the surface with a soft pencil to create patterns & designs then
indent them with a biro or harder pencil – where the surface is indented it doesn’t print and the lines will be white.
4. Create designssuch as grids, mandalas (see below) or borders for recipe cards using these stamps.
5. Alternatively,print elements separately, then cut out and collage together, adding details with a dip pen or paint brush.
All these stamps can be inked up with watercolour (with the addition of Aquapasto
medium or rice paste or acrylic matt medium to thicken it) or acrylic paint, using a sponge or flat paintbrush…..less is more; if you have too much paint your print will be splodgy! You can also use inking pads designed for use with commercial rubber stamps. Do a test print on a piece of scrap paper before applying it to your piece of
work.
Creating a Mandala Design:
1. There are many ways of getting started anddeveloping a design, using all or just one or two of the techniques combined, based on the idea of concentric circles containing layers of pattern….as follows:
2. Create a reference sheet of shapes – all the waysa lemon can be cut, and leaves & flowers of a lemon tree from a variety of view points.
3. Draw lightlywith an erasable pencil a number of concentric circles using a compass or various dishes and bowls as a template.
4. Use your foam stamps from exercise 2 and/or printshapes with the inner tube from a toilet roll or kitchen roll to map out your basic composition. As an alternative to printing, draw with a dip pen and watercolour or coloured pencils. (Tip: divide your circles into segments before you start to ensure you can fit your elements evenly in the space).
5. Start to fill in areas of colour then addlinework, detail, & further pattern elements to fill gaps.
Printing from lemons:
1. Cut your lemon in half with a sharp knife – itwill be very juicy so you will need to blot it on kitchen paper before applying paint.
2. Using a small piece of kitchen sponge apply paintto the cut surface of your lemon and press down firmly onto your paper - acrylic paint works best, although it is possible to do it with thickened watercolour (see above).
3. Print a random design all over an A3 size piece ofpaper, add washes of colour, spatters and drawn elements with a dip pen if desired.
4. Allow to dry thoroughly then fold into a simplepocket book, ready to hold lemony recipe cards!
RecipeCards:
1. Select your favourite lemony recipes and print outonto the heaviest paper your printer can cope with at a size to fit into your pocket books, leaving a wide enough border to allow for decoration (I have included my favourite super-easy lemon cake recipe below). Alternatively, print onto normal copier paper and stick to a heavier piece. To create a good surface for painting on, coat the copier paper with a layer of acrylic matt medium once it is firmly stuck to something heavier. When dry you can work on top of this with watercolours, gouache or acrylics.
2. Alternatively, write the recipes by hand ontoheavy cartridge paper or watercolour paper.
3. Decorate the border area with your foam stamps orcreate simple loose watercolour shapes of lemons, leaves and flowers and add detail with a dip pen when the first layer is dry.
4. As an optional finishing touch, round off thecorners of your cards with a corner-punch before slotting into the pockets of your book. Wrap a ribbon around the bookto secure – this makes a lovely gift for lovers of all things lemony or just a handy way of keeping all your recipes together.
Lemon Cake
Recipe: Lemoncake with lemon buttercream and drizzle: (plenty for one without having to share!)
Ingredients:
1 large egg – weigh the egg, thequantities of the following 3 ingredients will be the same weight)
Self-raisingflour
Castorsugar
Butter
Zestand juice of half a lemon (save the other half for the buttercream)
Method:
1. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale andsmooth
2. Beat in an eggthen sift in the flour .
3. Mix thoroughly,adding the lemon juice and zest.
4. Pour into agreased 6 inch cake tin
5. Bake in apreheated oven 180 fan for approx. 20 minutes
6. Leave to cool, remove from cake tin and slice inhalf
Filling / Topping: Depending on how lemony you like it:
Filling:Start with a layer of lemon curd, then a layer of lemon butter cream (twice as much icing sugar to butter, whipped or beaten until pale and fluffy with the remaining zest and juice folded in after beating).
Topping: Add another layer of lemony flavour by makinga drizzle icing for the top of the cake by combining icing sugar and lemon juice mixed to a thick pouring consistency – if you’re feeling naughty you could use Limoncello liqueur in the mix too!
Then make a cuppa, cut a big slice – and enjoy!
