We interupt this program

 For a tribute to Valentine's day, well it had to be done ;) Above is my card to him & below his card to me. Lovely.

 Note that on my card to him there's a little bit of experimental fme.

 Above is college work - this is the actual plate of an experimental collograph. It's amazing to see what texture comes out which way. Lots to learn. Below is the second pull on wet paper. The first was so gloopy with ink I left it behind along with a couple of others to dry.

the next 3 pics are plate clean offs
 

 Below is some drawing into the last of the rolled out ink. We need to get 2 'perfect pieces' done over the next 4 weeks to hand in, having chosen 2 of the techniques - no thumb prints or blobs of ink, never mind which image to choose...it's that word perfect that gets me ;(

Had a go at some rust dyeing in fabric. I'd forgotten I had Cloth paper Scissors 'Surface Explorations' & it was an article in there. Sorry no link.

 24 hours was suggested but I didn't get back to my trays of fabric for 4 days! I know most people CAN'T WAIT to open their bundles. These are a little over cooked but I'm 'well pleased'!

 I couldn't waste the rusty juice in the trays but how do you neutralise just printed paper?

So, onto the hearts proper. I seem to have lost the ability to free machine stitch. I did a super quick 'sample' & made it into a card on Wednesday, having painted loads of hearts earlier that day. But from then on all my machine would let me do while free machining was sound like it was having a heart attack (hmmm)  or a car back firing, the gold thread would magically re thread itsself thru the needle twice - it's all I can do to see the eye to thread it the first time & leave me with a classic birds nest underneath. I changed the needle, I actually found a hoop....me! I changed the thread, then I looked under the plate, having decided to work step by step thru the manual, even tho  no where mentions fme, just darning. Oh boy, someone on line said a tiny bit of fluff might do it, well, I had a forrest of the stuff - nice & clean now, still birds nests. Could it be after all these years I may be winding the bobbin the wrong way round? Jury's out on that one ;)

 So the 4 hearts pic above the above are cards, well, will be.  about 2x2" The 6 here were meant to be a beautiful 21 or so heart wall hanging with lots of gold foil, see the burnt out bit top left, looks better on the card - lots of fme lots of layers.

So here's the rest to work on, Brusho ink painted white cotton ish stuff - I don't like the more insipid ones as much but there'll eventually be more cards, 15 more of the bigger  hearts, about 3 x 3" a cuff or 2, brooches & a book cover bottom middle there. It will still happen, one day, the darning foot facility works fine...generally. Maybe the neighbor up for the w/e using his chain saw next door  didn't help...