Celebrating All Things Donkey - Christmas 2019

Donkey Decoration. Hessian oblong, cut, frayed and sewn along edge with red thread, in zig-zag stitch, to prevent further fraying. Lino-cut of donkey illustration, printed onto blue cotton and glued to hessian piece. Gingham paper saddle and wooden star also glued to image. Hand-painted dots added to saddle to represent fringing. Finally, vintage red/white twine threaded through wooden, glittered star was attached for hanging.
Donkey Fact sheet. An assortment of donkey pictures, photos, facts, characters, poems etc collaged together in Photoshop to create printed A3 sheet. Printed on A3 kraft paper and folded to A5 - then sealed with round, donkey illustrated, sticker.

This year I thought I would focus on the donkey - a creature inextricably linked to Christmas, having carried Mary to Bethlehem in the Nativity story. Despite being beasts of burden throughout history, donkeys are such interesting and intelligent creatures. Noble, stubborn, clever, melancholic and somewhat comedic in appearance, donkeys are much loved and my aim was to produce something festive that celebrates 'All Things Donkey'. So I created a donkey tree decoration and an 'All Things Donkey' fact/info sheet. I made a hand-printed lino-cut image of a small donkey, using an original donkey illustration onto blue cotton. Hessian seemed a suitable, coarse fabric to use as a base - with frayed edges and zig-zag stitching. To make it more festive, I added a wooden star and a glittered, star and vintage twine hanger. Then I collected together donkey images, characters, facts, information and a poem and created a collaged, A3 kraft paper sheet to fold and wrap around the donkey tree decoration.