Something completely different...

Towards the end of April, as part of our course, the final year students will be creating a pop-up gallery/shop in Wrexham, and we are tasked with stocking it with lovely things at affordable prices.  Since the glass  pieces I have been working on are somewhat experimental I wasn't sure that they would be suitable (or finished!) so I have gone back to my first love, textiles, and combined it with my second love, printmaking.

I've used various scraps of trim and edgings, some vintage, some reclaimed and some just 'spare', to make a series of collagraph plates.  It's a great way to use pieces that are too small for much else, and even pieces that are falling apart; they can be 'repaired' when they are glued to the  plate.  All you need to remember when you're making the plates is that you can ignore the colour and just concentrate on the texture.

My idea was to create printed backgrounds from the trims onto which I could add 'real' pieces of trim.  I originally thought I would ink the plates in a brown colour to give that vintage feel, but I didn't really like the results, even the palest colour seemed to overpower the delicate pattern and texture.

So I decided to stick to blind embossing, which is a much quicker and cleaner process without the ink, better all round!  I've been having fun 'auditioning' buttons from my button tin and scraps of trim from my ribbon box and I have finally made some decisions and sewn a few on...  I'm struggling to decide which is my favourite.  What do you think?

The paper size for these prints is just under A5; I think the size works well with the scale of the elements.  I am wondering whether to do some A4 sized ones as well or whether the extra 'bits and pieces' needed to fill the space will make them look too cluttered.

When I'm embossing I nearly always have a few disasters where either the plate or the paper moves and the whole thing ends up crooked.  There's nothing really that can be done with those prints except tear them up, which is ideal for making cards.

I was so pleased with these cards that I made a couple more prints on scraps of paper just so I could make some extra for my Etsy shop; I'll be listing them just as soon as I get some decent photographs.

And if you're anywhere near Wrexham during the week 22nd to 26th April, do pop along to the People's Market to see what other lovely things we have on show.

Finding my way

Isn't it funny how trying just one thing can suddenly make everything fall into place? And about time too you might say, as I am very nearly at the end of my degree course.

In the first year of the course I fell in love with collagraph printing. Creating the plates; the way the ink echoed the texture of the plate and the unpredictability of the print itself; the variations in the strength of the marks; everything.

Ever since then I have, sometimes consciously and sometimes not, been trying to replicate that effect in glass.

First I tried copying the images I had created from the collagraphs and screenprinting them onto the glass.  That worked, up to a point, but for me the screenprinting process meant that the images lost the essential sense of texture that they had as prints on paper.  They were just too definite, too clean.

Then I tried creating plaster moulds in the same way that I create collagraph plates and casting the glass in these moulds.

So far the results of this have been somewhat unpredictable. I dare say if I pursue it, eventually I will get it to work as I want, but it is a time consuming process, and also one which uses a lot of expensive glass frit.  I have also realised that to do this I will have to get used to using more robust materials to create my textures; both to stand up to the mould making process and to create definite enough marks on the glass; and I'm not sure that I want to change my materials so much.

But then the other day I had one of those 'I haven't tried that' moments and these little printed strips were the result.

They may not look much but I am very excited about them.  The print on the back of the glass was taken from one of my collagraph prints; the glass was laid on top of it in the kiln and has 'picked up' the image, but in a much more interesting and sketchy way than a direct screenprint.  There is just enough texture on the back of the glass; I can see endless possibilities in these two little strips of glass...

I'm still here!

Yes, I know, I haven't even managed a once-a-week post since term started, let alone once-or-twice...  I was hit by an unexpected bout of exhaustion last week, I don't think it had anything to do with the start of term, more likely I was fighting off a bug of some sort.  But the timing could have been better!

I am getting back into the swing of things now, and my timetable is a little easier/more flexible this year too.  Although of course the one evening when I am likely to be home late is the one evening when the boys have to eat early - but it's good for them to have to fend for themselves sometimes!

I don't have much to show you yet, have made some plaster moulds but they're not all that exciting!  I've been catching up on various jobs at home today including photographing some bits for listing in my hypsela shop.  There are a couple more of my collagraph prints

and something new, a couple of ACEOs. I was aiming for an 'ancient seaside postcard' look...

They were a development from the design work I did for the collagraph prints - I liked the technique and thought I would experiment further with it.  Although I do love the ACEOs, I think they might work better a bit bigger.  Maybe some 'actual' postcard size ones, or greetings cards?

New stuff

I've been photographing new stuff for both my shops today!

I have some new flower colours - the first for a while.  I've made some in lime green - I love lime green, I don't know why I haven't done it before!  And also some of the bigger flowers in a pretty coral pinky-red, one of the colours for the season, apparently!  They look rather good together too!  I'll be listing them in my Etsy and Folksy ffflowers shops over the next couple of days.

And I've listed the first of the prints that are left after the exhibition in my hypsela shop.  There will be a few more to come as well.

And I will be listing some new brooches too - pictures of those will have to wait until tomorrow I think!

Prep Work

I think I've mentioned before (once of twice!) that my prints are going into an exhibition this week. A nice feature of this exhibition is that the exhibitors put out their sketchbooks for the visitors to look through.

Now since a lot of my prep work for the prints have been test prints I haven't been working in a book - can't put a book through the press! So I have been collecting together all the bits I have done, the transferred photographs I started with, the charcoal drawings I did, the test prints from the plates that worked and the ones that didn't really, and of course the plates themselves.

And I've bound them together into a book.

Well I haven't actually included all of the test prints because there were so many of them... but a representative selection!

 

I toyed with the idea of adding a little colour here - decided against it.  Although it's something I will probably come back to in the future.

This print was one where I applied the ink with a roller rather than rubbing it on.  It's really surprising how different a print can look just by changing the way the ink is applied.  In the end I didn't use the roller for any of my final prints, it didn't seem to suit the soft landscape look I was after.

And I also mounted (most of) the printing plates and included those too.  Hopefully they won't make peoples fingers all inky - I have cleaned them, but still...

Hanging tomorrow... the exhibition details are here, do pop along if you can!

Packaging the Prints

I've spent what seems like a ridiculously long time this afternoon packaging up my prints ready for the exhibition (see my Events page for details) - framing some and packing the others in bags, labelling them all, and so on.  I had no idea it would take so long!

I just hope I manage to sell one or two after all this!  Although I do have a plan for those that don't sell... and I would be quite happy to keep these two...

I'm relieved to have got them all done - now I'm looking forward to a quiet evening finishing off my first ever hand-knitted sock.

Work progressing...

Yesterday's plates have turned into prints... at least one of them has.  The other one, I wasn't happy with the effect on one side of the plate and by the time I'd sorted it the good side had got squashed and lost all definition.  Back to the drawing board with that one then...

I printed the one that worked and some I had already made until I ran out of drying space - I think I need a better (cheap) solution than an old 3-legged sweater drying rack!

Work in progress

Busy getting ready to print at the moment... 2 new plates all varnished and ready to go...











... and a stack of lovely soft creamy paper all ready and torn to size.

More Collagraphs

I did manage to snatch a few minutes printing time while the birthday party was going on upstairs on Saturday - kids parties are so much less stressful these days!

The prints from the torn paper plate were OK, I can see potential in the textures, perhaps not in this arrangement.  Although I have only applied the ink with a roller, rubbing it on/off gives a different effect again.

And I definitely need to practise getting the prints straight on the paper - it is so difficult!




But it was the plate with the textured acrylic paint that I really wanted to try out and I wasn't disappointed!






For this print I applied the ink with a roller                    and for this I rubbed the ink on with a cloth

But this one is my absolute favourite, again I applied the ink with the cloth, wiping it off in some areas and leaving other areas darker. This definitely has the feel I am looking for and I shall be making more of these plates.

Test prints

Rest assured I am working on the second part of the textured paper tutorial - just need to organise a couple more photos...

In the meantime I will leave you with some images of collagraph test prints I made the other day...  I made a series of little ACEO sized experimental prints.

These are prints of a dried up weed from one of my garden tubs - quite pleased with these - I might do another with a more interesting background.  I have plenty of weeds!

These are a piece of birch bark I picked up on a walk the other day.

This one is scraps of lace and fabric - not so sure about it, but the black bit really looks like some weird sea creature, so that might be useful at some point.

And this one is one of the printing plates I cut up the other day - I think it looks better now!  I wasn't sure when I printed it but now I've come back to it I do like it.  I need to try it on some proper paper next.

That's all my printing... now I'd better go and sort those photos for the rest of the tutorial!

Distracted

So, I have a new printing press which I had been waiting really impatiently for, and what happens?  I get distracted by a bag of woolly bits!

I find weaving on a small scale like this to be really calming and therapeutic, and, after all, things have been rather hectic round here lately!  I think this piece might make quite a nice little brooch when it's finished, with the addition of a button perhaps, and maybe some beads along one edge... what do you think?

I haven't neglected the printing completely - I made up these 3 little test plates, here all ready for their shellac coating.

 

 

And I decided I wasn't all that keen on the composition of the plates I made the other day, so I cut one of them in half

and chopped the top and bottom off the other one.

Maybe a little drastic, I shall let you know how they turn out!

Printing

I have been a bad blogger, I know. But, lectures have finished, I've had my assessment, and term ends this week so I have no more excuses!

I have been a little distracted by this...

... my very own printing press!

Today I tried it out for the first time with a couple of collagraph plates I made a while ago.  Here is the very first print made on my very own printing press...

... and a few more... just test pieces, I'm not using my expensive paper yet!

I do think I need a bigger and better drying rack though.  This one is a bit limited in size, it is meant for sweaters and for some reason it only has 3 legs now.  But it will have to do for the time being.

So for the next few days I shall mainly be making printing plates!