Just some pictures from the course I recently did at West Yorkshire Print Workshop with the marvellous Neil Anderson.

Apart from getting stuck on the M62 for 5 hours after the course one Friday, it all went really well, with a great balance of structure and flexibility.  I felt I learnt a lot of new stuff, as well as improving and expanding on techniques I was already using.  I've done lots of courses and workshops there and they've all been great - I'd thoroughly recommend checking it out!

Week one - messing around with monoprints.  

Week 2 - etching basic lines and selective ink wiping

Week 3 - Developing the print with inking over the etching, adding monoprinted textures and chine colle (collage).

 

Week 4 - developing the etched plate with sugarlift technique

Week 5 - On hols in sunny Norfolk.  The others did screen printing.

Week 6 - Etched a new plate, inked and did a bit of experimenting.

Still lots that can be done with this, but pleased I had the discipline for once not to put too much information in!

Detail

 And now, a couple of photos of my garden looking rather lovely (even if I do say so myself) in our brief sunny spell

Toodle Pip xxxxx

Ta da!

A quick return to the printing dungeon today, to see whether it would be possible to add silver leaf to my print.  I was dubious about this, as previous efforts with chine colle have not been entirely happy, and silver leaf is, to put it mildly, a bugger for flying off and sticking to the wrong thing.

Anyway, I consulted a great book I've got, by the marvellous printmaker Brenda Harthill. 
Of course she made it all sound far too easy but I thought it was worth a try, and here are the results (with aplogies if it's difficult to see in the photo - I did my best!).

The first, and I think my favourite, attempt.  In case you can't tell the difference (!) this has a semi-circular shape of silver

Trying with a circular silver shape but some of it peeled off.  Still quite a nice effect

More of a crescent shape.  I think some glue must have squidged out at the top, hence the smudge.  Annoying.

Anyway, I really am pleased with how these have turned out (I must point out that the registration and other printing of these is really not bad, and I've managed not to get any massive fingerprints on them, which is a huge achievement in itself by my standards).

Many thanks again to Cath for lending me her workshop, and to everyone who's encouraged me in this endeavour (and now they're playing the exit music so that's my cue to leave....xxx)

The terrible truth.........

So, time to disappear into the subterranean world of my mate's print studio and see whether the plates I've made will produce anything like a decent print.

My box of tricks

First, I get out the inks I'll be using. I'm not quite sure of the colours I'm going to be using yet - have a vague idea about blues and browns, but also a feeling I'll end up with yellows and greens as I always gravitate towards these.

Having mixed up some colours, decide they are pretty horrible - that pale blueghh is probably one of the worst colours I've ever seen.....

 

I tend to use brushes to 'paint' the ink onto the plate, pushing it into all the crevices.  

By this time, as you can see, I've given up on the blue idea completely and have yellow/green/blue variations and blue/grey sky.

I use 'scrim' (loosely woven cloth), then tissue paper to take the excess ink off, and the plate's ready for printing.

Something I did earlier - drew around the plate onto some acetate on the bed of the press, so I can position each plate in the same place (in theory, easier said than done, as will be seen later).

The plate on the press ready for printing 

 

 

  

The paper is then placed on top of the plate and rolled through the press.  I tend to do it once in each direction just to make sure! I also try to catch the paper under the blanket so it stays in the same place for printing of the second plate on top.

Unfortunately I fail in this task, so have to do a bit of guesswork in repositioning it before printing the etched plate.  Well, it is a test piece, after all....

Now for the etched plate....

I've used an old credit card to cover the surface of the plate with ink, and then scrape the excess off.  This is then followed by scrim and tissue, as with the collagraph plate.  I've used some sepia coloured etching ink as I want this layer to be all one colour over the top of the multicoloured collagraph. 

The plate is then positioned on the press, using the outline to 'register' the image with the previous one.

Tada!

And here's the print.  This is the first time I've seen how all the marks will work, especially in relation to each other from the two plates and I'm pretty pleased.  You can see in the bottom corner how the registration is out, as the paper came out of the press by accident in between pressings.  And my decision to add the pva bit at the bottom was vindicated! The etched elements are a bit more feint than I would have liked, and this may be down to my having taken too much ink off the plate.

I made a few notes about things I could change on the plates, or subsequent prints.

Illegible scrawl - more colour variation, more PVA for horizon, more lines on moon?

  

I quite like the subtle colours of this print, but today is about experimentation and a pot of violet ink on Cath's shelf catches my eye.........

Woohoo!  The collagraph plate before wiping - definitely more colour variation here!

I really like this version too - the etched elements have worked a lot better as I wiped the plate a bit less so there's more ink left in the indentations to come out on the print. 

Out of interest at this point I tried printing just the etched plate to see how it looked. Really I suppose I should have done this beforehand but it was all too exciting.

So there it is.  As I feared, there's a bit too much contrast in the sky for my liking, but, in conjunction with the subtler marks in the collagraph it seems to work better. 

I printed a few more versions, on different papers and with varying success.  It's amazing how many different things can go wrong with a print - never, of course, all on the same one, so I have problems with registration with a couple, and a really annoying smudge from inky fingers on what would otherwise be a perfect print.

Colours a bit more subtle - or muddy?

Dodgy registration

The product of 3 hours work

 So, then the inevitable clearing up, and the legacy of indelibly grubby fingers for the next few days.

 Tomorrow I'm having a coffee break with some crafty colleagues, and I'll have a really good look at the prints again, and think about any improvements which can be made.  I also need to give some thought to my ambition to get some silver leaf on the moon.  This is going to be A Technical Problem as it needs to go underneath the other images......thought and research is required!

So, back underground on Friday, which will hopefully result in some saleable prints - time will, again, tell.

The next bit......

Now it's time to start the collagraph plate.

I absolutely L O V E collagraph.  It enables you to get a huge range of effects using everyday materials, no nasty chemicals, just at home on the kitchen table if necessary. Of course you still need a press to print the plate with, otherwise you just can't get the pressure required to get the ink out of all of the details, but it really is so versatile.  You can be really precise with shapes, marks and lines using a scalpel or drypoint needle, or a bit random using PVA glue, carborundum powder and even polyfilla! And all you need for the plate is a piece of mountboard.
 

Just a few of the materials you can use to make a collagraph

I cut my mountboard shape to match the copper plate I made yesterday, and transferred the design using the same tracing paper and chalk method.

I then set about making the different marks and textures.  First, using a scalpel to take the surface layer of paper off the mountboard, scoring first, then peeling it off carefully.  This will leave an area of card in which the ink will stay when the plate's inked up, creating a darker shape.  The scalpel makes a lovely precise line and the darker area will be uniform in tone, so contrasting (I hope) with the more fluid patterns and textures in the copper plate and other areas of the collagraph.

At this point, if I wanted to, I could add some finer lines using the scalpel or a drypoint needle.  If this was only going to be a collagraph I would have done this, but as I've included some scratchy lines in the copper plate, I'll resist the temptation to add too much!

Next, time to play with glue.....

 

I've put normal PVA woodglue out on my tinfoil 'palette'. This will enable me to use it as is, or mix with other things.  Usually (and I completely forgot this time) I would mix in a little acrylic paint just so I could see where I was putting it.  I've also mixed some carborundum (very fine metal filings) with some thicker adhesive I use for jewellery making.  This is a bit of an experiment as I havent done this before...usually I would pour the carborundum onto the wet glue and shake off, a la glitter on Play School, but I find you often get bits of carborundum where you don't want them.  

 

Here's the plate, finished.  Unfortunately as I forgot to colour the PVA it's difficult to see where it is, but in when it's been shellaced all will become clear.  I scraped some of the glue and carborundum mixture with a serrated plastic knife to get some more lines, and used a drier brush for some of the pva application to try and get more brushstrokes but, again, time and the printing process will tell whether such subtleties will work in practice.

And then, having sworn not to overdo things, I gave way to temptation and applied some more PVA by squeezing directly from the bottle.  It looks gloopy, but I love the effect you get this way and it's worked really well for me in previous collagraphs.  Trouble is, those were bigger, and I may have overcooked my goose as far as this smaller plate is concerned.  Oh well, nothing ventured etc etc.....

Now that the plate has dried and had a layer of shellac (French polish) coated over it, it's ready to print from (once the shellac's dried).  The shellac protects the plate from the moisture of the printing ink.  You can also see a lot more easily now, how the pva will work in creating pale areas where the ink isnt taken up.

 

The next step tommorrow will be to go to my lovely friend Cath Brooke's printing dungeon and see what sort of a print these plates produce. Given what else is happening in the world tomorrow, I think a subterranean place with no news in it will be the best place to be.

Starting off.....and doing a bit more

I'm using two  plates for the print - one copper plate using etching and drypoint, and another cardboard collagraph plate.  Each will bring their own qualities and textures, and hopefully the combination of the two will add a good variation of depth and tone.  I am a bit worried that I'll do my usual trick of trying to put too much in, and cause the image to be too busy, so I'm trying to keep my enthusiasm for lots of different techniques under control.

The collagraph plate will be printed before (and therefore appear in the image underneath) the etched plate, but, contrary as I am, I've made the copper etched plate first. 

Before starting on the plate, I used tracing paper to transfer the design from the drawing, reversing it at the same time (by putting chalk on the underside of the tracing paper, turning it over and drawing over it on the plate, so that the chalk lines transfer onto the copper).

I then added the resist to the plate.  This is basically a barrier of any sort which stops the acid from getting to the metal.  Wherever the acid 'bites' the metal, it will leave a rough surface which will allow ink to get into it, and eventually be transferred to paper during the printing process.  So any areas which you want to be dark in the final print should be left free of resist.  Combine this with having to reverse the image and it's all a bit mind-boggling, and certainly not for the airy-fairy!

A lot of printmakers use stop-out varnish (incredibly pungent and hard to remove) and soft ground for resists - it all takes ages and I can never be bothered.  As I don't use nitric acid but Ferric Chloride (far less corrosive and much slower acting) I can get away with quite a lot.  I tend to just use nail varnish as it's cheap and easy to remove.

To add extra texture and interest I also used emery paper to scratch into the resist and a drypoint needle to scrape some away in a more precise line and let the acid get to the metal.

 

Then it's time to put it in the chemical bath.  A bit of a random recipe I'm afraid, just till it looks about the right colour and in hot water to help activate the reaction.  Nothing spectacular happens as with nitric acid (much more fun in my opinion but fumes and liquid far too dangerous for me to use at home).  I leave it in there for a while, agitating it occasionally to get rid of any deposits lying on top of the plate. 

And when it comes out, it looks like this:

I want to add a bit more interest and detailed lines, so I add some lines direct using a drypoint needle.  I love the slightly 'off' lines of fifties style prints and also the lovely soft, deep marks you get with drypoint in copper.

I'm also not very pleased with the look of the sky, which looks to have too much contrast in it. I've used emery paper to try and soften the marks, and also hope that the scratches of the emery paper will hold the ink, and give some more texture and interest, but this is all part of the experiment. 

Until I actually print from it, I can't really tell whether it's bitten deeply enough yet.  This can be the Very Disappointing Part of the printmaking process, but time will tell.......

Tomorrow, the collagraph plate, which can be briefly summed up as Fun With Glue.