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.

Time for some inky fun!

After a few weeks spent on some commissions and updating stock, I promised myself a week to play with some ink.

The printmaking side of my work tends to take a bit of a back seat to the jewellery, but I do love it, and people seem to like the prints and pictures too.  As a have a couple of events coming up soon, I thought for once I should concentrate properly on experimenting with some new prints.

People I speak to about my prints are curious about how they're made, and I'm not always very good at explaining as there are often a lot of different processes involved, and I tend to make it up a bit as I go along.  So, inspired by the lovely Kirsten from Quernus and her step-by-step facebook tutorial of a wonderful geisha mouse (brilliant - go and have a look!), I thought I would record my week of experimentation via the medium of the blog.  The plan is to post every day with an update of some sort, and hopefully not from a pit of despond. 

If nothing else, it will mean I actually do it and the car MOT and coffee with crafty colleagues I also have planned will be no excuse...........

The rough draft and sketched plans of the printing plates

Phew! What a scorcher!

When I first started jewellerying, many Samuel Palmer moons ago, the first things my husband bought me were a fire extinguisher and a first aid kit.  Luckily, and touching much wood, I've never had the need to use them, however I wouldnt be at all surprised if that changed in the near future.  I have a new enamelling kiln.  It gets very hot, and pieces of very hot metal come out of it. 

Kilny Baby Sexy Baby Hot

Usually I don't consider myself to be an exceptionally lucky person, but fortune was smiling upon me recently when, just as I'd enrolled myself on an enamelling course (of which more later), a friend mentioned that someone she worked with was looking to sell his kiln at a very good price.  Which was nice (to overuse another Fast Show phrase). It would have been churlish to say no, so, a bit of shifting around in the workroom later, and it's in place.

Looking quite tidy today.  And yes, the nylon curtains are going before I set fire to them.

 
The course was at West Dean College, recommended by fellow silversmith and Craft Souper Diana Lambert, and taught by enameller Sheila McDonald.

I think my husband was only mildly shocked when I texted him (from the window seat of my gothic window overlooking the courtyard and, beyond, hillside populated by picturesque sheep and woodland) to say I was going to live there and do all the huge range of courses one by one. 

It's a cliche, but if you can think of a creative course they probably teach it at West Dean......Blacksmithing (next on the list - to inform my forged silversmithing you understand), all types of printmaking, handmade books, creative writing, botanical flower painting, 'dynamic drawing', conservation, furniture making, guilding.......  Also people were there to improve their lute playing (yes, really) so one of my coursemates was heard to complain ever so slightly that there was lute music going on quite late into the night.  Fantastic. Though it would have been better if anyone had laughed at my jokes about luting.

The building was incredibly atmospheric. Slightly musty with crimson carpets, chandeliers, huge roaring fire, carved and creaking wooden staircases, a giraffe head mounted on the wall and a Salvador Dali 'lips' sofa.  Oh, and a bar.  (No photographs allowed so I'll have to leave the images to your imagination).  Despite my resolve to Eat No Pudding during my stay, they served my top four favourites at the four meals I ate there (FYI Lemon Tart, Plum Betty, Bakewell Tart, and Rhubarb & Ginger Crumble). Resistance was futile.

I really think, for a vaguely creative person, this sort of break is the best form of relaxation.  Rather than going to an expensive spa and saying to yourself  'I must relax, I've paid all this money to relax, I will relax', you're so busy concentrating on what you're doing that, although you will be shattered by the end, you havent had a chance to think about anything else and will actually have something you've made yourself, of which you can be really (or at least sort of) proud.

Talking of which, the fruits of my labours.......my first ever attempts at enamelling:

Fields

With the usual apologies to Samuel Palmer

silver leaf and silver wire

These are my last and favourite pieces, and will eventually be a pair of earrings (and they very nearly match!)

I'd hoped that enamelling would suit my work and style, and I think/hope I was right.  Now I just have to carry on practising and hope I don't need that fire extinguisher as it went out of date years ago.

WARNING - The following content contains references to folk music.

And no pretty pictures, but there is a musical interlude.

If something seems too good be true, it usually is. And sadly this was the case with the BEST LINEUP EVER of folk personages beloved of My Husband and I.

Following disappointment last time we tried to see the Eliza Carthy Band together (Harrogate Speigeltent, a runny bottom resulting in us having to release babysitter and husband staying at home), we were (Ok, I was) really excited about the Madfest festival at Elsecar on Sunday.  On the bill were the Chris Drever Trio (sublime voice, great patter), Spiers & Boden (shantytastic), and the marvellous Eliza Carthy Band.  We couldn't believe they were on the same bill and I kept checking the tickets in case I'd made a mistake.

Lulled into a false sense of security by all relevant children/parents & babysitters being hale and hearty, and after a long day at a relatively unproductive craft fair in York, we headed down.  Caught most of Chris Drever's set which was fantastic as ususal.  Then came a chance remark by one of the band about how the crowd would have to dance later as Spiers and Boden and The Albion Band were standing up kind of people.  No mention of Eliza and her band.  Oh dear.  'But it still says Eliza Carthy on all the posters, nooone has mentioned anything' I said, trembly-lipped.  Instead of asking fellow audience-members or some official person, my husband checked on his smartphone and found that, alas, twas true.   Eliza has some voice-related health issues at the moment which have resulted in her cancelling her autumn tour.  Devastation, Disappointment, Drinking ensued.

Actually, we would quite happily have paid and travelled to see Chris Drever and Spiers and Boden and it was, indeed, too good to be true that poor husband should at last see the Eliza Carthy Band.  Maybe one day........

btw, if you've lasted this long you may like to enjoy a musical interlude provided by the very fine, if sadly now defunct, Banoffi of Whitby area who've just started a FB Page and have husband and I wallowing in nostalgia.  They were really very very good, especially live, which is no good now as they've bloomin stopped playing. 

Anyway, the whole dancing thing leads me to my pet rant about folk crowds.

Most gigs you go to everyone dances, at least a bit.  At folk gigs, even when it's the most infectious jig whose whole raison d'etre is to get people dancing, there are no people dancing.  Indeed, there are some who (and I've observed them for long periods when it could be argued that I should be dancing) manage not to move a muscle - nary a tap of the foot or a nod of the head.  I don't understand how this is physically possible and it's very, very wrong.*  The nadir.......at a 'Family Friendly' Folk fest a couple of years ago, Big Pickle, then 6, was dancing enthusiastically, and was told by a steward to stop as he was getting in the way of the video they were taking.

That was the same day I met Eliza coming out of the toilets and was too scared to say anything and my Mum, being older and wiser, had a proper conversation with her and everything.

Toodle pip, back to jewellery next week, honest.

*Does not apply to all folk gigs, and we left before the end on Sunday so they may have been pogoing on the tables during the encore for all we know.

We interrupt this programme......

......to bring you a report from the marvellously coiffed and uncomfortably-clad 1950s.

Like a lot of people I 'heart' the fifties - however although I would have loved to have visited, I wouldn't have wanted to live there. I've long been a fan of fifties design, from the tasteful textiles of Lucienne Day to the more lurid pin-up girl style which seems so much a la mode at the moment. 

Da na!  Breathe in...

 

On Saturday I went to a fabulous vintage-style birthday party - suffice to say I will never drink champagne out of anything but exquisite bone china cups and saucers again.  Apart from the beautiful food and the usual raucous laughter you usually get when a lot of girls get together, the highlight was having our hair and makeup done.  It looked great, but it wasn't half a lot of hard work, even just sitting there and having it done was exhausting - how the ladies of the time managed to keep it up I just don't know. 

The view I never got to see

These came out of my hair - all 28 of them!

 

Already starting to fall apart at the seams

And then there's the clothes and shoes.  I'm lucky enough to own a Vivienne of Holloway dress which my friend Andy won in a raffle at the Wet Spot Burlesque night in Leeds (where, incidentally, we have seen the superlatively gorgeous Anna Fur Laxis on several occasions - just dropping that in there) - I always knew it was a good move to have male friends....anywayyyy.....it's a lovely thing, and it does wonders for the figure, but it's not what you'd call comfortable, and that's without a girdle underneath.  I was crippled, aching all over and thought my poor old modern-day knees and feet would never recover. 

It got me thinking about how the shoes, clothes hair and make-up make you act and carry yourself, and whether women in those times looked as good as we imagine they did. I bet they would have killed for our conditioner, hairspray and mineral foundation, not to mention a pair of trackie bottoms and some trainers.  But I suppose there's nothing wrong with upping the standards a bit occasionally. Just having lippie on makes me speak a bit differently don't you know.

To continue the fifties theme, here are the covers of some great Sexton Blake publications I found in a second hand bookshop in Otley today.  I only went to find war and transport books for the medium pickle but there was a whole suitcase of these beauties.  Of course I instantly went for the double-entendres but it was a difficult choice. 

 

Catch ya later, daddy-o xxxxx

As a pessimist you will never be disappointed....

Hooray, hurrah and also huzzah!  I passed my Grade 1 Piano exam, and here is the proof.  What a relief.. I know it was hardly life and death but pride was at stake here - I haven't failed an exam since O Level Chemistry and I've taken a few.

Great excitement here at inkylinky Towers as I have just applied for my hallmarking makers mark - Antiques Roadshow here we come.  

AND I've ordered a barrel polisher which will hopefully make my life easier and my jewellery shinier without having to endure the sound of the dentists drill (which I currently use to polish) for hours on end.  I remember a friend of my Mum's used to have a stone barrel polisher in her toilet and it used to scare me to death - let's hope I'm not affected by traumatic childhood memories.

Well, The Great Workroom Tidy Up is complete.  As everyone knows, it will be the work of moments to destroy all the good work, but hopefully there is A Place for Everything, even if Everything is not in its Place all the time.

 

Hooray for Ikea

I now have a clear view of the window to stare wistfully out at the rain through

Work in Progress - My Personal Catchphrase

Oh well, mini-pickle has just told me he's still breakfast hungry at 12.00 so better go and feed the poor mite (he's only had a giant banana and 3 biscuits since breakfast). 

Tune in Next Time for Adventures in Tumbling.