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Monday, February 07, 2011

Catching up

I haven't blogged too much in the last few months, but I haven't been totally idle, last September I signed up for another City & Guilds at my local college, this time I am doing Mixed Media level 2, I wasn't sure what it would involve when I signed up, and the first week I was a bit worried it wouldn't be the course for me as the it seemed the emphasis is on painting and drawing, but the tutor Susie Williams assured me that I could bring my textiles into my studies, and has encouraged all the students to develop their own style.

I can't show you anything from the first module which covered Line, Form,Shape, Colour and Texture, as we handed our folders in before Christmas.
We started on the second module before the Christmas break up, and made a selection of Collagraph plates then into the print room.
I thought I would show one of the plates here.

We used wood glue to attach Scrim and Skeleton Holly leaves to Daler Mount board and added
4 layers of varnish thinly allowing it to dry completely before using the plate.



My first print on watercolour paper had too much ink and came out very dark, so once it was dry I added some Silver Goldfinger to highlight the raised areas.



The second run through the print was on Khadi paper and I like the result of this one.



As much as I liked the results of the Collagraph prints I struggled with the smell of the printing inks, not sure I would be able to do a lot of this, once home I tried the plate through my Big-Shot machine, luckily the plate was just the right size, I used damp water colour paper and spritzed the paper with Mica sprays before placing the plate face down on the paper, then did the usual embossing procedure for the Big Shot, I really love the way the sprays were soaked up by the paper and give just a gentle hint of colour, the shine is very subtle when it catches the light.





This has That Special Touch of Mica 'Green Pearl' and Moonshadow Mist 'Gossamer Gold'
some residue red paint left on the plate has given the gold area a hint of red.



This one just has Moonshadow Mist Gossamer Gold



I also used the plate to make a rubbing using white oil pastel on tea bag paper and washed over with grey procion cold water dye.
I am pleased that I will be able to use the plates again and have a few more ideas in mind for them.

8 comments:

Cda00uk said...

I love collagraphs - you can use acrylic paint if you don't like printing ink.

Love the idea of spritzing the paper [fabric?] first, why didn't I think of that?

Suddenly I see a reason to get a big shot!

Gill said...

Celia is not alone. I've been thinking I want to explore embossing and I think you just gave me the motive, Carol ;-)

Gill said...

Sorry, should have said how very much I liked those prints...lovely work indeed.

Julie said...

Print making was one of my fav units when I was at college. I wasn't doing textiles back then, but I can seen now how useful it would be and what fun you can have. I love your prints.

Heather said...

I nearly missed this post Carol - you snuck in behind one I'd already seen. Love the prints and their variations and also love the embossed paper samples. Sounds like a really good course.

Sue Krekorian said...

I can't cope with the smell of oil-based media like paint and ink, but there are water-based ones which are much nicer to use from the fume point of view - it might be worth getting a tube and having another play. Love what you're doing.

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lindacreates said...

Love all of your prints, including the silver "mistake" (too much ink)! You are responsible for me purchasing my Sizzix machine and I am having a lot of fun, using metals.