Monoprints

As promised, I have monoprints to share from the course I went on last weekend. ;o)

So, we did two very easy sorts of monoprinting. Firstly, we inked up acrylic sheets and then laid a piece of paper on top. Then all you have to do is draw onto the paper and then peel the print off. It's a bit tricky to know how much ink is right and my first pic illustrates too much!! I drew my fruit shape with a pencil and you can just about see the lines if you look hard:



I tried again using pencil and this is my second, much more visible, print:



For my next print I used my finger to draw which gives bolder softer lines:



I also tried laying a collagraph block onto the paper and rolling over it with a brayer:



This really is the edited highlights - I did loads of prints with this technique, I could've kept going for hours! It's really easy, it can be done at home and you never quite know what you'll get! ;o)

The second monoprinting technique used the press. We inked up acrylic sheets again and then laid shapes cut from paper onto them in a random pattern. It then went through the press with dry paper and this is the resulting print:



I then removed the shapes and laid them back down in different positions and ran it through the press a second time with this result:



I really enjoyed this introduction to monoprints and collagraphs and feel I will be investigating further! I loved the thrill of the reveal, never quite knowing what's going to appear! The room was filled with lots of oohs and aahs every time a new print came off the press! :oD If you get the chance, have a go! It's great fun and alot of it can be done at home. ;o)

Collagraph Block Printing

So, now my prints from the monoprinting and collagraph block printing course are dry I can share some of them on here. :o)

We started the day by making collagraph blocks with ordinary card by cutting out shapes and gluing to another piece of card. These are my first three blocks:





I used the third block with ink later on in the day which is why it's coloured. The second block was a serendipitous mistake but I so liked it that I carried it through the day on further blocks and prints. ;o) It said fruit/seed pod to me although some of the other girls saw it as a tulip. We used these blocks for "blind embossing" which was putting it through the press with damp paper but no ink. These are some of the resulting prints:



These are two prints from one of the blocks using ink:





We also used Environmount (shiny white surface on both sides with recycled newspaper inbetween) to make blocks. The white surface could be peeled back in varying layers. These are some of the prints from some of my fruit blocks:







I also used Environmount to make a block with four fruits on. I took a couple of prints from it and had intended re-inking with different colours for more prints but the block was so delicious after the first two prints that I've left it as it is! Here it is:



So, that's a bit about the collagraphs. Tomorrow I shall wax lyrical about monoprinting! ;oD

Pendant

Now that the recipient of this pendant (my lovely friend, Skippy) has it in her posession I can share a picture of it on here! ;o)



So, the base of the pendant started life as a little petit four tin which I took a hammer to and flattened out! The only thing I added was the letter 's' in the centre and then I used alcohol inks, foil and glaze pen, added a couple of doodads on the bottom and hey presto! ;o)

Stamps, envies and monoprinting!

Thought I'd update you on what's going on in Studio Ha Ha! :o)

I've been meaning to share this photo of my hand carved cork stamps for a while but kept forgetting! Carving an alphabet set from wine bottle corks has been on my to do list for ages, years in fact! LOL So, over the summer I finally got down to working on a set. I have to admit they were surprisingly easy to carve, I wrote the letter in Sharpie on the cork and then just used my ordinary craft knife to carve them. My only problem was not always remembering to write the letters backwards! Actually I rather fancy a set of backwards alphabet so may do that when I have enough corks for another set! ;oD



I'm currently working on a inspiration themed one page zine for a swap on The Zine Pool Yahoo group. These little dinner money envies will be stuck to one of the pages of the zine and will be filled with something, not sure what yet! :oD I had great fun making these yesterday. I used crayon over a plastic rubbing plate, added watercolour paint and zapped with the heat gun. I've eyeletted the flaps and they will all have fibre like the one on the left of the pic when I get around to adding it tomorrow.



Today I've spent the day at White House Arts in Cambridge, with my friends Becky and Skippy, on a Monoprinting and Collagraph Printmaking course. It was an excellent day and I learnt lots about techniques that I'd never tried. We made collagraph blocks from cardboard by cutting shapes and gluing to another piece and also from Environmount (shiny white surface on both sides and recycled newspaper) by "drawing" with a craft knife and then peeling the surface off to varying degrees. We made prints from our collagraph prints with and without ink and also tried out simple monoprinting with ink on perspex sheets, laying paper down and using pencil, fingers or whatever to draw on it and then peel off to see the print. All my prints and blocks are drying out but once they're dry I'll be able to share some pics on here. ;o)

AB Spread

Haven't posted anything for a while so I thought I'd share this altered book spread in the latest Literatura Infantil round robin book that I've worked in. This one is The Little Princess by Frances H Burnett. I wanted to do a spread about servant life and this is what I came up with:



I used acrylic paint and ink over scraps of old fashioned writing then added the Victorian servant image, the spoon (printed on acetate) and the buttons. The text is dry letter transfers which I then scratched a bit for a more worn look. Quite pleased with this one, I seem to be getting over my more is more attitude!!