Printmakers at Work

Wild water swimming is the inspiration behind this latest linocut print from Katherine Rhodes (click here to visit her website). Due to the increase in wild or cold water outdoor swimming in local reservoirs and some rivers during the lockdown Katherine has been dipping her toe in the water, so to speak! Here are her reflections on the experience of swimming in the outdoors:

‘I have had a very few swims myself now, too!  Although I am definitely a novice, it is a wonderful thing to swim in a body of water in the wonderful outdoors. Here is a video I put together to show the making of this linocut. 

Angela has been very busy in recent months using several contrasting print techniques to produce a range of hybrid prints. Here’s what she has to say about her recent art practice:

‘Solitary by nature, I have been very productive over the last year, steadily honing my practice and using a stash of lovely papers, that I have marbled and mono printed to overprint using chine colle technique, and collaging.

I have cut and etched lino, created dry point copper plates, cyanotypes and made a number of small books. Many of them are available in my Folksy shop (fotoartpapercraft) a Sheffield based selling platform for arts and crafts.

I have very much appreciated people buying small and local.’

Using a technique called silk aquatint collagraph Eva has been working on a series of new atmospheric prints in her signature style.

Silk Aquatint is a method of working from dark to light giving a subtle range of tonal variations and clearly suits her approach to printmaking , as can be seen in this image of a Siamese cat below.

Maude has been busy hand printing using an improvised baren to transfer her image. A very useful tip for those without a press. Here’s what she has to say:

‘Here are two variations of a lino cut ‘map’ of the Porter Valley from Shepherd Wheel to Forge Dam – still very much a work in progress. It is a record of so many walks over the past year!

For the time being I have printed it by hand, as it is too big for my mini XCut press. I found this cheap tealight holder makes an excellent baren, as it is easy to grip, and I can put my weight firmly on it – much better than the spoon I was using before.

Looking forward to getting back to the big press though!’

Katherine Rhodes has been very busy with her creative practice this year and has been producing a series of new works which she describes here;

“2020 has been a year of many changes, not only as a result of the Corona Virus pandemic that has affected us all, but also big changes for me and my work. I am now in a position where I can focus much more on art, exhibiting, and have more time to make prints.

I am looking forward to being able to have more time in the studio making some new prints such as this new landscape shown below:

I have also been trying out a new style of linocut to represent the mountainous terrain and peaks which is a departure into white line representation.

In addition to linocut, I have recently made woodcut prints and have been exploring ways to bring more variation in colour depth and tone to give a sense of volume and movement in some wave inspired prints. I will be working on more of these like the woodcut print shown below by printing versions with other colour combinations.”

This beautiful atmospheric print has been made by Eva Juusola using crayons to achieve subtle variations in tone and is kindly sharing this technique.

Using Wax Crayons in Collagraphs

I have recently been using children’s wax crayons in collagraphs to subtly lighten areas which is producing some very interesting tonal variations. The wax makes the surface it is applied to smoother, so canceling out some of its ink-retaining qualities and by varying the amount of wax it is possible to create very subtle effects and tonal graduations – which is not easy to achieve in this medium! 

Wax crayons work well when applied to any surface that retains at least some ink, such as the mount board itself or even when it has been cut and peeled, or areas with carborundum. Interestingly when used on textured areas, the wax will emphasise the texture.

The photo of the collagraph block shows where I’ve applied neon yellow wax crayon to lighten quite a few areas, and the resulting print. The colour of the wax crayon is of course irrelevant!

Cath Hartnett has been spending time in her print workshop during the lockdown trying out a range of print techniques and planning future projects. Working in isolation is a challenge and Cath has been looking at the work of printmaker Emily Harvey which proved to be a useful starting point for ideas and further experimentation. Here’s what she has to say about her experience so far.

“Lacking any inspiration for a project, I’ve been spending the time trying out different materials, from mono prints of my parents (possible precursor to a future project) to playing with various techniques taken from the wonderful Curious Printmaker blog”

https://thecuriousprintmaker.co.uk/blog

Eva’s been busy during the lockdown and is happy to share her adventures with viscosity printing.

I started making collagraphs last autumn. Initially, I only worked in monochrome – but after about six months, I had got through a whole pot of Prussian Blue and was getting a bit bored with it. 

During lockdown, I decided to learn how to combine intaglio inking with surface rolls in a different colour. In this method, the plate is inked and wiped intaglio with a fairly dense ink, usually in a darker colour, and then a loser, more transparent ink is rolled on with a single pass of the roller. Because of the difference in viscosity, the intaglio ink will repel the ink from the roller. 

I have been experimenting with this method for a few weeks now, and this is what I’ve learnt so far:

• There’s no point in trying to save money by buying a small, cheap roller, as it’s almost impossible to cover the whole plate in one pass with one of those – it always skips a section, no matter how hard you press down! I eventually gave up and bought a soft “mini spindle roller” from Hawthorn, which is anything but “mini”! It’s a whopping big beast, and works beautifully.
• You can’t use Linseed Reducing Jelly to loosen the ink – it has to be oil.
• You need a lot of extender (transparent ink) to make the ink for the surface roll really transparent.
• There’s A LOT more cleaning up to do!

In my “Foxgloves” print, the darks were created by cutting into the mount board and peeling off the top layer. These areas retained the blue intaglio ink when I wiped the plate, and repelled the pink ink from the roller. The sky and the highlights on the foxgloves were created with diluted PVA glue. When I wiped the plate, most of the blue ink came off these areas, so they readily accepted the pink ink from the roller. I think the most interesting areas are those where the two inks have mixed, like on the leaves. For these, I used the surface of the mount board, which retained some of the intaglio ink.

My next step is to really get to grips with the viscosity principle by rolling on a third colour. Even though I think I understand the theory behind it, getting it to work in practice is another matter!

The Xcut Xpress Die Cutting Machine has found a new use amongst printmakers as a mini printing press.

During the lockdown Maude Tricker has been producing prints using the inside of drinks cartons as drypoint plates. Here’s what she has to say about her new mini prints.

“Over the past few weeks I have been busy with my Xcut press, experimenting with dry point etching, using various cartons as plates. 

So far can recommend Tesco milk, Napoli passata, and Ambrosia custard”