printed material: August 2009

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

More experiments

I spent an enjoyable few hours yesterday experimenting with some collagraph 'pebbles' that I've made. It's pretty basic stuff as far as printmaking goes but it has been good fun just playing with inking up and trying different colour blends.The Hand of Fatima plate was made on a taster day in Gorseinon College for Adult Learners Week this summer. It was produced as a blind collagraph and inking up was not easy - too many small pieces and tight areas - but I intend to write a brief analysis to go with each proof as an 'aide memoire' . I shall learn from this plate about what not to replicate in the future!

Given that I live near the sea it's not surprising I also have a 'thing' about anything to do with it. Pebbles and their shapes and colours have inspired many before me and I have had fun trying out different mediums on my little plates. The plan is to try and print a row of them on a long piece of paper and then fold it into an accordion book. Sounds great in theory. Wonder how it will work out in practice? I'll post the results when it's done.

I've already been in my workshop early this morning working on some more 'pebbles'. I now have about 15 of them. In a while I'll be able to print my own beach.......

Sunday, 23 August 2009

Claire Moynihan

In my newspaper this weekend I found a photo of the work of Claire Moynihan. She produces these intricate stumpwork creations by embroidering all manner of insects onto balls of handfelted alpaca fibre.

Her work can currently be seen in London at Paul Smith's and it will be in Liberty's from the end of September. It will later be at the Park Gallery in Falkirk in October before being shown at the Courtauld Institute in January 2010 as part of the East Wing Collection.

As a fan of moths and beetles I love the use of these images and , combined with one of my favourite textiles, felt, I think this work is great fun. The Victorian museum type display case seems the perfect way to show off these tiny specimens and I hope I get to see these little gems sometime in the future.

Saturday, 22 August 2009

What if you don't like yellow....?

We have finally been rewarded with some 'rain free' time to get out and get a grip on the garden. It has been another wet week and the only high spot has been the realisation that the swallows in our pig cott appear to have had a second brood. The garden is alive with swirling hoards of swallows - at times it's almost been overwhelming. They are everywhere. A friend called yesterday and tried to count them all, giving up after she got to 20. They're all lined up on my rooftop or the telegraph wire in the field next door - perhaps getting ready to head off but it's a bit early yet. If only I could get the sense of numbers and speed on film - but they are faster than my camera every time and I have a lot of open sky shots that are not that exciting to look at!

Getting out in my garden shows that the current dominant colour at the moment is yellow. Not everyone's favourite but the sunnier weather shows it off to perfection. Just thought I'd show a few bright spots in an otherwise gloomy, wet week here.

Friday, 21 August 2009

Weeds and Wild Flowers

Alice Oswald is one of my favourite poets. Ever since I heard her interviewed on Woman's Hour on Radio 4 a few years ago I have been hooked. She was talking about her poem 'Dart' which charts the stories of the people who live and work on this river near to her home in Devon. Since then I've bought all of her collections and I've just picked up a copy of 'Weeds and Wild Flowers' which also contains these detailed etchings by Jessica Greenman.

I do not have the mastery of the language that Alice Oswald possesses so here are her own words to describe this book :

'Weeds and Wild Flowers', which grew out of a number of conversations with Jessica Greenman, is not an illustrated book. It is two separate books, a book of etchings and a book of poems, shuffled together. What connects them both is their contention that flowers are recognisably ourselves elsewhere; but whereas the etchings express that thought dynamically in the postures of the pictures, the poems make fun of it, using the names of flowers to summon up the flora of the psyche. My hope is that the experience of reading and looking at the book will be a slightly unsettling pleasure, like walking through a garden at night, when the plants come right up to the edges of their names and then beyond them. It is not, for that reason, a reliable guide to wild flowers, though it may be a reliable record of someone's wild or wayside selves'.

I love the thought of plants ' coming right up to the edges of their names...' and this book is a delight to read. Not always easy but worth the trouble. If you've never read Alice Oswald before you've missed a treat. Try her collection 'Dart' or 'The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile'. I promise she won't disappoint.

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

'Felt' like more printing...

When I was out yesterday I had a look in Homebase for some wallpaper for our bedroom. I picked up a great graphic print but they did not have enough stock of the colour I wanted. Took another colour sample and just scanned it in and messed about with another photo to produce a joint image. I was going to try and change the colour in Photoshop to see what I could do with it. More importantly though was this other sample I picked up.

This pink wallpaper was in the children's section and I think it belonged to the Barbie range. It had such a shiny background I wondered if this would wipe clean on a collagraph plate and leave the hearts a shade darker. So, I took a sample and make a quick and dirty plate. Up above was a print pulled after inking with a mix of black and metallic pewter ink. Here is the metallic silver on its own. Not a brilliant artistic effort but it served its purpose and now I know how it will work if I ever want to use the paper as part of another collagraph plate.

Finally, I found a piece of felt I made ages ago, steam pressed it and then printed a collagraph plate on it. The felt had a slight hint of colour from some transfer dyes but the camera has not picked it up. It adds another dimension to the mix - do you try plain felt with inked up plates of more than one colour - or try single coloured plates on felt that has been dyed or painted? I did a couple of these and this worked better because I didn't take too much ink off the plate. The wiping of the plate is critical to it's success at any time but on fabric, especially absorbent fabric, it is even more so.

There's obviously scope for so much more experimentation. Can't wait to get on!

Sunday, 16 August 2009

Print obsessed

After a morning of dodging showers and cutting down overgrown plants I felt I had earned a few hours in my shed carrying on with my printing trials. I searched through my box of collagraph plates and found this one that I made in college a couple of years ago. I only printed it once and not with much success but I got out the yellow ochre and midnight blue and started to play. This print below is the first pull. It looks like I could have blended the inks more but I think the marks in the plate and the way they hold the ink have something to do with the patchy look. I like the shape but need to get better at my colour theory if it is going to improve.

I then took another couple of plates, inked them in a lovely dense black and then wiped them.

Excuse the wonky photo, but this is the square plate after printing. The clear area was wood glue and should have wiped white so that worked. The darker edges to the circles are carborundum and they really held on to the ink. The centres were a coarse moulding paste and they held on to the ink more than expected. When I printed it I also added a small piece of a photo from an old book, not for any aesthetic reason - just to have a go at chine colle.

The most interesting experiment came with an old plate I'd made with some gingko leaves from my garden. I printed this on an offcut of the fine felt blanket that came with my press. I can see immediately that I could have wiped the plate better but if the surface is smooth it will accept the ink whether it be paper or fabric.

I would like to try and experiment with printing techniques on fabric and I might try and make some fine felt to try out another print on. This worked because the felt was extremely smooth and commercially made. Once dry it might offer an opportunity for further embellishment with some threads and beads. Not sure. Will wait and see - but it has at least shown me that collagraphs can be printed on fabric. That's a starting point.

Saturday, 15 August 2009

In plain black and white for all to see....

I had a visit yesterday from my friend Sue and she has motivated me to get to grips with my etching press and get on with making some new prints. So, I spent most of today working in my little shed, inking up some previously made plates and thinking about some new ideas. Whilst inking up one of them I considered printing it with some collage element added (called chine colle) and started going through the crates of papers and old books I keep in the shed for book and collage pieces. I came across an old book from the 1940's that I'd forgotten I had, another charity shop find for about 10 pence many moons ago. I got lost in the photos again and remembered that I'd scanned them in at one time thinking I might use them as a basis for some drawing practice. Looking through the file reminded how much I like them. The sharp contrast between the black and white is a winner for me every time.Thought it might be nice to share.

I produced about 6 prints today which are now drying off. If I still like them when they are, I'll post a few photos, but I intend to do some more tomorrow - and they may even be better!

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Bees are everywhere....

In the Oxfam bookshop last week I also saw a copy of this lovely Ladybird book about bees. Now, I have a huge collection of Ladybirds but they're tucked away under the stairs in many, many boxes so, although I know I already have this book, I bought it for my beekeeping mad husband. It has those 'tell tale' Ladybird illustrations and really is a fascinating read whether you're into bees or not.

In fact , there are lots of people 'into bees' at the moment. You cannot escape news of the plight of the bee. Newspapers and magazines abound with stories and it was even on the national news last week when people were encouraged to put up hives in urban areas. Even the RSPB are now calling for us to put out a sugar solution to feed the bees who are unable to find any nectar via plants. As the owner of a nectar rich but rain soaked and damaged garden I know where they are coming from.

Although we have our hive we do not have any bees as yet. My husband goes to the local beekeepers' association apiary every week and does his bit and he is patiently waiting for some locally bred Pembrokeshire bees. They are trying to breed new colonies but as fast as they do it, they lose one of their hives and have to use them to replace the broods at their main site. They are almost fighting a losing battle. Local bee inspectors are reporting the large number of bee deaths in hives all around the area.

The situation is compounded by the increase in the number of people, inspired by the publicity, to book up on the beginners courses they run. When my husband went last year it nearly did not run because of lack of interest - now they are booked up until the end of 2010, but the biggest issue is where all of these new beekeepers will get their bees from and when?

They are available from specialist suppliers but bees from different areas have different temperaments. Pembrokeshire bees are quite docile although one of my husband's contacts bought some bees at a local auction without knowing their origins, but believing them to be from Pembrokeshire , and she has a really aggressive colony. Every time she looks at the hive her husband has to remain indoors as they make a beeline (sorry) for him. He has become petrified of them.

Whereas here, we have become enamoured of them. We sent for some wallpaper samples from Sanderson for our bedroom. I picked the paper because I love the name - Etchings and Roses - and the graphic imagery.

Only when it came did my husband point out the bee on it. Must have been a subliminal choice!

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

Alice and Martin Provensen

A few months ago I attended a collagraph course run by my friend Sue. She always brings along plenty of inspirational books to stimulate ideas and she produced a copy of a book of Greek Myths illustrated in the 1960's by Alice and Martin Provensen. Purchased in a charity shop, this book had me enthralled and I came home to find out more about Alice and Martin, finding out that they had a great following on the web and that their books were collected worldwide.

I later picked up a cheap copy of the Greek Myths but the one that was most scarce was their illustrated copy of The Iliad and the Odyssey. I found it occasionally via different websites but usually at a ridiculous price so imagine my delight when I went into an Oxfam bookshop last week and saw this on the top shelf.... my heart skipped a beat. The price was really reasonable even though they knew it was a scarce book so I grabbed it with both hands and nearly ran from the shop!

I think the illustrations in the book of Greek Myths are better overall but I love these kind of stylised monochromatic images .

This final picture is probably one of my favourites. The way that horse is drawn and detailed is fabulous. It gives me ideas for some prints of my own and a desire to keep finding out about Alice and Martin Provensen.

Sunday, 9 August 2009

Lepidoptera

I have been away from home for a week and the welcoming weather when I arrived home last night just cried out for us to have a moth trap. We place our trap outside of my workshop and nearby is the old herb garden which is overgrown and on our 'to do' list for digging up and moving. It is mainly full of marjorams and lavender and when we got there this morning it was alive with bees and butterflies. They were mostly too quick for me but I did manage to photograph this lovely Small Copper just before it flitted off at speed. I also saw a Painted Lady, Speckled Woods, loads of Meadow Browns and Large Whites. Here, however, are some of the joys of this week's moth trap :

Black Arches

Bloodvein

Peach Blossom

Early Thorn

Brimstone

In the pile of post that had accumulated in my absence was a brochure for this year's Somerset Arts Weeks in September. One of the featured artists will be showing a new body of work entitled 'Moths - those soft fumbling denizens of the dominion of the night'. What a lovely description. This has to be a 'must see' for me doesn't it?