Back to the future

It is a lovely feeling to be in a print studio again after a year's absence while concentrating on the more conceptual stuff for my degree show! 
So to get me started and back to where I left off I went to a collograph workshop last weekend with Mary Gillett. 

Mary giving Brian some advice 

Wonderful to be making again , getting stuck into the messy paint mixing, inking the plate and seeing the unexpected results that come from the press. It was a playful, experimental 2 days, the prints were all quite different and not always what I hoped for but bits here and there I liked and felt I could incorporate in a larger piece of work in the future.


For the plates I used cardboard which I've previously used for collagraphs and also new to me, aluminium and thin ply. Then I used tile adesive, various mediums and carborundum to create the image on the plate. Brenda Hartill has a very useful video on using carborundum here 

Offset print from the roller I used to ink up one of the plates

Using very different colours to my usual palette! 

the ghost print of the one above which I much prefer!

I went back for a 3rd day to print up some more of the plates and I must say on Monday evening I was exhausted but ever so pleased with myself! 

About one third of my total output for the 3 days

So part of my future art practice will definitely include printmaking!