Skip to main content

Bits and pieces and stuff

I'm moving around in my studio between different projects, which is not a great way to work, as I like to keep up sustained progress over a length of time before moving on to the next thing. I'm trying to finish off some rewards for the Kickstarter Project Patty and I did at the beginning of the year. This set of rewards involves cutting up some 2" x 4"s into short lengths, to which I will glue some small prints. Here they are with a few coats of acrylic varnish on them, and then a layer of airbrush pigment:



I am also reusing old plates to make collagraphs, by coating them with layers of acrylic varnish:


Finally, I recently consolidated two studios into one (long story, but now everything is in one place in Chicago). I have dozens of etching plates, mainly copper, that have been wrapped and in storage for nearly a decade, so I am trying to clean up six or so at a time, to see which ones can still be used, and which ones can be recycled:


Note how the bubble wrap seems to have transferred a big dot pattern to the surface while the plate was busy oxidising. I will take a test proof from this plate next week and hope that this doesn't show up. Otherwise, there will be a lot of copper plates that will need to be resurfaced!

Popular posts from this blog

Restoring my Printing Press

I've just finished restoring and assembling my large etching press -- a six week process involving lots of rust removal, scrubbing with steel wool, and repainting. Here is a photo of the same kind of press from the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative: And here is a short YouTube video of me testing the press, making sure the motor still works after nearly seven years of lying in storage:

Brancusi in Plastic

Artist Mary Ellen Croteau is showing these columns made from recycled plastic cartons and lids in the window of the Columbia College bookstore on Michigan Avenue. They are a playful homage to Brancusi's "Endless Columns", with a serious environmental message for our times: Image copyright Inhabitat.com and Mary Ellen Croteau Mary Ellen also runs a wonderful experimental art gallery in a window space in west Chicago, called Art on Armitage . I will be exhibiting a mixed media piece there during August 2012.

How to etch a linoleum block

Linoleum as a material for printmaking has been used for nearly a hundred years now. Normally, you cut an image out using special gouges similar to woodcut tools, cutting away the lino around the image you want to print. This is called relief printmaking, because if you look at the block from the side, the material that remains stands up in relief from the backing material. You then roll ink with a brayer over the surface of the block, place paper over it, and either print by hand or run it through a press. You can do complex things this way (for example, reduction linocuts), but the beauty of the process is that it is quick, simple, and direct. Incised lino block, from me.redith.com Etched lino block, from Steve Edwards A few years ago, I saw some prints that were classified as coming from etched linoleum blocks, and I loved the textures I saw in them. In the last few months, I've been trying to use this technique in my own studio, learning about it as one does these d