Praeterita

Here is another method of making a collagraph with the inexpensive aluminum flashing tiles I talked about in a previous post. It's very simple and effective. The little movie included in this post illustrates it step by step, but here's a summary: Draw directly on the plate (aluminum flashing tile) with Elmer's glue, or a brush dipped in the glue. Shake carborundum grit over the wet glue. Tip the plate up to shake off excess grit. When the plate is dry, seal it with a layer of acrylic gloss medium (I realised after I made the movie that I missed out this step!). You can then ink and print the plate in the regular way: Use a brush or piece of card to drag ink across the plate. The carborundum grit holds the ink very well. Wipe away the excess ink using a piece of tarlatan. Place damp printmaking paper over the plate, then run it through the press. For the slideshow, I inked the plate "a la poupee", which means to use different colours of ink on the same ...

Definition of a drypoint : intaglio printmaking method where you scratch lines directly into the surface of a metal/plexiglass plate. So no need to cover the plate with an acid-resistant ground, draw into the ground, then etch the plate in acid. You just scratch, ink, wipe away excess ink, then print.   Definition of a collagraph : materials glued to a surface (metal, plexiglass, matboard), sealed with acrylic medium, then inked and printed.   In teaching a printmaking class at the end of last year in rural Illinois, I had to get creative in finding inexpensive materials. I stumbled upon aluminum (=aluminium where I come from) flashing tiles at Home Depot. They are 5” x 7”, and you can get a hundred of them for around $20. There are several advantages to this: 1. The aluminum tiles are a lot cheaper than copper, zinc, and steel, which are the traditional metals used for drypoint. For example: a 5” x 7” economy copper plate goes for around $5 per plate (so $500 for ...