Snowy May Day

Work for my other job has been delayed so I got to print again today. I would have been driving all day so I’m just as glad – this is what we woke up to:

It's May 19th!

It snowed all day and is still coming down.

Here’s one of today’s prints, jury is still out on it.

another viscosity monotype

Upcoming Show

I’m the guest artist at the Shadow Mountain Gallery in Evergreen for the month of June.  The opening reception is part of their last Friday art walk on May 27th from 5-8 pm.  All the Evergreen galleries participate in the Art Walk.

The gallery is at 28186 Hwy. 74 (Main Street) http://www.shadowmountaingallery.com/.  If you’re in the area, please stop by.  My monotypes will be on display through June 19th.

New Print

Untitled

Between driving for my other job and getting ready for my show, there’s not a lot of time for printing lately.  I made this one yesterday and I will be able to print all day tomorrow.

Then I turn my kitchen into a frame-shop.  I’ll be cutting, filing and putting together frames for two days.  A lot of work, but so much cheaper than taking them into someone else.  I’m glad I had the opportunity to work in a professional frame-shop for a few years!

New Summer Classes

I’ll be teaching monotype classes at Fraser Recreation this summer.  They start on Friday, June 3rd – kids (ages 7 & up) from 3-5 and adults (ages 14 & up) from 5:30-7:30.  They’re 3 week sessions, the second one starts Friday, July 1 and the last session begins Wednesday, August 3.

Traci working on her print

Monotypes are known as painterly prints.  There are many different ways to create a monotype and we’ll cover a different one each week. We’ll be using water-based inks and will hand roll the prints. If you’d like more information, feel free to contact me.  Call Fraser Rec to register at 726-8968.  I’ll post a link for registration when they have it online.

A Day of Experimentation

It was one of those days when I learned a lot from what didn’t work out.  It’s easy to experiment on the small plates – if they don’t work out there hasn’t been a lot of time, ink or paper invested. Easy clean-up, too.

Here’s three of the better ones – although I don’t know that I’d put any up for sale!

untitled

black triptych

untitled

I need to teach myself etching – I have some solar plates someone gave to me years ago.  They’re wrapped in black plastic so I hope they’re still viable.  The process is kind of hard to get my head around, but it’s time to give it a go.

Small Plates

I’ve been working on 3″ plates – they’re so tiny it’s quite a change for me.

four small plates

It’s quite a trick to do multiple plates with chine-colle!  The paper has to be laid down quickly and accurately on each plate and then the plates have to be lined up perfectly.

off just a bit

The one above has too much space between the plates and one plate is off jut enough to be bothersome.

off a bit more...

This one has the right amount of space between plates, but the top right went off on it’s own.  Very frustrating after all that work.

I tried layout glue, but that was a disaster – worked like real glue and I had trouble getting the plates unstuck from the registration plate.  I think I’ll try putting some ink on the back of the plates next time.

Here’s one that worked:

triptych

Ravens

Ravens are one of my favorite birds.  I love listening to them when I’m walking my dogs – they love to chat.

Raven

When I went to clean the brayer I was surprised to get a nice ghost print.

ghost raven

Here’s another one:

raven calling

And the ghost:

ghost of raven calling

Switching Colors

Made some viscosity prints today with white as the top ink.  It’s a little tougher to pull off with chine-colle because the paper has to fit just right.

Untitled

I used a different white, too – opaque white – it’s much brighter.  These are 5×7 prints.

Untitled

Viscosity Prints with Chine-colle

These viscosity prints are made by inking a plate with ink that has burnt plate oil (linseed oil) added to it.  This makes for a loose, juicy ink that will resist the stiffer ink that will be rolled over it. Here’s an inked plate:

inked plate

I then roll out some black ink that has been made less viscous by adding magnesium carbonate – a white powder that “stiffens” the ink.

black ink for viscosity roll-up

The black ink is rolled over the inked plate and the “juicier” ink repels the black ink – the black ink only sticks to the plate where there is none of the less viscous ink.

plate after viscosity roll-up

I don’t really like the bright white ink so I add some Japanese paper to the print to tone it down.

Japanese paper for chine-colle

Chine-colle is adding paper to the print during the printing process.  I lightly moisten the paper and sprinkle wheat paste on the damp paper.  The paper is then placed on the inked plate.

inked plate with chine-colle paper after paste is added

Lining up the damp paper onto the inked plate is the hardest part.  The paper often stretches and hangs over the edge of the plate so I try to cut it a bit smaller than the plate.  I quickly add the moist printing paper and run the whole thing through the press.

The completed print:

completed print

It still takes me by surprise seeing the print opposite of what I painted.

The chine-colle paper I added tones down the bright white ink and the light spots show through.

A second inked plate:

inked plate for 2nd print

Second print completed:

Second print

Having Fun with the Same Palette

Here’s some more – all viscosity prints with chine-colle.  Chine-colle is adding paper to the print during the printing process.

Nebula #10

Nebula #11

Nebula #12

Nebula #13

The red ones didn’t photograph very well – they’re not quite this bright.

Nebula #14

Nebula #15

I’ll be making more of these – it was fun working on them.