Thursday, October 4, 2007

Printmaking Experiment


Last week, I took a workshop in solarplate etching at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio. This is a method of etching using polymer plates that uses no acid or other chemicals to etch the plate. In preparing for the workshop, I did a drawing I hated, so, in desperation, I picked some leaves from the yard, scanned them into Photoshop and "messed around" with them until I got an image that looked OK. After a couple of tries, I ended up with this print that started with a few dandelion leaves. I printed the whole plate with yellow ochre first, then printed just the leaf area again with black. The registration, amazingly, worked perfectly; I just plonked the plate down over the printed yellow image by eye. The image is a bit odd, I'll admit, but I loved the dark, velvety black contrasted with the almost-shiny yellow. I'll be doing more experimenting with solarplate over the winter. Right now, I have to think about printing and framing for the critter show.

3 comments:

The Stamping Dragon said...

That's really cool. What kind of paper is that?

Barbara Carr said...

Thanks, SD. The paper is Rives BFK, a heavy, yummy paper made especially for printmaking, but it's used for all kinds of other things, too. It was dampened for making the print.

Jeanne said...

Hi Barbara, I loved getting your card with your blog info on it. Your blog is beautiful and the way you lay out your work is great. I am not as good as you are but I would love for you go see it and let me know if you like it and suggestions to make it better.
Would you put my blog on your interesting sites and I will put your blog on mine. My blog is http://studiojeanne216.blogspot.com
I would love to hear from you. Jeanne