Freezing Cold Print Week
Freezing Cold Print Week
Print week went well due in part to the fact all three of our teachers are professional print makers and that we had a professional printing press in the studio and did not have to resort to potato prints and a spoon to burnish the print onto the paper.
Well okay, in the name of scrupulous honesty I confess I did resort to potato printing actually and thought it was really rather effective.
We had to come up with our own theme and as I live by the sea in the south of England and I am living on the coast of North West Scotland the beach was my theme. I took a bin bag onto the beach and gathered lots of seaweed, shells, dead crabs, dead gulls etc. No-one else wanted to work in the studio except James who didn't seem to have a strong sense of smell!!
I now know the difference between relief printing and intaglio having done both. We drew our prints on two plates ( pieces of poster board) - with both left and right hand at the same time. One was printed as a relief print - ink on the surface and the other intaglio not ink on the surface but in the incised lines instead. Gave very different results.
We then worked on both plates with a scalpel cutting, removing parts and incising the plates. I could have won a place in 'Holby City' operating theatre by the end of the day.
Colleograph next using a piece of poster board and adding texture to my drawing of mussel shells with carborundum powder, texture paste like poly-filler and the trusty scalpel. Not a favourite. I cut too deep and too narrow and it came out poorly. Never mind - can't win them all.
Coloured ones done in three layers on perspex sheets were far more successful
If you live in Eastbourne, can you recognise the 10,000 tides bit from the sculpture in Gildredge Park
It snowed heavily this week and Gary my landlord suggested I drive out in it or I would shirk driving again until May. One of my class mates invited me to follow her home to Inverness on Thursday night and stay over and drive back on my own on Saturday.
I was outvoted in the event as everyone else thought it was too dangerous to drive to Inverness at night in heavy snow so I went over in Sue's Warrior, a magnificent beast of a vehicle and her 10 gear pride and joy. Unlike Sussex one really does need a car with a name like Warrior, Gladiator, Exterminator or the like, to manage in these mountains in bad weather. No posturing involved at all.
Have you ever been responsible for operating a level crossing? Phoning the control centre and opening and closing the gates? Nor had I until this weekend. It was like being one of the Railway Children for real - except I am not an Edwardian child and I recall them waving at trains rather than being part time staff.
Sue has a beautiful home on the outskirts of Inverness overlooking a Firth. Her house is surrounded by wonderful trees, her 60 rare breed sheep, seven chickens and a railway line that runs through their garden not once but twice. Never been so cold in my life. Sue lent me several extra layers of clothing until I looked four stone weightier.
Before I came home, I visited Leaky's bookshop to search out ephemera for book making next week. It's a bookshop housed in an old church. Well worth a visit especially with such a wonderful wood burner.
I came back to Ullapool on a rather luxury bus with other bemused passengers wondering why I kept leaping to my feet to take photos of the snowy panorama with my phone. They are so used to this weather it doesn't raise an eyebrow.
Back in Ullapool by lunch time, I gate crashed a Christmas Decoration workshop for children with Steve the village Ceramicist and made three queens as candle holders. No pictures as too many children and my 'queen's are drying out.
I have promised him that I will give one to each of my daughters this Christmas with a totally straight face. After all, over the years they have lovingly bestowed their first creations on me too.
Book making week looming. Can't wait.
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