A RUMMAGE THROUGH MY DRAWERS!

I am having a studio sale on November 6th, so I have started clearing out experiments and edition ends to sell off at bargain prices. You can imagine as a printmaker and hoarder I have lots of works on paper building up all the time, so from time to time I have a clear out.

This tidy up is like a walk down memory lane, I find treasures in the backs of drawers and experiments that rekindle interest and inspiration...as long as I can remember how I did them.
This etching is 1 of the first, done on my degree course 30 years ago.

This little etching, nitric acid etched zinc, I made at a teachers etching workshop.

I then made this etching in my first studio in the cellar of our 3rd home, where we still live. It is the size of a real Walnut Whip.

1 of the first collagraphs I ever made.

My first experience of non toxic printmaking. Done in Dumfries on an ImagOn work shop run by Kieth Howard, the developer of this new process.

These are a couple of non toxic soft ground etchings done with ferric chloride and acrylic ground on copper after attending a workshop run by Friedhard Kirkeban.

I then experimented with combining etching and ImagOn

This is a much larger etching using separate plates to build up the colour.

I made this at a carborundum workshop at Leicester Print Workshop, I took wall paper just in case and caused a bit of a stir using it with the carborundum. I have to say that it was a long way to go to find out that wood glue was the best thing to stick carborundum on with.

This was one of the many experiments I made at a workshop run by Brenda Hartill. Brenda has a specialized inking technique.

Here is a transfer mono print that I had forgotten about, done as an example for a workshop I ran at Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth.

And an etching using gum arabic transfer as an etching resist on aluminum, bitten in copper sulphate, the chicken is a collagraphed element as I used carborundum for the body.

Here I wanted to see if I could print a collagraph plate onto some silk paper I had made, this then appeared in a 'handbag' exhibition. I had quite forgotten about it, as it has been stuck at the bottom of my plan chest.

This work represents 30 years of experimenting and absorbing new techniques. I feel that I still have so much to learn and so many ideas still to explore...it is good to look back. How many of you have archives to share?