A ROOM OF ONES OWN

Woman's Hour, a Radio 4 show for all those who do not listen to British radio, are asking for women who have rooms of their own to work in, to send in photographs to put on their web sight.

They are running a feature based around Virginia Woolf's premise that creative women need a room of their own or perhaps a sanctuary away from the mundane domesticity of their daily lives.

I tend to agree, but then as a printmaker I have rather a lot of kit which would be just awkward in the middle of the dinning room.

But the room of ones own is only part of what Woolf was trying to get across, the whole message is , 'money and a room of ones own', the two are obviously linked.

I would love to see everyones working spaces, it says so much about us, the green chair is where I have the odd nap as the sun streams in through the window in the afternoon...that might change your image of my working practice?

SKETCH BOOK EXPERIMENTS

I have been spending a few weeks making work for my galleries as earlier postings have shown, chickenless heads and little birds. This stock of work has meant that I can give myself some experimental time, hence these images.
I spent Sunday morning locked in the shed with gum arabic transfer, ink and acrylic paint. Deep down I long to do abstract images, but I am constantly drawn to the figurative, this is why

all these paint brushes have appeared. I quite like the idea of the printed wall paper texture

appearing from an implement we associate with a more spontaneous mark...sorry that sounded a bit arty!!!

The celebration of tools, check out Bridbird's latest posting.

I am not sure where these will go if anywhere, but it is useful to look at them dispassionately through a screen.

INGENIOUS INTAGLIO

I have just spent a very pleasant weekend teaching an etching workshop in the studio at Hampen Factory.

The process I passed on was the use of a gun arabic transfer as a resist to the biting effects of copper sulphate on aluminum.

It all sounds technical, but once mastered it is an easier way of creating a photographic style etched image without the fuss of light boxes and expensive photo sensitive plate. It creates an image that is one step removed from the photographic original. The technique also leaves room for hand drawing, the crow and washing line I drew in after applying the transfered image.

After only 2 days and with very little previous experience of etching these are some of the

images produce on the course. I am delighted with the results, there is alot to get your

head round on this workshop, but everyone stuck with me and they all went away with a

print they were pleased with. I am so lucky to have such lovely creative people coming on my courses.

The next weekend at Hampen Factory is October 17-18, Mixed media techniques and gum arabic transfer.

EXPERIMENTATION

I have been having a bit of a play here really, in fact this is the third plate I have made to get these images right!

The base is tile cement on card with Carborundum on the birds, lots of wood glue washes to create the light tones.

Both plates have been inked up using the viscosity method. My worry is that sometimes work looks better here on screen

than they do in the flesh...?

Just a quick kitten update:- Henry and Iris are settling really well and Frank seems to be taking it in his stride!

CARRY ON COLLAGRAPHING

I find myself having to print a few more of these images due to Christmas orders from galleries. I will commit myself to a finite number of prints per edition, but will print 5 at a time, when

5 are sold. I will then print 5 more until I reach my edition number. This means I am not holding large stocks of unsold work. But I do get into a bit of a panic when I get low and orders rush in. It also means that the next 5 will be significantly different to the previous 5 as my memory is not as reliable as I would like and I forget how I printed the first lot (despite copious notes).

SKETCH BOOK WORK

I have just spent the last couple of days playing with some non chicken ideas in my sketch book,

I have started to make collagraph plates of these 2 finches. These 2 drawings are tonal plans, when I have finished the tile cement plates I am hoping to experiment with viscosity inking using the experiments I did earlier in the year as a starting point.

It is good to have a few ideas in hand, I always feel bereft when I have finished a printed piece.

I do have a backlog of drawings which need to be converted into collagraphs or etchings. How do the rest of you cope with more ideas than time or is it that I am managing things really badly?

All these drawings in my sketch book have been achieved using printed acrylic paint, ink washes and bits of collage here and there.

CONTINUING TO COLLAGRAPH

It has been a long and enjoyable summer break, but now it is back to work for me.

After a break, even a short one, I face my sketch book with a feeling of panic. But after a days intensive drawing and 3 days plate making and printing these 4 chicken collagraphs

are the result. The plates are made from card and woodglue.

They each measure about 7cms x 11cms.

Hopefully this will make them a set.

Still lurking in my sketch book are these 2 drawings.

Both additions to my ugly bird series. It is so good to get back to work, the more you do the more you feel like doing...don't you think?

Let me introduce you to Iris(on the left) and Henry, they have come to live with us from the Hampen Factory litter I posted about weeks ago. They have been with us for 2 days now and are settling in beautifully.