A PRINT A MONTH

I am still on target, it is not always the printmaking that I am slow about but the blogging.

I like to compare the drawing with the collagraph, so many people consider collagraph a crude printmaking process, but I hope that from the print below I can prove that assumption wrong.

It is hard to make out the carborundum texture of the rook from this image, there is rich embossed black on black which catches the light. The little female chaffinch and the gold finch are made from skim and repair with glue highlights.

I have called this Look Left, Look Right. But I suspect my chums will call it my second pile of birds.

JUNE 2012

 

I know as we get older time seems to pass by very quickly. I am trying to be very positive about this. As I have mentioned in a previous post, Hothouse 4 is over and I am about to launch into a new artistic phase...very exciting...very scary. Blogs are brilliant places to look back into and see the personal progress we make, we do not always feel as though we are moving forward, so turning around and seeing the path we have trodden shows us the distance we have come. With this in mind I took a peak at June 2012, this time 2 years ago. Crumbs, is all I can say. An excellent exercise, pop a comment and a link to a past post that you would like to share. Whatever we may think  and whatever speed we travel, I am certain it is forward.

Me at my MA show 2012.

http://suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.co.uk/2012_06_01_archive.html

HOTHOUSE 4

So where exactly did 6 months go? For those of you who regularly follow my blog you will be aware that I have been taking part in the Crafts Councils Hothouse 4 program. Designed to give emerging makers support and strategies, to progress creative businesses.

www.pinterest.com/CraftsCouncilUK/crafts-council-hothouse-4/ will take you to the Crafts Council Pinterest sight and my fellow makers on the program. We started in January after a vigorous selection process and wow what an intense 6 months it has been. The Crafts Council arranged for a photographer to take this creative portrait. Thanks Tas Kyprianou  taskyprianou.com for this great image. 

Thankyou to the New Ashgate Gallery www.newashgate.org.uk for the exhibition of Hothouse 4 participants and for using this image of the Ladies and Gentlemen for the publicity.

New Ashgate is showing a selection of my Lost Relative spoons and a gaggle of Ladies and Gentlemen until August.

A big thankyou to the partners of the scheme who hosted us in the Midland Cohort. Nottingham Trent University, The Harley Gallery and Rufford Abbey Country Park and Craft Centre.

And of course all the people who facilitated the program, particularly Madeleine Furness, Sarah Palmer and Pete Mosley, I know I am going to use their suggested strategies for many years to come.

The future now that I am equipped to move my practice forward? There is lots in the pipe line, but most exciting of all will be getting together with my Midlands Cohort in a years time to exhibit work together at New Brewery Arts, Cirencester. So watch this space!!

ON THE WAY TO WORK!

 This time of year my walk to work...yes across the garden to the shed, is taking me longer and longer.

There is just so much to distract me along the way

In particular the emergence this week of my resident Scarlet Tiger moths.

These day time beauties are making my garden look very exotic.

But I am also getting a lovely variety of bumble bees, check out the blog Printed Material for more information about these creatures.

With all this going on, you can see where I am getting my inspiration from.

With my new spot-welder I am experimenting, these domes are about 10cm high.

Inspired by some of the makers at the Craft Festival, Bovey Tracey, I could not resist adding a little stitch to the moths...watch this space for a new line of enquiry.

I am making more light pieces ready for an exhibition in 2015 at the Devon Guild of Craftsmanship.

These moth spoons are ready to be delivered to Walford Mill, www.walfordmillcrafts.co.uk for their exhibition, In the Dead of the Night, starting in July.

Back to my collagraph a month challenge, this is the plan for Junes print, I can't wait to have a go at this gold finch. He has been flying around the garden all spring. So lets face it, when asked what inspires, I have to say, it's my walk to work!

A GRAND DAY OUT

I took myself off to Bovey Tracey today to wander around the Contemporary Craft Festival. Or should I say wonder around as it was packed with fantastic, unique objects.

Greeted by this motto I spent several hours talking to makers and immersing myself in the gorgeous things they produce. For a complete list of exhibitors, http://craftsatboveytracey.co.uk/makers/

But here are just a few of many that caught my attention, Little Burrow Designs.

Claire Read makes appealing objects from quirky finds.

Walsh Glass Designs, buy these singly or as a group.

Sylvie Nicholls makes these breath taking chandeliers.

Julia Jowett's exquisitely stitched and wire  

pieces really tempt the eye.

I am intrigued by these little treasures.

Julia Parry-Jones makes unique jewellery based on bower bird behaviour.

There really is something for everyone at this Festival, but sorry today was the last day, there will always be next year, or contact the artists directly for details of their next exhibitions.

 

A NEW TOY

Thursday 28th May will go down in our household as the day Sue got her spot-welder!

This useful piece of kit came from Westermans in Leicestershire and will allow me to neatly join my steel moths together.

The electrician came in this morning to put a stonking plug in the shed and off I went. Now like any new bit of kit it takes a bit of experimenting to get it right.

As you can see it took me a couple of goes before I got the power right.

I have stopped melting the metal, it was all very exciting.This neat little join is strong,

tidy and

enamels smoothly. One layer of grip coat,

a layer or ivory,

finishing off with a transfer.

I am now ready to embark on a new body of moth lights and new swarms.

 

 

PLAY DAYS (DAZE)

Every now and then I need to learn a new process...as if my head was not full enough! The best way to do this is to ask a chum round to play. My lovely friend Lesley (Printed Material) travelled all the way from Wales to spend time in my shed to work out how to do Kitchen Litho.

It all seemed fairly simple, foil, cola, oil, sponges and greasy drawing materials

Lesley and I followed several instructions. We even sat down and watched a Utube video together, it all looked very simple.

We are practical women, use to process led ways of working.

And we did eventually manage one print, which I could then not repeat!! Ooooh!!

Better foil, fresh cola, do folk who tell us how to do this miss out that crucial bit of info that makes it work? Have you got the secret? Or is it a hit and miss process? I will have another go when I have time, but so I could end the day on a practical high...sharing the day with Lesley was my emotional boost,

I had a go at this. Fresh photo copy, acetone and an iron. This resist method I got from one of my favourite books, Semiprecious Salvage: Creating Found Art Jewellery, Stephanie Lee. It will allow me to make photographic looking images etched into metal. Here I have used ferric chloride to etch the copper. It will be an alternative to a method of resist I learnt on the Guild of Enamellers Conference workshop a few weeks ago where I had a go at electro etch.

On that workshop we used PNP ironed onto steel, similar method, different stuff.

Backed with tape and an electrode taped into the back of the steel.

Then attached to a car battery recharger and sat in salty water.

The results are spectacular. So I am going to try the iron and acetone photocopy method to resist the etch as it is cheaper than PNP and not quite so fiddly. Watch this space!

 

 

There are lots of books and Utube videos about all these methods, the resist methods will be useful to my work, but I have to admit, for me life is too short for litho. With all these lovely processes out there my only advice to you is before embarking on hours of experimentation, think how you would incorporate this method into your work. But don't stop experimenting.