SAME SEA, DIFFERENT BOAT: KEEPS GROWING

Another busy week and I am thrilled to report I have inked and returned for stitching a total of 180 collagraph prints and still they keep coming, Louise, Liske and I are absolutely amazed by your response to this project. 

The imagery has covered every personal aspect of your lock down experience.

The exciting thing is that for some of you this has been a first encounter with collagraph printing and you have taken it on with enthusiasm. There literally has not been one plate I have not been able to ink up and print and that's out of  180 so far!!

With great relief you are sending back the stitched prints and these have worked better than I imagined.

The addition of a touch of stitched colour on the Prussian blue prints has worked really well,

taking the images to the next level. I get the feeling from some of the comments that this may be a thing you could explore in further work?

Everyone has made beautiful work, but there are a few names I recognise joining in with this massive community project. The printmaker Tor Hildyard sent me Hugs ready printed and stitched.

Mrs Bertimus had a go at a collagraph and has returned it beautifully stitched,

and right at the beginning of the project Cas Holmes led the stitched pieces with this contribution.

The deadline for the printed/stitched squares was extended and has now been and gone.

But you can still be part of this social document about our lock down experience.

You have until July 10 to send a stitched square.

It must be an image size of 10 x 10cms on a 15 x 15cm square of natural fabric so that it will fit in with the printed stitched pieces.

Send you contribution to me:

Sue Brown

the yard:ARTspace

Upper Bath Street,

Cheltenham, GL50 2BA

All textiles including the printed/stitched squares must be with me by the 10 July!

Although this project is not in any way about profit, to help towards material costs we have set up a Just Giving page to enable (if you wish) to make a small donation i.e £3, this is by no means compulsory to take part in the project:

Just Giving Page.

Thank you for your generous donations so far, this will enable us to exhibit the finished quilt in various venues.

Louise, Liske and I will be constructing the quilt and we are beginning to look at exhibition venues to show what will be an amazing snapshot of the last few months. 

The work is really only just beginning!

CREATIVE PROMPT: SAME SEA, DIFFERENT BOAT: ITS OFFICIAL WE HAVE A PROJECT!

Two weeks ago I suggested a project to Louise Asher and Liske Johnson...lets get everyone to make a collagraph print to stitch into or an embroidered square and make a quilt to describe what its been like in lock down? Perhaps a few of the people that come to our workshops might join in and send us something? Maybe I will get 30 collagraphs to print, perhaps 50 embroidered squares might roll in? Louise and Liske said, well I don't think our stitchers will tackle a print, I thought my print makers wouldn't tackle a stitched piece. 

How wrong could we have been?

In the last 2 weeks I have printed  over 130, 10x10cm collagraphs onto fabric and they are still coming in the post. 

I have had beautiful notes with the plates. You have worried about will your plate print, it's the first time I have made one of these? Stories explaining the imagery and a big thank you to the nice things you have said about the project.

I have noticed that this technique has suited every ones style, I literally have not had a plate that would not print. From complex imagery,

to humorous and bold visual statements, everything has printed successfully.

It has been a joy to see your stories emerge from the ink as I wipe each plate clean.

But the printing is only half the story. I am relieved that the prints I am returning are arriving to their originators and I am getting them back stitched into. I am thrilled with how beautiful these look with a touch of stitched colour!

There is one week left to get your collagraph plates to me. The deadline has been extended to 19 June because the project has had such a terrific response and we do not want to exclude anyone. 

If I get your plate by then or soon after I will print it and return it to you to stitch onto.

Details for the project are here

This however is not the end of the story. 

My postman is a little perplexed by my sudden increase in post over the last fortnight. For those of you who wanted to express yourselves in just stitch I am thrilled to be receiving

these gorgeous embroideries. 

As varied in techniques and materials as the collagraphs, all these personal stories will create the most beautiful quilt and a social document about the extraordinary time  we are living in.

Its not too late to join in!

Get your collagraph plate to me by 19 June, with a SAE so that I can return the print to you to stitch.

Please get your finished embroidered collagraph print and any just stitched square to me by 10 July.

This deadline is open ended for overseas contributions.

Details about how to get involved are HERE

A massive thank you to all who have taken part so far, its been a privilege to print your work and it will be amazing to see everything joined together. Thank you also for donating to the project, this will enable us to put the piece together beautifully and be able to afford any exhibition costs that may arise. 

Thank you to Louise and Liske for running with this idea, I think its popularity has taken us all by surprise.

A CREATIVE PROMPT: THE PROJECTS PROGRESS

Another week gone by, but what a week. 

Since launching the project Same Sea, Different Boat: Our Isolation Story I have been busily answering collagraph questions and inking plates.

My post has been arriving in bundles with elastic bands and its all better than Christmas, (no guilt that I haven't sent a card back!)

A big THANK YOU to everyone who is supporting this project by sending a collagraph, promising a stitched square or by donating to the Just Giving Page to fund the quilt. 

We are in a funny intermediate phase with the lock down at the moment, not knowing quite what we need to be doing. I have to admit this project has made me feel like I am back at work, which is great.

This week I thought I would give you an insight into what happens to your plate when it has arrived at the yard:ARTspace.

I have inked up about 40 collagraphs over the last couple of days. I am using oil based Hawthorn stay open  etching ink in Prussian Blue. With so many plates to work on I have been slackening down the ink with linseed gel to make the wiping off that bit easier.

I thought I would make a specific plate for the project, so I have gone back to my Covid Corvid theme. This is very simply made using grey board, cutting and peeling into the card and gluing for white and high lights. Collagraph plate making instructions can be found here 

I scrape the ink across the plate, pushing it into all the textures and then scraping off the excess.

Then I blot... 

and blot... 

and blot lots more with newspaper. 

I then polish the surface clean using yellow pages. 

This plate shows very clearly an area of peeled card holding ink. Glued areas and I would say that this plate has had lots of layers of glue with the small circles drawn into the wet glue, comes up nice and clean. 

The plate is popped onto my table top press. 

The cotton fabric placed on top of the plate.

The fabric is pushed into the textures of the plate by the action of the press to pick up the ink. The answer to the next question is, yes, you need a press to print collagraphs. 

The variety of collagraph images and techniques has been wide, here are just a few to kick start your imagination because it is not too late to join the project.

The details about what to do can be found HERE

When the collagraph is printed, I will pop it back in the post to you to add stitching. The Prussian Blue is a perfect background for colour. If there is a bit you are not happy with just stitch over it. It is an easier way to add words, none of that flipping the letters round to get it the right way.

Often the printed textures will suggest the stitching. Yes I thought this wall paper looked like lungs.

But if you are more comfortable with just sending a stitched piece, please do.

Louise, Liske and I hope to have everyone's squares back with us by the beginning of July so that we can start putting this quilt together.

Keep up to date with the progress of Same Sea, Different Boat by following my Instagram page HERE