Collagraph Prints

These are just a couple of the prints I made in the collagraph workshop; the only ones I liked. The image sizes are about 8-1/2" x 8-1/2".

Collographs with Vinita Voogd Day Two

On the second day of our collograph workshop at Wingtip Press, we started printing our plates.

This is one of Vinita's plates that she brought with her that had already been used.

Vignette rolling the ink on a plate.

The plates could be used for a relief print by rolling the ink onto the surface.  Or as an intaglio print by swiping ink onto the plate then rubbing it off so the ink is only in the "grooves." For the intaglio method, the paper needs to be damp.

This is an example that Vinita brought with her of the intaglio method.

Vinita with a relief print that has been run through the press. 

Terry reveals one of her prints. We love to crowd around the press when someone is printing to see what the result is.

Mary with her print on top (with Amy hiding behind) and the plate on the bottom.

I only tried the relief method and have just a couple of prints that I like, which I will show you in the next post.  The other ones I can work on by adding stuff, overprinting or using for collage papers.

Collagraphs with Vinita Voogd

Last week I was back at Wingtip Press (in their new location) taking a collagraph workshop from artist, Vinita Voogd.  Vinita lives in California and came to Idaho to teach her collagraph technique in a two-day workshop.

Vinita showing us examples of her prints.

On the first day, we made our plates for printing and got some of our papers ready.  Here, Vinita is showing us how to make a plate.

Amy, Theresa and Cassandra help Vinita remove extra rubber cement from the plate.

This is a print Vinita made and labelled to show how different items might look after printing.

There were six of us participants taking the workshop.  Mary, Deb and Sherry work on their plates.

Here is an example of one of Vinita's beautiful collagraphs.  Do go to her website for much better pictures than this one.

I'll show you some of what we did on the second day in the next post.

Kitchen Corner Series

I have one more linocut completed in the Kitchen Corner Series.  That is all I will be doing for right now.  I'm going to take a break from the press and get back to fabric.  I might revisited this series at a later date.

This fourth piece in the series is called Drink Me.  And I did some in black and brown ink again, since that was what I was doing for the rest of them.

Kitchen Corner Series

The Kitchen Corner print series started with the two prints I did for the Leftovers exchange.  I liked how the first two came out so I kept on going.  The third print in the series is called Mix it Up.  I also did black and brown ink on these, but I didn't care for the brown ones as much on this print.

Mix it Up

linocut

Image size 2-1/2" x 4"

Paper size 4-1/2" x 6"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

 $20

I think this one is o.k., but it is my least favorite of the group.  I think I cleared out too much of the linocut material.  I like the measuring cup and the eggs.  But the Kitchen Aid mixer stand seems not as timeless as the items in the other two prints.  The background wall has a regular pattern and is not as organic as the leaves out the windows of the first two prints.

On its own, the print is fine and I like it.  In the series, so far, it doesn't seem to fit in as well.  What do you think?  I have one more to share with you in another post.

More Woodblock Talk

The woodblock workshop at Wingtip Press was a precursor for an event taking place on Oct. 12 at the Idaho Historical Museum.  I'm not sure what the official title of the event is, yet, but there will be steam roller printing that day.

BSU students and community members will work on 4' x 8' wooden blocks that will be printed on fabric sheets with a steam roller.  A similar event has taken place in Boise before which I wrote about here on the blog.

While our instructor was here for the workshop, he shared insights and experiences from the annual steam roller printing event that is held in Missoula, Montana in celebration of Dia de Los Muertos.

Below are some of the pieces he brought to show us.

This skull was printed on a sheet that had butterflies on it.  Below are some smaller examples of prints on paper.

The picture above demonstrates a four color reduction print.

I am excited for the Oct. 12 event.  It will be a busy weekend because on Sunday, Oct. 13, I will be having my open studio as part of the BOSCO event.

Woodblock Workshop part 2

Sunday at Wingtip Press, we finished up carving and printing our woodblocks.  We were told we could bring t-shirts to print on.  The first day I didn't bring one because I didn't think I would want my design on a t-shirt.  I didn't realize we were going to be able to print some of the instructor's blocks.

I had planned to bring a t-shirt yesterday.  But ended up forgetting it.  I did have several pieces of my dyed fabric to print on, which was my intent the entire time.

Here is my block with the very simple design of a passion flower.  I had the hardest time trying to figure out what design I wanted to work on for this workshop.  I went through many ideas and finally just decided on this simple idea.

That blue on the block is a wash of acrylic paint.  It helps you see where you have already carved. This is a great idea that was new to me.

My block all carved out.

Here is Cassandra carving away on her block.

And here is Cassandra's finished design printed on paper.

This is Katherine's beautiful block all inked up and ready to print.

Anna Webb shows off her print on neon colored paper.

First time carver, Kurt, shows off his print.

This is Christy's finished design.

I really like this design from Josh Olson.

I was so busy taking pictures of everybody else's prints, I forgot to take some of my own.  I printed on several different colors of fabric and did a few on paper.  Cassandra asked if she could print my block on one of her t-shirts.  Here it is below.

I'll show you some of my prints on fabric after I pick them up from Wingtip Press.

Woodblock Workshop

It's been a bit quiet on the blog.  I have not been feeling well the last couple of weeks.  After a second visit to the doctor, I am finally on some antibiotics and am feeling better.  Just in time for the printmaking workshop I have been taking this weekend at Wingtip Press.

Yesterday was the first day and we are going back today.  The instructor is James Bailey, an art professor at the University of Montana.

We are creating woodblock prints using mdf board (that you can get at the hardware store).

Here is the instructor with one of the blocks he had carved previously with some of his works displayed on the wall behind him.  Below is the design printed on a t-shirt.

We had a fairly large number of participants in this workshop, partly because it is leading up to another event in October, which I will tell you about later.

Here are some more of the instructor's artworks.  I think most of them are not woodblock prints, but linocut or something else.

Above are the progression of steps for a reduction print using Sentra board. 

We finish carving and printing today. So I will show you the results later.

Intaglio Printing

The summer is going by quickly.  I can't believe it has already been a month since Anna and I participated in an Intaglio workshop at Wingtip Press.  We did the drypoint technique on a copper plate. With this technique you "draw" into the plate with a sharp tool.

Our instructor, Cassandra Schiffler, had us practice on CDs first.  Here she printed three of ours together.  (Mine is in the middle.)

Then, we worked on the copper plates.

This is my setup.  

Anna working on her plate.

While we were working, we were listening to the destruction outside of the road being torn up and the beautiful gingko trees being taken down.

When the plates were ready we inked them up, ran them through the press and decided if we needed to go back and work on them some more.

Anna printing.  It's common for people to hover around the press when someone is printing because they want to see how the print turns out.

This is the print Cassandra was working on.

Here's one my friend, Mary, was working on.

Here is Anna's print of a hedgehog in a mug that looks like a tardis (if you watch Dr. Who then you know what that is).

This is one of the prints that I did, which I actually like.

Here is another print I did where I was trying to be more abstract.  This one has a romantic wipe of the ink.  That means you don't clean off as much of the ink before printing.

I enjoyed the workshop and hope I can do more of these in the future.

Print 150

I've been writing quite a bit about Wingtip Press and Boise's sesquicentennial lately. And today that trend continues with both.  To celebrate Boise's 150 years, Wingtip Press has been doing a series of free workshops (funded by a grant from the City Arts & History department) throughout the year called Print 150.

Participants need to sign up to reserve a space for the two day workshop.  In the workshop they create collagraph prints of different houses/buildings found around Boise.  Everything is provided and no skill in printmaking is needed.  Anyone can do it and it is a great introduction to printmaking.

I signed up myself and Anna to attend the workshop which started last Thursday and was completed yesterday.  Last week we worked on creating our plate.

Anna working on her plate

Here is what our plates looked like after we had glued various items onto it (mostly wallpaper papers).  Anna's is first.

Amy Nack (Wingtip Press owner and artist) coated the plates and pressed them flat so that this week they would be ready to print. Yesterday we inked up the plates and ran them through the press.  We made three prints (2 regular and 1 ghost).  A ghost print is made by running the plate through the press after a first run print without re-inking.  Here's how they turned out.

One of Anna's first run prints.

Anna's ghost print.

One of my first run prints.

My ghost print.

I have not made a collagraph print before. It's fun to see how the different textures turn out.  One print will be kept for the city and they have been and will continue to be shown in different locations throughout the year.

Wingtip Press will be hosting a few more of these workshops throughout the remainder of the year.  Keep checking the website for dates/times or the City Arts & History Department's Boise 150 site.