Printmakers fun

I mentioned that on Sunday we hosted Maleny Printmakers at our place for a play day - which was highly unsuccessful until we started to do copper sulphate etching on aluminium plates.

The kitchen lithography seemed simple - alfoil, soap or lithography crayons, coca cola, water, oil then ink...but not one of us managed to get the coca cola to interact with the crayon or soap in order to change the surface of the alfoil - despite the videos making it look oh so easy and like magic.

We all tried different things so we kind of feel as if we gave it a good go - but maybe our alfoil is different to the alfoil in France and the US; maybe our soap needed different properties and maybe our coca cola is even different to what is used elsewhere.

Here are my marks on alfoil before coca cola.

After I inked up my alfoil and printed - all you can see is the ink where I couldn't rub it off the foil - none of the marks collected ink at all.

So it was with a bit of fear and trepidation that I suggested we give copper sulphate etching a go on the aluminium plates we had purchased.  It was several years ago that I attended a workshop on this and I hadn't played with it since, so hazy, sketchy and uncertain were all good adjectives to describe my recollections.

Still we wanted to achieve something other than shiny alfoil on the day so off we went.

The sense of relief I felt when I saw the surface of my test plate being etched was immeasurable! Something was happening and from there on in, everybody could have a play, experiment and test out ideas. Phew.

Here are some images of the plates and prints that people achieved...

Kim's stunning marks. In both instances her plate is upside down to the print. But don't you just love the plates as well?

Some of Susan's test plates - experimenting with different resists and marks.

A couple of Nancy's lovelies.

The richness of Nancy's black background on this one is sublime.

Steph's print and plate - lovely shapes and marks again.

A couple of Sonja's - Mt Beerwah and a second impression of a snake skin in soft ground

And a remarkable thumb-print root system on this tree

I din't get around to printing - was too busy mother-hening and hoping that everything was working out OK. Nonetheless, I have several wee plates prepared and one day sometime soon I hope to do something with them!