Card cuts at Red Hot Press

I spent a very pleasant day last Friday teaching a card cut workshop at Red Hot Press. My three students, all of whom are practising artists and printmakers, were delightful company and created some interesting images.

We spent the morning looking at the different effects that can be produced with card cuts; line, tone and texture, and the variables such as types of card and varnish. My students then made some plates and varnished them. We had a relaxing lunch whilst waiting for the varnish to dry, then spent the afternoon printing and experimenting with intaglio and relief techniques.

Something that struck me was how difficult it can be for experienced artists to learn new techniques sometimes. I think to avoid discouragement, it’s important to stop oneself from becoming too bound up in the image. One should try to concentrate on the technique itself; mark-making and experimenting with all the variables a particular medium offers. Maybe look at the final image in detail, picking out what works and what doesn’t, rather than viewing the image a whole.

Image by Ruth Barrett-Danes

An etching press of my own

15 June 2009 was a great day for me – my etching press arrived! I still can’t quite believe it. It was delivered in the most enormous crate and I wondered if I had been sent the wrong thing; or I’d got my calculations wrong. But thankfully no, it was just exceptionally well packed for its journey from York. What a thing of beauty…

With the help of a couple of friends (thank you Gareth and Georgia) it was lifted onto the bench and, after trimming the blankets and putting in the bed, I was printing! Works like a dream; I pulled a perfect cardcut and an etching first go.

This morning I mixed up my first batch of copper sulphate solution and etched a plate – another first for Project Atelier. Put the plate through the press and the Undertaker’s sisters-in-law were born. I have my own etching press. I am very happy.

Unsatisfactory

No takers for my cardcut course this weekend sadly so no teaching for me. This means I can spend the weekend packing up books so that the builders can get to where they need to get. Lucky me.

The cockle wood engraving is finished. What can I say? I don’t like it. It’s flat and uninteresting. Good practice though. Hope the etched version turns out better on Friday.

An image of the Undertaker’s sisters-in-law is forming…

Cardcut workshop

How nice it is to be able to just get up and walk away from one’s work and not have to pack everything up. The luxury of a studio.

Think I’ve done as much on the cockle as I can for the moment – need to etch and proof before I can do any more so that will have to wait until I can get down to the workshop; not for another three weeks unfortunately. Need to buy my own press!

Will be teaching a cardcut workshop soon (subject to enrolments) so I need to do some prep for that. This will be a two-day course, Saturday and Sunday, which I’ve not done before. In the past, it’s been offered as consecutive Saturdays, giving plenty of time for students to finish plates and varnish to dry, so will see how this goes. Teaching is exhausting but I do enjoy it. It’s great to see what the students produce having learnt a new technique. And I’m always up for a bit of printmaking evangelism!

Top:Jo Price

Ginger Nut

Bartleby Series

Cardcut and drypoint

Edition: 15

Bottom:Jo Price

Mr Boythorn's Canary
Bleak House Series
Cardcut and drypoint
Edition: 15
All images copyright Jo Price

What next?
Now that my edition for Print Zero is travelling (safely I hope) to the west coast of the USA – to the city where I spent the first five years of my life, oddly enough – what’s next? I have a few things on the go, but my next wood engraving project is a commission for Hilary C. She has a friend travelling the mediaeval pilgrimage route to Compostela, the Way of St James. Apparently, the cockle shell is the symbol of St James so pilgrims wear on badges today. Hilary wants me to make a cockle shell related print.
Here’s the drawing I made for it.
Hmm, this is going to be interesting! Not quite sure how I shall manage it as a wood engraving – etching, yes; wood engraving, gulp… I shall be working on a block 10 x 7.5 cm which is twice as big as the biggest block I’ve used before; still pretty small for me. With etchings and cardcuts, I’m used to working a lot bigger, but wood engraving… challenging. Watch this space…

Print Exchanges…
are lots of fun. I’ve just received a call for entries to the 6th print exchange run by Print Zero Studios in Seattle. What is a print exchange? Briefly, printmakers from all over the world submit an edition of prints (in this case, 15) to whoever is organising it. Two of the 15 are kept for exhibition and archive purposes and the other 13 are randomly dispatched to other printmakers who took part. This means that everyone submitting gets back a portfolio of 13 different prints by 13 different artists. Plus, you get your work exhibited in other countries; for instance the last Print Zero exchange showed in seven venues across the US and in Denmark. The cardcut on the left was my submission.

I also submitted for the first time this year to another exchange run by Oregon Ink Spot. Deadline was yesterday so it’ll be interesting to see what comes my way over the next few weeks.

Wood engraving
What's that all about? I'm an intaglio printmaker by default; etching, drypoint and cardcuts. Personal circumstances, those annoying things that get in the way of one doing what one really wants to do, have all but wrenched the etching needle out of my inky hand and taken away the copper sulphate bath.

After a period of vowing never to print again, here I am, spitsticker in hand, discovering the wonders of end grain boxwood, lemon, pear and maple. Mostly maple because I'm not rich or very good. However, I am hopelessly hooked.