At the last minute I was asked to be part of the Olde Ipswich Days craft fair. So I will be at the South Village Green, Rte 1A Ipswich, MA with my scarves and original prints. I hope to see some old friends and make some new ones.
We had a good day at the Haverhill Farmers Market. It was opening day and there were 20 or so vendors with fresh herbs, veggies, bread, honey, tasty sweets and more. I had note cards, small mixed media prints and my hand dyed shibori scarves. The Haverhill Art Association was represented by Mike Gould and myself. Several people told me it was their first time to the Market even though they live in Haverhill and the market has been around since the 1970’s. Maybe it was the new location or maybe more folks want to eat local. I look forward to next week. I saw old friends and made some new ones too. That has to be a good day. Stay Cool!
Happy 4th of July! Well I am inspired by other artists work and accomplishemens. I came accross the work of America Martin today. I love the bold, expressive black line. Funny how we find things on this big old internet. I am going to to make some bold expressive black line drawings. Enjoy.
Would you consider gelatin printing with old gelatin? Don’t throw away your old and decaying gelatin plate. I love to use it when it starts to get all the little holes and cracks in it.
I can’t control how it falls apart. So sometimes it decays in a beautiful way and other times not so much. I like to do a lot of newsprint pick ups to absorb the slime and to get the plate ready for printing.
In the print above I used Daniel Smith water soluble Block Printing ink, blue with some black. I made the circles and the lines by “stamping” into the inked plate. Stamping lifts off some of the ink. I think I use a dress pattern wheel to make the dotted lines.
The white grasses where created by placing the grass on the plate. Notice that the grass is very thin and creates interesting negative space. Then place the paper on top and print with hand pressure. All the little holes, the subtle changes in blue/black color where created by the decaying gelatin plate.
If you would like to explore making and working with a gelatin plate over time, then you may be interested in the next session of Make Monotypes. Check out the details here.
