A few days before 2012 I was feeling pumped about starting the new year and a new art series. I can’t for the life of me put my finger on where to start. I’m taking today to thumb through old photos, update my inspiration wall, flip through some art books, and dig for some much needed inspiration.
Yesterday we had our annual potluck date at the Bates’ home with black eyed peas and their new fire pit.
so pretty. and so much to learn from this little beauty! i’m very much looking forward to 2012 and all it has to offer.
Having been a printmaker for quite some time now, I find myself floundering in conversations trying to explain a very long process in two sentences or less on what printmaking actually is…or how I achieved/printed a particular piece. It’s a relatively easy process (and I use that term lightly), but it requires many steps – each being critical to the end result. So recently I decided to document one of my prints step by step in order to answer some of these questions and to merely to enlighten those of you who might not want to ask, but are curious how an etching is made.
I should note too that I am a very untraditional in my approaches with a very traditional method. Though I was trained and have a degree in printmaking….I still just make things up as I go along. I’m not one to sew with a pattern, cook by a recipe, hold my paintbrush just right….nor do I print by the rules.
There are a variety of papers you can use when printing. I encourage anyone to experiment, but I've landed on Fabriano Rosapina (sounds fancy, but I just order it from Dick Blick). It's thick, versatile, and tears beautifully. Printmaking paper can be pricey and is typically made of cotton. You should tear your paper to 1.) show off it's beauty and texture and 2.) to fit the size of your print. I typically leave an inch or so around the top, left, and right....and then two or so inches for the bottom to leave room for the title, edition number, and signature.
After you've torn all of your paper, you will place it in a tub of water to soak. I know that this seems crazy....but it's critical. Printing papers are strong. They contain many fibers that need to be loosened in order to pick up all of the details of the print you're about to run. You can soak your paper anywhere from 3 minutes - an hour{ish}.
After documenting this, I realized that I entirely left out the part of how to prepare your plate, etch it, and so forth. I'll do that soon in another post! To continue where we're at though...here is a photo of a plate that is covered in black hard ground (a miraculous printing compound that resists acid), and has already been etched in acid. Now it's time to remove the black hard ground with mineral spirits and a toothbrush. This takes a small bit of scrubbing, but you need to do so without being too abrasive with your plate of metal. You don't want to cause any scratches because then it will leave a mark and therefore show up on your print!
After removing the hard ground, I usually take my prints over to my backyard faucet to remove the excess mineral spirits and to do a general cleaning of the plates. At this point we're ready to go back inside and begin inking!
In order to keep this brief and less boring…I will be breaking this down into 3 posts. Check back tomorrow for Part II, inking your plate!
The ladies and the owls.
shoppers!
My neighboring booth and friends from Brainstorm screen prints.
Let's Be Friends - an incredible collection of goods!
Ezzie, no enemy to ANY dance floor.
You too can be a Mer-Jack!
The lovely Raine with the knit balls by Knitta Please
And last but certainly not least...my excellent companion, friend, and all around badass.
Hey everyone! We just got back from the Austin Renegade Holiday Sale from this past weekend and it rocked our socks off! We saw so many incredible vendors with extraordinary talent, along with a plethora of hipsters, a Mer-Jack, chicken tattoos, plenty of beer, and knit balls, by Knitta Please (I LOVE their name)! I tweeted a few more pictures that you can see here if you haven’t had enough! 
ezmah and i went for a walk this morning.
{with my new Nikon D3100}
i think we’d both agree that fall is our favorite time of the year.
two photos from the beach. i didnt take as many photos as i would have liked while on my recent trip to texas, but these were simple and beautiful to me. so, here i share.
another invitation! one of my favorites so far.
i recently designed these halloween cards. super cute and available for purchase in my shop!
this is rather addictive, expect more to come!
my beautiful baby is two today.
this doily has a story. but i’m not sure if you’ll ever know it. regardless, its not important. but isnt it super cute and tiny?
{dont feel left out. no one really knows the story but me.}
meet “boy” griesse whom has recently moved into the perrodin house. he actually belongs to our friends who just moved to germany and were unable to take him at this time. though a temporary move, we sure love him.
we began our trip with a hike...
stayed in the sunshine...
swam in the stream...
made surprising discoveries....
explored abandoned mines....
took time to watercolor....
made plenty of camp fires near the cabin....
watched the wind blow....
checked out the area's public library...
discovered new species of plants....
roasted marshmallows......
and had our fair share of naps.
I recently fell in love with photograms and the capability to create delicate lines and features with shadows. Here is one of my favorites. Available for purchase at my new ETSY shop!
i have fallen in love with this process of dipping anything that burns into slip (wet clay) and then firing it out. Here is my latest concoction. quite beautiful just how they are. if these turn out half as beautiful as i anticipate, you should look forward to seeing them in my soon to be etsy shop!
one spring morning.
pin the beard on the president. designed by raine.
cake made by mimi {& raine}. table cloth made from 25cent bandanas found at a thrift store.
raine wanted to have pies thrown in her face.
the donkeys, elephants, and independents all showed up to celebrate Raine’s seventh year of life! Raine picked the theme of “president party” {not sure where it came from} for her birthday, it was fun making this happen for her.
the enjoyably tedious process
this is the back of the book. i pasted most of the pieces back together that i had cut from the book to recreate the church.
i recently participated in the art house coop‘s sketchbook project and this was my entry. heres how it worked, i signed up to participate, they mailed me a moleskine sketchbook with my name and a bar code printed in it, and a topic. i was then to fill up this sketchbook with anything pertaining to this said topic. after receiving everyone’s sketchbook, they will collectively be placed into a library that acts as an exhibition. this exhibition will then travel to various galleries across the nation allowing people to participate and “check” the books out for a short time so that they may be handled and viewed.
my topic was “the end of the world”. after much brain-work, i decided to not add to my sketchbook, but to instead take away from it. this to me encompasses the world’s end because things will no longer be added, but subtracted from existence. I also chose to do a church building dimensioning with each turn of a page further alluding to the world’s disintegration as well as the heavy implications of the church and people using it in a time of distress and need (like for instance….the end of the world).
unfortunately, this is a permanent collection and i will never get this book back. i hope to catch one of the exhibitions so i can see it in its intended context.
jonathan thought that making a coffee cup out of bronze was a much better idea than a cassette tape. i disagreed, but made him a coffee cup anyway and surprised him for christmas.
this is a starbucks cup cast in bronze. it weighs around 15 pounds.
i know its well into january now, but i have yet to show you all of our handmade christmas. this was raine’s gift to jonathan, her own version of a prayer book. she wrote three prayers for each day. i helped with the cover design, its a mock up of a page from the book of kells. jonathan says that this was his favorite gift.
here is a clay remnant of my portrait bust. i couldnt bring myself to simply trash my face along with the rest of the clay that it took to make myself.
a bust of myself. now what to do with it?
here it is! raine’s first published book, including 4 stories written and illustrated by herself.
this turned out fantastic. shes says that she would like to make more. so perhaps this is merely the beginning. im proud of her and inspired by her stamina…she worked diligently to make this book happen.
and of course, a special thank you to the papa that spent endless nights making this book happen!
