New glueprint done whilst teaching at Cardiff Print Workshop’s Print Thursday event.
Glue on acrylic primed panel
Working with the wrinkles
Very thick glue, tried to stick it to paper. Paper buckled, so I peeled and washed it off, then stuck the glue print to the panel. It had large hard wrinkles so I added lots of texture medium, acrylic paint, collage and gold metal leaf, to create a heavily textured picture, which I really like. Its called Early Bird.
Glue lift Prints
Am trying to perfect this technique.
Create a drypoint plate on plexiglass - have found that flexible stuff is easier to work with.
Ink it up as if you’re going to make a print.
Instead of putting it through the press, carefully coat it with PVA glue. Smooth it evenly with a bit of card.
Leave it to dry somewhere away from busy or dusty areas. Don’t fiddle with it.
Have a look when its dry - if there are holes you can fill them in with a bit more glue. Unless you like the holes.
At this stage you can choose whether to paint on top of the glue with acrylics. If you do, allow it to dry thoroughly before lifting.
Lifting - work the edges loose all around - best results with fingernails or a non scratchy plastic tool - and then very carefully peel the glue off the plat in one piece. If it starts breaking stop and work it til it is safe to peel again.
Now you have a print on a piece of dried glue! It is flexible and when it gets wet it will become sticky again.
This print can be stuck to anything you could possibly stick glue to! Its up to you waht to choose. For best results, stick it to a hard surface. Paper can buckle. I use Tintoretto wood panels but really you can use anything.
To stick the print down, wet the surface its going onto with water, paint or more PVA.You can choose which way up your print goes - I usually have mine ink side up.
Your print will go all wrinkly - don’t mess with it! Leave it alone & let it dry.
Results vary. If the glue is thin it will probably dry flat. You may get some little wrinkles round the edges. If the glue is thick any wrinkles around the edges will be thicker. I quite like getting wrinkles in mine - I work with them and make them part of the imagery.
When its dry, you can paint with acrylics on top of your print, or add more ink by doing relief prints on top. Experiment - add collage, ink, paint, pens, pencils, whatever you want.
You will need to varnish your image if its not going under glass in a frame. If it is it’ll be fine without varnish. I use Acrylic Matt UV safe Varnish. It makes the glue go wrinkly again but then it usually dries flat again.
On these images I’ve used acrylics, pencil, dried flowers and gold metal leaf. More experiments to follow.
Copper Sulphate workshop
At Cardiff Print Workshop’s new space in Market House, c/o Chapter Arts Centre.
Workshop led by Bill Chambers. Making the first plate.
Bird Prints have been worked on
I’ve worked on top of some of my latest bird prints which are shown below. Felt they needed a little something extra so I have worked on them, a teeny bit of acrylic painting, in some cases a bit of watercolour pencil, & collograph overprinting with gold using wallpaper with a raised pattern.
Sun prints and Cyanotypes
Made these sunprints quickly, whilst the sun actually shone in Cardiff this week!
Though I have previously done cyanotypes using the rather toxic chemicals, see below, I needed a method which I could transport this summer on a ferryboat and was not sure they would allow me to take the acids onboard. Better safe than sorry!
I decided to have a go at using childrens’ packs of Tobar sunprint paper and these are the results. The paper is thin, unlike the Fabriano I used for my cyanotypes, but is fine for playing around with.
I used leaves, my own hand cut paper stencil, dried flowers, lace & wire to create the designs. It took a while to get exposure how I wanted and I had to press the paper between heavy books to get it to lie flat afterwards as it wants to curl up around the edges. The trick is to get it to dry at an even speed all over.
Here you can see the process and final results.
during exposure
immediately after exposure
into the water for a minute
developing, the tones reverse blue to pale, pale to blue
drying off after developing.
Cyanotypes
I made these earlier in the spring, in our print workshop in Cardiff. Used a mixture of Ferric Ammonium Citrate green and Potassium Ferric Cyanide painted onto Fabriano paper and exposed under a sunbed as it was not sunny enough outside.
I used my own hand cut stencils, lace, feathers, leaves to make the designs, then collaged & mounted them onto 3 wood panels.
I drew & painted here & there with watercolour pencil and did some relief printing on top with lace dipped into gold acrylic.
The range of tones and blues differ a lot, some had hydrogen peroxide added to the wash bath, resulting in a deeper less turquoisey blue. Some were left wet for longer and came out misty grey indigo colour.
Two techniques for this photographic process. The kiddies packs are a lot simpler to use. Could do with a source of ready coated good quality paper for artists.
