Coating And Exposing

Geeking Out

I spent a happy morning geeking out at at Swansea Print Workshop, coating my new silkscreens with photosensitive solution and exposing and developing images from the acetates I prepared recently.

It’s Complicated!

As they’re new screens, I started by de-greasing and drying them. Then I coated the surfaces with Azocol photoscreen fluid and dried them in the darkroom. Then I put the acetates onto the glass surface of our UV Unit and placed a screen face down onto each acetate and went through the process of exposing them for 2 minutes. Then quickly into the spray booth to wash them, which is how they’re developed.

It sounds complicated. It is!

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artefacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Plants And Blueprints

Local Plants

Here are some of the cyanotypes (sunprints) that I’ve been doing with local residents in Waun Wen park recently. I’ve been using plants found locally – some sedum spectabile seed heads, crocosmia seeds and bay laurel. I used commercially coated cyanotype paper and exposed outside for 8 minutes (it’s winter, the light is weak). I moved the piece of bay laurel half way through and that’s why there’s a sort of shadowy effect. It’s one of my favourite plants – hardy, evergreen, nice shaped leaves and lovely to cook with.

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

More Prepping

A Digitally Altered Photo of a Manhole Cover

Photoshopping

I did some more preparation today, using source photos of manhole covers around the Waun Wen area of the city (taken by Melvyn Williams). I used Adobe Photoshop and put them through some filters and turned them black and white. I added halftone dots to a few and a couple I turned into negatives. I’ll print them out onto acetates to use as stencils for photographic silkscreens. It’s all very tecchie – I love it!

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artefacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Coming Out Of Covid: Ceramics In The Community Centre.

Quick scribbles in my sketchbook

People and Porcelain

Spent a lovely afternoon at the community centre in Waun Wen today, working alongside local ceramicist Esther Ley who was running a short workshop, making porcelain cups. It was good to be able to have a small group of people together, within Covid19 restrictions of course. I had to have a quick scribble, I can’t help myself. It was an intergenerational group, older people through to children and the mix of people worked really well.

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artefacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Maltese Cats Revisited

I’ve been looking through some old blog posts …. here’s one about cats ……

Rosie Scribblah's avatarscribblah

malta cats

Revisiting My Sketchbook

I’ve been looking through some of my old blog posts, there are over 3,000 of them, and it’s hard to remember all the artwork I’ve posted. Here’s one from just after Husb and I came back from a  short holiday in Malta, a gorgeous place, full of cats. I put some watercolour washes onto my drawings at home, I didn’t want the hassle of carrying paints and water around with me. Sparta looks unimpressed. Nothing changes 😀

My Original Post

“Here are a couple of pages from my sketchbook during my recent stay in Malta. It’s a country full of cats, sunning themselves lazily and being waited on by trained humans. The two at the top were hanging out with some pigeons on the city wall in Valletta and the little ginger kept us company as we sipped coffee in a tiny little square in the…

View original post 102 more words

Trying Things Out: 2

Making a Mari Lwyd Collage

I’m developing some collage kits for the arts project I’m working on in the Waun Wen area of the city. I’ve been doing a lot of kit making over the past couple of years, since the pandemic lockdown began, because it’s been difficult to bring people together to do arty stuff, and I really like it. I think it should continue after the pandemic ends because not everyone can come along to classes and groups.

I started with a digital Mair Lwyd image I made, as a guide, drew it roughly onto paper and then ripped up my collage papers, grabbed a Pritt stick and got sticking. The collage papers are made up of graphite rubbings of manhole covers and other textures around the area (Koh-i-noor graphite onto Ho-sho paper) and cyanotypes (sunprints) made with local plants. Got a bit more to do over the weekend to finish it…

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Trying Things Out 1

Had a lovely few hours in the Waun Wen Community Centre this afternoon, making collages with some students from Swansea University. We’ve recently been out in the area making textural rubbings (Koh-i-noor graphite and Ho-sho paper) and blue sunprints (cyanotypes) and these are going to be used to make collage kits for local residents who fancy having a go. The pandemic lockdowns have forced us to re-think how we work. Normally we do art in the real world but through the past 18 months, arts activities by Zoom or artkits for home delivery have become the new normal. So today we tried out our ideas and worked out what we need to put into the kits.

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

The world at your feet

Chilling in the cold around Waun Wen yesterday, making graphite rubbings of the textures in the area. It’s a different way of experiencing a place. It makes you notice things you may not have seen before. The rubbings were done with Koh-i-noor Graphite Jumbo Blocks, 6B, onto Ho-Sho paper.

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Rubbings In The Cold

I was out and about in Waun Wen in Swansea today, with two students from Swansea University who are working with me on the arts project. It’s been a grey and bitterly cold day, but we spent 2 hours walking the streets, making graphite rubbings of the different textures of the area – street metal covers, trees, walls and pavements. We’ll use these to make collage kits over the next week or two. We used Koh-i-Noor Progresso Jumbo Woodless 6B graphite sticks (cut in half, I’m thrifty) and Ho-sho Japanese paper.

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.

Prepping

There comes a point where you have to stop doing source material – drawings and photos and so on- and start choosing and preparing your source images for developing into artworks. I’m planning on doing some silk screen prints from some of the images gathered through the past three months or so in the Waun Wen area of the city and the first stage is to look through the huge amount of photos that photographer Melvyn Williams has taken, as he’s been shadowing me on my Sunday drawing walks.

And then I’m putting them through an Adobe Photoshop “Cut Out” filter to make them a bit more abstract. It helps me to get an idea of how they might start looking in the silk screen process. I’ve loads more to look at and play with ….

Part of the Home and Hinterland community arts project in partnership with Swansea University’s Taliesin Arts Centre.

A Chance To Own One Of My Artworks

I have some small screenprints for sale, inspired by my drawings of the antique taxidermy collection at Swansea Museum. I have given these vintage artifacts a modern twist by combining them with images of rubbish – old fruit nets, bubble wrap and plastic – highlighting the problem of human pollution and how it affects wildlife.

To buy my work on the Swansea Print Workshop site please click the image to the left.

20 percent of the cost of each screenprint sold goes to support Swansea Print Workshop, which receives no public funding.