Like Chalk And Cheese

I went to a weekend etching course at Trefeglwys Print Studio the weekend before last with two other printmakers – one of whom was Husb. He did some beautiful work but looking at what we produced emphasised that we’re like chalk and cheese. Here’s Husb’s beautifully modulated head of a child, burnished into a copperContinue reading “Like Chalk And Cheese”

Mad Mari: The First Proof

In the last half hour or so of Andrew Baldwin’s weekend etching workshop at Trefeglwys Print Studio, I did a first proof print (on the left) of my coffee lift / spit bite aluminium etching plate, using Charbonnel black ink onto soaked Hahnemulle paper. I’m really pleased with it. It’s completely different to the fauxContinue reading “Mad Mari: The First Proof”

Spit And Splatter

Carrying on with the coffee lift plate I worked on at Trefeglwys Print Studio last weekend, after washing the coffee off the plate, leaving the black B.I.G. etching ground masking most of the aluminium, I dipped it in copper sulphate solution for quite some time to etch the exposed areas really deep so they’ll giveContinue reading “Spit And Splatter”

Mad Mari

So as well as working on a copper mezzotint plate at Andrew Baldwin’s weekend course at Trefeglwys Studios last weekend, there was also time to prepare an aluminium plate with coffee lift and spit bite. I used another of my drawings of the traditional Welsh Mari Lwyd from one of my sketchbooks. The Mari LwydContinue reading “Mad Mari”

The Double Drop

And the last thing I did with my mezzotint plate last weekend was a Double Drop! Trefeglwys Studio tutor, Andrew Baldwin, wanted us to get some experience of doing different things with our intaglio plates, not just printing in black. The Double Drop is a way of overprinting one colour over another to achieve aContinue reading “The Double Drop”

The Final Proof

I worked on my Mari Lwyd mezzotint plate again, after doing the first state print on the second morning of the weekend course I did at Trefeglwys Print Studio. I needed to burnish the highlights a lot more and lighten the Mari’s feet. Then onto another proof print which turned out to be the finalContinue reading “The Final Proof”

The First State

    I spent the first day of my weekend etching workshop at Trefeglwys Print Studio developing a mezzotint plate. With two other printmakers, I worked until quite late and got up early ready for day 2. I was ready to print the first state – which is the very first print off a plate,Continue reading “The First State”

Scraping And Burnishing

I spent a very busy and creative weekend with two other printmakers from Swansea at Andrew Baldwin’s Trefeglwys Print Studio in mid-Wales, studying his non-toxic intaglio printmaking methods. We started with the ‘faux mezzotint’ technique, using his own make of etching ground to create a pitted surface, like a mezzotint plate and then, after transferringContinue reading “Scraping And Burnishing”