My Blog List

Friday 22 August 2014

DRYPOINT ETCHING ON PERSPEX

This is my latest "hobby". I love it. I saw it advertised in our local free paper, "The Bishop Press" and rang up to book in straight away. The sessions are run at the Town hall once a month. Downstairs is a gallery and art studio/work space. It houses the printing press donated by Tom McGuinness, one of the "Pitman Painters".
He donated much to the local community. His press is for general use, some signed prints are for sale at a reasonable price at the library and I have even admired some magnificent paintings on the wall at the local GP's surgery. The receptionist simply said..."Oh Yes, Tom was a great friend of the Doctor".

This intaglio etching is a style of scratching on plexiglass with a steel pointed scriber...

The sheets I have used so far are 11x15cm. Not too big and ,therefore, easy to scratch away at with the scriber. It is considered artistic to scratch in different directions and with different strengths so that the scrapes have a rough or smooth edge and a variety of depth to hold the ink....
First effort shows from top to bottom...
*not enough ink wiped on and off the surface
*too much ink left on the plate
*maybe JUST RIGHT
It's a bit like the three bears and their porridge.
I inked this plate (on the left) with mixed inks. The two prints on the right are made with cotton buds applying the ink and lots of old phone book pages and cheap paper towel removing and blending it.
Here's another one done the same way in a few different colours.
I side placed the above prints on the sheet of paper so that I could fold them as cards, then I centre placed this one below.
I've started on another one using one of my own photos of Low Barns which is a wild life sanctuary near here. Here are the three stages I've done so far.
On the left is the photo, centre is the textural-tracing, right is the scratching/etching...as yet not complete. I'll see how it prints next month. It's only on once a month.

The other innovation chez nous is ...........A pressure cooker.
It came yesterday and I have already advanced from boiling potatoes to steaming gammon and making grand rice pudding. It is not to be a nine day wonder. Apart from it's own cooking benefits it will also reduce the cost of gas used in this house. I've never had one before so I'm sure you will hear more about it as I go.
Cheers
Gillian

3 comments:

love those cupcakes said...

No wonder you're hooked, those prints are gorgeous and what a great idea to make cards with some of them. We were given a pressure cooker as a wedding present many years ago and I used it all the time. But I can't remember what I made in it.

carol said...

Oh that's brilliant about the etching Gillian and has given me some inspiration. I've been looking for a hobby for the winter and that might be something I could cope with (though I'm not very good at drawing) Your pieces look beautiful.
I did have a pressure cooker once. I was rather scared of it. Very useful when I was working though. I had a slow cooker too - so things could go very fast or… the opposite! Haha!
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I think I might be back more regularly now.

stitching and opinions said...

111cheers Gillian, long time no comment!I have moved over to Facebook because I get more contact with other peeps. Wondered if you are on Facebook too, would love to find you if so? Mine is under Glenda Gerrard and I have a textile of a crawling woman as my profile photo as surprisingly there are more than me of that name. Enjoyed your prints, have been doing it too last year, but no time this year.