Printing
Autumn leaf printing
With Autumn in full effect, it’s a great time to have a go at printing using natural materials.
Our lesson on Wednesday night provided the chance to experiment with this monoprinting. This can be a quick way to produce a beautiful and unique print.
One method is to apply ink to a board and draw into it with tools or material, removing some of the ink. A piece of paper is then pressed onto the board to create the picture.
Another method is to apply ink to materials then use them to print onto paper, producing wonderful results. There are so many different leaves on the ground and they hold ink perfectly.
Here are some of the pictures produced on Wednesday night.
Workshop with Rona
Places are still available for a two day workshop with our member, Rona Smith.
Activities include:
* Using printing and stencilling techniques on gelli-plates;
* Painting on silk;
* Making different types of books using folding and binding techniques
The workshop will be held at Nethy Bridge Village Hall on March 16-17, running from 10am-2.30pm each day. Refreshments will be provided.
The price is £80 for two days, £45 for one day.
Contact Rona for more information by emailing ronas4@btinternet.com
March 22: Bangles
The return of another popular class from last year – bangle design.
These pieces of jewellery are fairly narrow so this needs to be factored into your design. But the colours reproduce well in the printing process so photographs and repeating patterns work well.
Designs are printed onto special paper and then go through a heat transfer process in a press to put them onto the bangles. With Wednesday night classes growing in popularity, Angus will be tied up with this process for much of the night. Any digital images you want to use, please email to Angus beforehand so he can prepare the image properly beforehand. High-resolution images are best.
There is a choice of two sizes of bangle: a narrow white one and a wider silver one.
Each printed bangle costs £5.
And just for good measure, there will be a committee meeting.
Feb 15: Tutoring night
A week off from learning new things – this Wednesday is a tutoring night. Get help with your ongoing work!
However airbrushing equipment will be available for those who want to keep going with the wonderful landscapes they started last week.
And it’s parents evening so Angus may be a little late to class!
Scratch ‘n’ print
Wednesday night was a lively one – with non-stop scratching, inking, scraping and printing.
Angus demonstrated his simple etching lesson, where we used metal nails to scratch lines into plastic. The process created trenches on the surface of the plate that caught the ink. And as a bonus, we could effectively trace the flower pictures through the plastic.
He was the messy one and inked up and cleaned off the plates before we got to put them through the roller. The bonus was using the school’s large new printing press, funded by Berry Burn Windfarm’s Community Benefit Fund.
Angus also showed us how to add a bit of colour to the paper before printing. We splashed watercolour, dabbed bleeding tissue paper and smudged acrylic paint onto the damp paper, creating some lovely effects to accompany our flowery outlines.
Dec 7: On repeat
Wednesday night’s class offers a second chance to get your mugs and bracelets printed.
And it’s a chance to make progress on any of your unfinished work.
Remember that the theme for our next exhibition is Cairngorms so any pictures that fit in with this subject will be perfect for the big show!
Nov 30: Making mugs and jewellery
This week you can get a few Christmas present ticked off – we’re making mugs and bracelets.
For newer members, Angus will be using his special printing equipment to print pictures onto mugs.
And new for this year, he can also print onto curved metal bracelets. Each product costs £5 and the bracelets come with a lovely presentation case.
All you need to bring are some pictures to scan – or you can draw something in class. Images work best when they have a clean white background – see below for a montage of our products from last year, and an example of the bracelets.
Well Gell(i).
Wednesday night was an evening of practising old techniques and having a go at new ones.
Angus demonstrated how to do simple prints from feathers. After covering the block with printing ink, he put the feather on top and inked it as well. Then placing the feather between two sheets of paper, Angus rolled over the feather with a clean roller, creating a print of the feather on both pieces of paper.
Then Rona gave a demonstration of how to make prints using gelli plates. You can roll out acrylic onto these sheets of silicone and then make marks using a range of objects. Our members used lace, doilies, a fish slice and bubble wrap to create some intriguing patterns.
Members – and Angus – who gave gelli a go had so much fun that there was barely a patch of desk that wasn’t covered in a colourful sheet of paper.
Nov 23: Tutoring and printing
This is a tutoring week but Angus will provide a short reminder of how to do simple prints using found objects.
Bring your own items – those who have had a go before will remember that feathers are great, as are leaves… But we’re sure you are up to the challenge of finding lots of interesting things to experiment with.
Spaces left on printing workshop
Our friends at the Highland Print Studio in Inverness have been in touch to say that there are spaces left on their Relief Printing Workshop.
The class runs on Thursday nights from September 1 to October 6, 6.30pm – 8.30pm. You will learn how to make a two colour reduction print, using lino or woodblock.
The classes are always top quality and you will learn so many new skills to use in your art work.
Click here for more information. You can find out more about the Highland Print Studio at their website.
Spey Art Group 