Photography and collography.......... finding my way in the print room with Birgitta Wilson.

Collographs by Birgitta Wilson

I like to play with scissors and glue.

Photography is not meeting my needs for mess.

So I decided to learn how Birgitta Wilson creates her beautiful collographs as a way to get an opportunity to be messy, and to understand how my print making friends create their work.

Words like 'intaglio' and 'scrim' finally understood. And a chance to play again with the mighty printing press. Technology free, and a very physical process.

I spent two days at The Arches Print Studio in Hastings learning from Birgitta and other very talented artists who also wished to explore new ways to make art.

It is a very different way of thinking.

Find 'materials' .........      anything with texture. not too thick. PVA, tile cement, egg shells, different textured papers

Plan your image in your mind.

Create the image with sticking and glueing.

Then add more stuff to create texture and shading.

HOLD ON A MINUTE. I GOT STUCK AT STAGE ONE. PLAN YOUR IMAGE?

MY MIND  FAILS ME.....

So I created a very simple grid and scotred it with a knife, added some sellotape and brown tape, and hey presto; I have a 'collographic plate'.

Of sorts.


Ink it up, put it through the press, and bingo; my very first collograph.

Hmmm.

I think I prefer the plate to the print.

I also prefer the tissue papers used for cleaning the plate before printing.

And the marks on the work table in the room next door.

Self doubt creeping in, big time....

bird

A cup of coffee and a piece of cake restore my enthusiasm, and I get to work on my second plate.

I am still not thinking of a picture, but can manage abstract squares; no change there.

Everyone else is busy creating forests, rivers, trees, frogs, beaches, and other proper landscapes.

scrim and eggshells on tissue paper and tin foil

I am stuck in square mode

Adding plant material to the already inked plate creates a silhoutte effect.

This is not mine....

flowers and egg shells; also not mine.

It takes a very long time to ink up the plates and then wipe off the excess ink.

Too much ink and you have a dark splodge. Cleaning off the ink in the crevices with a cotton bud is essential.

over inked print getting a bit murky

But running the same plate thought the press again without inking futher creates a 'ghost print'; a paler and more subtle version of the original. Handy if you have too much ink the first time.

my ghost print of scrim squares

I prefer the lighter look.

I am not a patient person and all this cleaning was beginning to get me down.


I have only just got over the extreme ironing that I had to do for the wedding.

photograph by Istvan Magyar

 Thanks to Istvan for my favourite shot of me at the wedding.

The others were churning out elaborate prints of great elegance.

I knew this wasn't my style.

But then the lovely Birgitta handed me a gift.

She asked me if I would like to try blind embossing.

No ink required. She could obviously see that I was struggling.



I had to think what to make.

Agnes Martin came to mind, and I created a grid.

 First I printed it plain, without any ink, and was surprised by the pleasure that this gave.

Then she allowed me to choose a colour.....

I broke the rules with a pretty playground pink.

..... I was away.

Creating something that felt true to me.

pink collograph

ghost print

scrim inked up and placed directly on the board

 I finished with a  little piece of scrim applied to a little square of card.

I liked the result. Something about creating art from the materials that are used to create art......


 I knew that I would be back for more.





Less sticking and glueing and more cutting and inking seems to be the way foward.

And more photography.......


of course.

bird on wire

blot on the landscape

and breathe........ fresh air, a wedding in Braemar and a visit to Balmoral

I can say it now.

We had a wedding.

My beautiful daughter got married.

It was in Scotland. In the middle of nowhere where the midges roam, and the temperature is around 10C in mid July.

It was a long drive from south London, carrying a car full of pine cones, assorted stationary, clothes for wet weather, hiking and partying, a steam generator iron and a wedding dress. Not to mention three baby fawns and the hand crafted 'confetti cones'.

three baby fawns

We covered more than a few service stations, where we bumped into Lochs and Glens coach holidays, and partook of fine dining.

Lochs and Glens

obligatory service station cone picture

old blue car getting some free parking

Overnight in Moffat for a gentle ease into a very different way of life.

doing the tartan thing

the first of many deceased animals encountered on our travels

We breakfasted on haggis and made our way to Braemar.

The weather was very Scottish, with an 'unseasonal' amount of rain. While waiting for beautiful daughter and her tall dark and handsome fiancee to arrive we decided to be tourists and visit Balmoral.

Balmoral

The queen arrives in August. Everything in the garden is geared to her arrival. Vegetables and flowers all designed to be ready for one month of the year. Fresh flowers in every room, every day. Vegetables from the garden.

Balmoral garden in action

the vegetable garden

the vegetable garden cone

red squirrel at Balmoral gatehouse

Beware - squirrels crossing

does the Daimler have a leak?

Scotland is very green right now. 

Ancient birches and pines in abundance.

And then there was the wedding.

A joyful affair.

I even enjoyed the ironing. I will probably never again iron tablecloths ON the table, using an extension lead and my trusty steam generator.

I will probably never again even iron a tablecloth anywhere.

And I will never again iron a brides train or three bridesmaid dresses.

My face was subjected to brushes and attention that it has never experienced before. 

I was 'made up'.

OH said I should do it every day. I thought I looked pretty odd.

It will never happen.

make up brushes

make up 

It took three attempts to wash it off at the end of the day.

The day was perfect.

It even stopped raining for the photographs.

We danced and laughed, and danced and smiled and talked and danced and were filled with joy.

Normal service was resumed the following day, and I was allowed out with my camera between family meals and parlour games.

The foxgloves are rich and and the grass lush and wet.

Ferns and buttercups in abundance.

Lush clover and long wet grass

It was a wonderful weekend in a wonderful place.

I will be back soon.

the washing machine is dead.................deceased...................passed away.

We survived the storm.

The flood waters took the route intended , down the drain, and Bromley survived unscathed.

laundry service, kerala
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But the washing machine is dead.

I found it making a strange noise, and rang 'Houseproud', my friendly washing machine and appliance repair people.

There ensued something resembling a doctor's telephone consultation with the lady at the other end of the line.

I was asked the make and model of my machine, and how many children I had, thereby divulging whether I was a 'high use' user. 

I was told that if it was a Hotpoint, which it is, then it was inevitably the ball bearings that had gone and that is was therefore a 'terminal condition'. 

In fact, she said, it was almost certainly 'inoperable'.

I had never considered operating on my washing machine. Yes it has endured years of hard labour, and yes, I took the dog blankets to the launderette so that someone else got the benefit of all the black hairs that clogged up the filter. Yes, the fabric conditioner drawer was a bit mouldy and black, but a quick wipe down could hardly be defined as an operation.

But now it is 'deceased'....... 'no more'........ 'the late'....... or even 'passed away'

People do seem to have difficulty with the word 'dead'.

My washing machine is officially dead, and I have had the joy of choosing a new one for the princely sum of around £400.

Because I don't have a suitable river where I can spend time beating my clothes and chatting to my friends, which looks like a much more enjoyable way to get the job done.

And so I had to choose between the popular Samsung 'ecobubble' machine that plays a tune when it has finished its duties and that has an app for your mobile phone that deciphers the control panel without the need to phone your nearest engineer, or a Bosch, with its 2 year guarantee, sleek lines,  extra large drum and the much approved of 'reload facility' for those unfortunate people like me who always find a stray sock on the floor after the door is closed.

Sadly neither do the ironing.

Now that would have been a technological advance to be proud of.

Maybe one day they will, and I will then be the happiest person around.

The new machine arrives on a Sunday. Shock. Horror.

What is the world coming to.

Clean socks will abound, and I shall be able to go on my travels with clean underwear.