Play Day - Making Collagraphs

As promised, here are some photos from our play day on Saturday. Sally very kindly (and bravely) offered the use of her house, and five of us made collagraphs using a pasta machine as a press.  Debby offered guidance while we experimented.  We made plates from small pieces of mountboard or stiff card and created textured surfaces by gluing on scraps of fabric, leaves, stitching and embossed wallpaper, and also by cutting into the mountboard and peeling layers away.  Before using the plates, we sealed them using button polish or Mod Podge.

Anne, Deryll and Debby preparing printing plates.

It is possible to use the one plate to produce very different prints, either simply applying paint to the surface  or working it into the texture and wiping off the excess (intaglio). When printing on paper, it needs to be soaked first for intaglio prints so that it is pushed into the grooves, but with fabric, we tried wet and dry to see the different effects.

And here are some of the results, which may find their way into new pieces.

Jane