Pub Lunch and etchings

Well the pub lunch was great, fish chips and peas, and 2 pints of lager. Went down well lol, with great conversation with my dear friend Frances.

I was amazed when she said she was 26, as i still think of her as 21, when we were at uni together.

She has her own studio, that she rents, in Sheffield, and is into collage at the moment. This is a break to her normal practice, as she usually does Egg Tempera paintings, and silk screen printing.

she used to do the printmaking at our old uni, in return for giving some tutorials to newbies. But the Fine Art Building has now moved, right to the centre of the City, opposite the train station. The old building was situated outside the city, and for years and years there were rumours of a move.

So finally it has moved, but apparently not all the amenties have moved with it. It's a much smaller building, and so the printing room will be smaller, and i presume the woodwork/pottery/foundry section will no longer be around. Shame really, because they were my favourite departments.

Here are just 2 of my pieces of work from the printmaking department

This i call a self-portrait. It is a dry point etching. It was influenced by Jenny Saville, and I used the dome of St. Pauls Cathedral for the breasts, to signify my time in London.

For this technique you take a sheet of metal, score into it with a fine steel point, scree ink into it, whilst the metal plate is warm, rub off most of the ink with a textured cloth, then print on to damp paper. I used to love the magic of the printmaking press. Turning the huge wheel, watching the plate coming through the other end, lifting off the blankets, then gently peeling the paper away from the metal plate. oooh, the joy of seeing your artwork revealed.

This second one, Trafalgar Sqaure, is from a series of 5 of different parts of London.

This was done using the Cyanotype Printmaking method.

This is very much like photography, using a light box etc, but a mixture of two chemicals is brushed onto the paper before exposing the print. This has to be done in a dark room. Great fun though.

And finally here is an ATC i made using one of the Samples i did using my new embroidery machine. It's not perfect, but have put it in the New Inspirations yahoo group Lottery.