Foiled Card Printing

I am exploring possible printing methods using foiled card from food containers. I love the results, a cross between aquatint on an etching and a wood cut.

It is a very versatile technique that you can use anywhere you have a roller and ink.
I like teaching these techniques that do not require bing and expensive equipment and make printing accessible to all. Here in Scotland we have great printmaking workshops in most Cities, but they are expensive and I like techniques that you can use at home.

Hazel Terry: Sweet Printed Lions

Gums, Midget Gems and Liquorice used with red and black ink to make lions. It is wonderful sometimes to create for the fun of creating, no deadlines, no agenda just play.

Hazel Terry: Sweet Printed Owls

On Tuesday last week, I took a print workshop where we used sweets. Here are some owls that I created using liquorice allsorts and midget gems. I have a similar workshop today with a different group of people and I hope it is as much fun.

Printing with noodles

I am using print as the base for my latest book projects, gelatine printing layers, and then working on them with other media. Today I used noodles as I needed a knitted texture . . . such good fun and great results.

Don't eat your sweets . . . print them II

I knew this would be fun to do with kids and I was proved right. Armed with sacks of sweets on Wednesday I had a printing workshop and we had great fun stretching, printing and eating them. creating all manner of owls, bats and monsters.

Below is a selection of our printing tools. 

Thanks to the young artists: Louisa, Camy and Sash

Don't eat your sweets . . . print them

Last weekend at George Douglas's class we were shown the possibilities of confectionary printing with midget gems.
I wanted to try some other sweets out and here are midget gems and liquorice allsorts. I have enjoyed working with sweets to create art before and I think I may try this soon with some school groups.

Printing with Nail Varnish

I wanted to achieve the effect of bubbles or rainbow clouds in an illustration last week so I returned to a technique that I used to teach, which is using nail varnish to marble or print the paper.

You will need:
An old plastic container
water
nail varnish (various colours)
paper cut to size.

Fill your plastic container two thirds full of water the size of this container dictates the size of work you will make.
Then have as many nail varnish colours as you can. I would advocate trying to get your friends to donate their old or unwanted nail varnishes. carefully pour onto the water surface nail varnish. I like it when it spreads like the blue and yellow in the picture above, you can blow the surface to try to spread it, but it depends on the consistency of the varnish.

You can then drop the paper onto the surface to print the varnish, or push it down through the water surface, these two techniques produce different results. I tried using nail varnish remover to make the varnish more fluid but it didn't help. It is bright and fun and the results are very good to use for collage. The down side is that it is pretty toxic and the whole container and watery contents just goes into the bin at the end.

Printing with Gelatin

One of my online students introduced Gelli Plate printing to me last year. 

The Gelli plates are not very large and quite expensive so I didn't follow it up at the time. 
I don't really know what made me think of them again, but I have an imminent deadline that requires me to work quickly (successfully) and colourfully and I thought the best way for me to tackle this was through print. I have for over a week been making a gelli plate trying to perfect the recipe. 
Therefore the plate has had many incarnations to get it to its current condition. I used it and then reboiled and more gelatine added to stop it ripping at the sides or when handled. Also I started by pouring it into shallow plastic trays but they tend to distort and so I have resorted to a baking tray about 1cm deep.

The Recipe for a Basic Gelatine Plate:

Mix 12 tablespoons of gelatin into 1/2 pt (1 litre) of cold water then add 1/2 pint of boiling water. 
Pour this slowly into a biscuit tray and leave to cool and set. The mixture should be the colour of weak tea or light honey. 
If you want to make a vegetarian equivalent you can substitute the gelatine with Agar agar but it is unfortunately more expensive and brittle/ fragile

Plasticised Gelatine Plate:

I was intrigued to find you can make a 'plasticised' permanent plate and so that is what I have been endeavouring to do. To 'plasticise' the mixture so it doesn't go moldy you need to add one tablespoon of glycerin and two tablespoons of surgical spirit or rubbing alcohol to the mixture.

It is an incredibly sensitive medium and you can achieve beautiful results, the images above are details from some of my initial experiments. 
You then use a printing roller or paint onto the plate with water based paints or ink. I used my usual favourite emulsion, but you can use acrylics and even water colours. Then remove some of the base layer of paint/ ink by gently pressing textures and objects onto it ( I used plastic packaging, poppy seed heads, star anise, scraps of fabric and anything else that I thought would work). You can use stencils, and of course layer the print pulls and it is handy to have a water spray to moisten the print block to prevent the paint/ ink drying while you are working.

There are many examples and videos of people using this technique available, and hopefully I will be able to share more examples over the coming weeks.

Printing Using Polystyrene Packaging

I haven't done this for ages but I wanted to pass this technique on just in case you didn't know of it. Yesterday I showed my students printing using polystyrene pizza bases. 

This is a cheap, effective and quick way of making relief prints using recycled pizza packaging. 
The polystyrene is very receptive to imprints, so anyone including small children is able to make a printing block using this material.

You can cut the polystyrene to what ever shape and size that you want, using a craft knife or scissors. 
Here I wanted to make two blocks that interlocked so that I could have two distinct colours in my print. 
You draw the lines that you want, or stipple, cross hatch etc using a biro or sharp pencil. 
As long as you can feel the imprint with your finger then it will print.

Above: you can see the inked block and the first print. 

I used block printing inks and a roller but you can use acrylic paint and brushes. 
Roll or paint the ink/paint onto the block, once inked  place on the paper. I always like a wider border at the bottom, like when you are framing a picture and try to place it centrally. 
It is important to  keep your hands clean so you get a clean print. 
Turn and rub from the paper side (friction on polystyrene can burn) be careful not to move the block on the paper surface. 
Peel the paper back on one corner to check that you have transferred enough ink.

Below you can see the red riding hood printed in red to complete the image. 
When you have finished printing for the day you can wash your block to use again, if you want to. 

Below: finished print on left and blocks on right.

Play

 I was going to Edinburgh today but the sun was shining and I just wanted to play. After a hard week  and almost nine months of moonlighting, play becomes more and more essential.
I found this seed head yesterday and I put it in my pocket thinking that would be fun to print with and so that is what I am doing and Edinburgh can wait until tomorrow.

Sea Spray Blue

While we are at a 'Sea Sprey Blue' place, I love this.

Printing with...

...Finlay's rubber band ball, made very interesting marks, and is good to grip onto for small hands or hands that don't do what their owners want them too.

Celebrating leaves

Above: One of my leaf ladies, Below: my student, Mary Haig's Forest

Leaf printing this week before they all start falling, you can get some wonderful results, plantain is my favourite.