August Newsletter
Three new prints: two-layer lino and intaglio!
Back after two months with a very printmaking-focused newsletter!
Intaglio Prints
First, I am very excited to show you all my two new intaglio prints (from etched metal plates) that I made at a workshop two weeks ago:
Unlike lino and other relief printmaking, intaglio is a technique where you create grooves which are filled with ink, and using a ton of force the ink is pushed out onto paper.
I now finally had the chance to try this at a workshop (instead of not-very-successfully DIYing it as I tried a few years back). I had 4 hours for two different techniques - line etching and aquatint.
For line etching, a metal plate is covered in a substance called ground, lines are scraped into it (left), and then it’s dipped in acid. The acid eats away at the exposed bits, creating a plate with etched grooves (right) which you can push ink into and print from. I based these on a 1500s anatomical illustration by Andreas Vesalius, but giving the torso a T-dick instead.
Aquatint is a technique which results in planes/areas of colour rather than lines. A plate is covered in resin dust to give it texture, then ground is applied to parts, and the plate is dipped in acid multiple times, every time resulting in a rougher texture which will turn darker once the plate is inked. You can see more detailed explanation of the process here.
I have a few of these available in my shop here, for those interested. The printing process is much more difficult and lengthier than printing with lino (especially on my small home-press) so they are very limited in number.
Kintsugi lino prints
“Kintsugi is a Japanese art that repairs broken pottery with gold, rendering a new piece that is more exquisite than it was before the break.”
I’ve always found the idea really beautiful, and it’s also incredibly applicable to trans bodies - the way we change our bodies makes them our own, and it adds so much beauty as well as tells the story of our lives. The patterns that I used in the print come from Czech porcelain called ‘Cibulák’.
These prints are now also up in my shop!
The idea for this lino print came from another trans kintsugi artwork that I saw a few weeks ago - since then it has unfortunately been deleted so I can’t link it here :(
Currently Working On…
I will be doing more intaglio printmaking workshops in September and I’m super excited to try out more techniques. I am planning on making a print that combines line etching with aquatint - a rework of an old design that I made into a lino print years ago. So it’ll have both line and planes of colour! Very excited to experiment with this more - I love printmaking so much aaa
Once again thank you for being here, and see you in the next newsletter :)