A few years ago, I did a monoprint workshop with Lin Kerr. I loved it and longed to do it again. Fortunately Nathalie (above), managed to persuade Lin to run another workshop and I was able to attend and spend the day monoprinting in her conservatory. Not only was it wonderful to be creative in a way that is totally different from my designing job but I was also able to create some lovely textures for layering and creating artworks. Using special oil-based inks, you roll the ink on a sheet of glass. Then using a variety of techniques, create textures and imprints from found objects. I was printing feathers, sticks, coins, letters, string, stars having a ball but also at the back of my mind hoping to create textures I could use to create an artwork about The lost of village of Snap and this year’s Christmas card.
One of the techniques was as follows:
1) Roll the roller over the palette to collect a thin layer of ink.
2) Lay a texture on top of a piece of clean glass. – -e.g. the dried sticks.
3) Lay a piece of fine Chinese rice paper over this and gently but firmly roll over it.
4) The roller makes a dark impression, but the pattern gets indented onto the roller, so the next roll produces white marks. Here are some of my results using this method.
The image above is interesting. I was deeply affected by my recent trip to Flanders Fields and had planned to take a print of a poppy to use in some manner. The actual print was a flop as the poppy was so thin, it left no impression. However, this photograph of the poppy on the ink creates a very powerful image.
Below are the items need to do monoprinting. Visit Lin Kerr’s blog for further tips and ideas:
- Ink: Oil-based inks which can be washed off the palette and roller with water. Available Intaglio or Lawrences.
- Paper: Chinese Rice paper – available Guanghwa (a shop in Soho)
- Roller: The largest diameter you can afford. It should be a medium soft roller and a minimum size is preferably 4cm X 12cm. However the ordinary Speedball soft brayer works well, but it is a little limiting because its small. Available Intaglio or Lawrences
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