Clay Mono Printing - Part 2

Sorry to all those who came here with most of the images missing~ I am not sure what happened but I do think the images are showing up now. How embarrassing. Thank you, CLC, for letting me know!

Here are individual images of the prints I pulled. You just get revved up when the class is over. We had one person who had taken a workshop last year and he said at the end of the weekend that he was finally starting to grasp the possibilities of what he could do with this medium. Mary Lynn said it took her at least 4 workshops before she developed her own style. I think I have a pretty good idea of the direction I want to go in the next class I take. It was a good break from oil painting and gave me a greater understanding of history and layering.

First Print

Here is the first print I did. I learned after this print to not jump right in and cover it up with kaolin. That there was a possibility I could pull either a second print or using scraps I could maybe pull sections from the plate into a new print. It is a learning process. In this one I used some plastic stars, netting, a foam bar with 3 holes to use as stencils. The blue swirl is called a transfer. You squirt the color onto newsprint; let it dry; then transfer it to your plate spritzing it with water to release the transfer. The dark yellow is also a transfer. The black is dried kaolin (ie chalk) grated through a strainer onto wherever you want it. It is such a fascinating way to work.

2nd print/plate painted on

2nd Print, three sections reprinted. Not as strong color

On these scraps I went back over the plate without adding anymore pigment. I wanted to see what would come up. I did not put but two coats of the solid color on top of my stencils. The more layers you lay down, the more you can get out of it. So notice on the third print over, the blue has come up from the first days print with the stars. It is crazy how the prior 'plate' comes through on successive prints.

On the second full day, I worked on two plates. Michael had prepared a second plate for all of us, but Mary Lynn was generous enough to share one of her 8x8 well used plates with me. With each use of a plate, history is being made. I will attempt to show you what that means. On my first try, I laid down ochre as the background. The plate came with that grayish mauve color. It doesn't look like I put down any layers of kaolin between that and the ochre. I then put that raspberry color over that and made the polka dots etc on top of the ochre. I printed without the plate being the correct dryness/wetness. This was way too wet. So it came out without any real crispness to edges and lots of the mauve coming through. along the edges you can also see different colors coming up.

8x8, printed while too wet

Here is the same 8x8 plate as I thought to recreate the first print I did, but I then went off on a tangent. You can see a few different patterns peaking through. I cut the circles out of newsprint as well as a frame and then went over it all with the white kaolin. Well, someone decided to help me and put a second coat of the white covering up my little newspaper circles. I had neglected to take a photo before adding the white overcoat so I would see where to look to pull up the circles! Hence the scrapes through the image as I tried to locate them. Yet, I think it needed those scrapes. The whited specs are from the clay coming up from these scrapes. I just added them back in to the mix.

8x8, second attempt, new background

8x8, second attempt; second print pulled

I can't decide which way I like this set of prints but you can see from this second pull from the plate how much is coming up from previous prints. Even in the scrapes I did, there is purple coming in! I did not use purple! And see the pink dots coming through from my first attempt on this plate that didn't come through on the print right above this one. It is so much fun to see what happens. It was a fascinating journey where you must leave your expectations at the door.

Now that I have had this little introduction I may just have to do it again. I now have some ideas on direction knowing a little more about the process. I am sure there is still so much to learn and experiment with.

Here is the link to sign up for the summer classes if you are so inclined. I am sure there will be more weekend workshops come fall.