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Week Two of Bush Boro Books

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Sandy Webster

I am back in the studio working on the second Bush Boro Book. This time I am using earlier dry point etchings of Australian outback scenes.

Here is the first folio.

These pages were done with using the leaves a second time in the contact printing technique developed by India Flint. I had used them the first time on torn folios placed between wooden planks that were then wrapped with rags and steeped several hours in a bath with iron. Here is their first incarnation.

I tore more paper into folios and used them again but could not keep them in the bath for as long because I needed to get on the road. So they went from a sunny dashboard of two hours to a sunny window in my workshop area sealed up in a plastic bag. Color is less intense but still beautiful.

Because I wanted to stay with the theme of bush and stitching using prints, I ended up pulling out unsold small dry point etchings and then having to print more of them on my new XCut XPress machine. It was so easy and quick to do these.

I could print them close together because I am only using the image part..no borders. Even the one I wrinkled is usable because it will be cut into small images. See below.

Notice that I am still using scraps of the contact printed silks and wools from Beautiful Silks. I think my stitching is improving.

There was a question on one of the printmaking sites I belong to on facebook about stitching into paper. I was wondering how often I have done this and found quite a range of applications in my previous work.

In graduate school doing work that uses the local men’s clothing scraps with my presence among them being represented by the black stitched line.

A book about artist retreats and how exposed we are in the company of like kind.

A book using the words from letters between my mother and myself about leaving home.

Using the stitch to help emphasize the tenuous threads of friendships lost.

Each stitch representing a step on my scroll book about a daily walk.

And scanning in large graphite drawings to use as small prints in a book. Here the red stitching is used as additional interest and color.

I really had forgotten how often I threaded a needle to use as another way to make marks upon the page. It is very satisfying for me and since I come from a long line of women with threaded needles it comes naturally. Neither my grandmother nor mother were all that precise with their stitches and I suppose I also come by that naturally.

The second bush boro book will be bound somehow. I think eight folios is enough for it. I don’t want to do a coptic binding and try to find something more complex as a way of holding all that “bushness” together. I will post when it is finished and periodically show images of new prints done on the press. Next I would like to make some dry point etchings with the intention being to watercolor them afterwards. No stitching involved.

Using the Stitch to Hold an Idea

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Sandy Webster

While trying out my new XCut Press this week I put in a concertina folded strip of walnut ink on gelatin plate. I used two of the etched plates that I recently did with Australian subjects, the emu and some gum nuts. I also found an old wooden stamp of another emu. So for fun I just printed along the strip on one side only.

Anytime a concertina or accordion book form is used the viewer can’t help but read it left to right as a narrative of some sort. I added a few emu tracks along the way and when I was through playing with the imagery, it needed something else. Some sort of density….a thickness….a denseness.

So I went to the small pile of contact dyed scraps of fabric that I found at Beautiful Silks while teaching there last month. They were fun to do with absolutely no idea how they would turn out. I just fitted them in between scarves I was making for friends and family at home.

The duller parts were perfect for tying into my theme of the bush. So now I have started a new series of books titled, “Bush Boro Books”. The paper was amenable to being poked with a needle and the thread is a four strand silk that I also acquired at Beautiful Silks. Here is the cover.

And another view of the book completely opened.

It seems that lately I have been using the “stitch” more often. The recently finished book titled, “Decenia Scrapbook” had it on every cloth page and often stitching through papers and other memorabilia.

I am not a very good stitcher. Sometimes it is all I can do to just thread the needle. But I like the marks it makes. I like the back side where you are not paying that much attention and the messiness of poorly placed stitches really shows how little care the sewer is actually taking.

When in graduate school there were so few of us working with textiles that they asked me to critique a new student’s work that seemed to be a statement about the heritage of women and quilting. The patterns were so familiar in the language of quilting and were of little interest or impact. But when I asked her to turn the work over and look closely at the marks that were more her own, perhaps she could look at the idea of women, herself in particular, and the use of cloth and thread as an identity in the world of art in a whole new way.

A few years ago I used the stitch in different ways with small scraps of cloth on copies of my white line prints. And then for a recent master class in Australia I went further and used the actual print itself to stitch through.

The students over there were so much better at stitching. Their work was wonderful. Here is a sample in Patsy Bush’s work.

So I am taking it one step further and adding the bits of cloth to the prints to turn them into a narrative of sorts. I have several white line prints I made while staying out of my students hair while teaching and think there are definitely more Bush Boro Books to make. I will post more as I do them and certainly will write about my next adventures with the new printing press….that wonderful little XCut XPress machine.

New Etching Press

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Sandy Webster

I have been reading about this little die cut machine made in the UK for some time now. It only got my attention because print makers in England were showing how easily it can be used for a printing press. The bed is only 8.5 inches by 12 inches but perfect for my small dry point etchings.

While in Australia I was lucky to use one to do some leaf embossing because Wendy was kind enough to bring hers into class for me to try out. All LinCraft stores over there carried these in stock but most have sold out to printers and now need to be ordered.

When I returned home last week I ordered one on Amazon for less than $200 and today had some time to try it out.

I used my small 3.35″ X 4.5″ dry point etching plate that I purchased at Melbourne Etching where I like to get a small supply to bring home. I cut one in half to get this size and did my drawing and etching while at Baldessin Press. Here are the ten acceptable prints from there.

These of course were printed using a large etching press.

And here is getting the XPress craft machine set up with a clear mylar sheet to use over my guide of where to place the plate and papers. I cut two thin felts to use to cushion the pass.

So the plate is down, the sheet of paper laid over and then the protective paper before the felts roll into place.

Pressure too light.

Pressure too much I think on the next three, but you know how you can convince yourself that they are “okay”.

Ink up the plate and try again at a new pressure of just a bit past the number four on the dial.

Now this is looking better. So I do another group using the same pressure, same paper that has been slightly dampened and kept between cotton linters, and am thinking that this is quite the little press!

The only fault I can find with these prints is with the drawing itself. My darks are too dark but those cute little gum nuts save those leaves.

And this is what I learned. They are right about not soaking the paper as long as you would for a larger press. The dial on the top makes it so easy to set the correct pressure for consistent results. And I will be getting a piece of counter top or chopping block cut to an 8.5″ X 20″ new bed to accommodate longer prints or a small grouping in a row. This is an excellent little press to take to classes and easily stored in the studio.

Even though I have a larger etching press to take larger plates and wood blocks, this little one does a good job with thinner plates such as the etching, plexiglass and sheet linoleum. Embossing is very easy to do with added cushioning on the bottom and top. It comes with two other plates beside the bed plate, one that is used in the die cutting and a metal one for something else that I wouldn’t use.

Now all I have to do is improve my drawing and etching skills, try some monoprints and maybe even a few collographs. This machine can do it all. Highly recommended and thanks to all of you who have posted your experiences on facebook and your blogs. To learn more just do a search on the XPress Craft Machine.

The Things You Remember

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Sandy Webster

Well that twelfth time teaching in Australia is over. I am back home remembering how wonderful it all was. Taking photos helps bring back everything around the initial reason for holding onto a moment. I can hear the students’ voices, laughter and rustling of tools and materials while they dip into places they never thought to explore. Above is a kangaroo family and the constant efforts to capture the essence of color and shapes of the magical Eucalyptus leaves. What time I had on my own was in pursuit of leaves, kangaroos and soaking up the experience of being there again.

Australian students are in a class of their own. I simply set up an idea to work around and they take off. They sometimes even have completed works based on that theme before I even arrive and are just getting started. This time I watched and recorded their hands, their collections of materials and their tools. Take a look here at hands.

Boat building.

Assembling small collections of books with memories.

Putting pieces together.

Spinning fine threads of paper.

Turning their paper threads holding secret words into sails for a boat.

Making compartments for more secrets.

Working on white line prints.

Presenting their finished work.

The beautiful pincushions!

And the things they bring to rummage through.

Inspiring isn’t it? To just be among them and their bits and pieces makes me glad I say, “Yes, I will come back and start all over again.”

Just one step over the threshold and I am busy trying not to miss a thing. On the door of one of my classes they posted this series of signs because I told a student she was not to think for a moment that she was having a “crisis of consequences” about her work. We all just need to take times like that as a reason to “pause for thought.”