Return to the Print Studio
Printmaking
I’ve recently
been asked to do some printing for Oxford University Press (OUP) for an
upcoming event, the brief was to print a keepsake from an existing OUP copper plate.
This was great but my first big problem was lack of access to good printmaking facilities,
in a way the project arriving when it did was excellent timing, since it forced
me to get something sorted out.
We’ve now
been living in SE London for over a year and perhaps it was time to start
looking into print studios and possibly some art spaces and much needed community.
I wanted to start working back in the print studio for not just to complete a worthwhile
project but to also start working as a printmaker again. It seems to have been
a long time since I’ve considered working in the print studio but another recent
project with the Virginia based ‘One Off’ group of printmakers and some visits
to old Professors gave me some more encouragement.
Luckily we found the Thames Barrier print studio and I was accepted as a key holder, so far the experience has been great albeit I’m a little frustrated that I have to complete the project for OUP before I can really engage with creative printmaking, but that was deal I made with myself, that this had to be in the first instance financially self sustaining. There is little point to working away in the studio for yourself unless you can make it pay on both an intellectual level and a monetary one.
I’ve always retained
some links to art even when not personally being productive, but perhaps with
the work I do it’s a much-needed outlet and a way in which to engage the brain
on in a different type of thought process.
I’m
beavering away on the keepsake prints, which will number 100 when finished,
each print takes about 15 minutes to produce so a 100 is going to take some
time! But I’ve done this type of thing many times in the past and you just have
to be very patient and just work carefully and steadily.
The plate
itself is a Michael Burghers (perhaps more about him later) engraved copper plate circa 1690’s. It’s a lovely
plate to print but has its own particular ‘issues’ which need careful attention
when printing. I do like to iconography of the pate but will probably like it a
little less after I’ve printed over a 100 of them. OUP also have the original
drawing of the plate design, also by Burghers with some notations.
OK so back
to the print studio but what happens to all those other things I did with my
spare time, I guess it will all have to fit somehow or other…
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| By the Thames Barrier even! |
