Cricketts Inky Art Blot

I like this as one of Lady Penelope Pinkerton-Smythe's suitcases. I took the photo on vacation, but I am not sure which final effect to work with.

I have said it before and I will say it again, that little Revolver map is awesome! Seeing all the little flags of visitors from all over the world is beyond cool, it is inspiring to me. As I work on the collection of prints involving Lady Penelope Pinkerton-Smythe, I think about all the places she may have visited. The little flags on the blog map have me daydreaming of her travels. I am going to tie the thread of the prints to the book Around The World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne. The prints I have completed (and still working on) are named from phrases or chapter headings from that book. The main character of my work is of course Lady Penelope and not Phileas Fogg! I am having fun playing on the titles or using some of references from the book. Each print stands alone as having some significance to a part of my life or an experience of my travels, but strung together, they carry the narrative of the lighthearted, fast-moving journey of Lady Penelope. Like Fogg, the journey tak...

The name of the printmaking studio will be Oxbow Press. Right now work is going on to clean and build a working non-toxic workshop. I did not get the loft space, but I do have a downstairs studio space waiting to be made into something exciting. And here it is! OK, so you can't see much yet, but I will keep posting developments. Here is Candace in part of the soon to be work area.

I spent some time painting at Oxbow Press today, but not the creative type of painting... I do have some more photos though:

After a fab trip to Mexico, I am home and messing around with my photos. I probably had too many margaritas for anything outstanding, but I did grab some images I liked with my camera. here are a few from my trip that I have worked on already: I am thinking of working some drawings and prints from these sometime. More tomorrow :-)

I am in Disneyland with the kids today. I am trying NOT to think about printmaking but,,, -- Post From My iPhone I did think those were kinda cool! An old friend of mine, Shrunken Ned, was hanging out near the Jungle Cruise.

The lease was signed today by my print master Candace for the community print shop. I still have to sign my tennant lease, but the studio will be ready for moving in after my trip. Way cool! I am already in LA so there won't be any printmaking for a week or so. After moving into the print shop, I can print my merry little heart out :) Checking out my loft with Printmaking Conspiracy member Carol Brown

The plate hardened ok and I got my first print off it. -- Post From My iPhone

I guess that whole sun hardening process takes a while at the wrong time of day. I should have waited until noon, so far my plate has been out a couple of hours.

I finished my through the keyhole image of Lady Penelope infront of her steamer trunk undressing. Today I took the image to be transfered to an acetate sheet(I tried at home, but as I only have an inkjet, all I ended up with was black blobby liquid) ready to prepare my solar plate. This method of printing is completely non-toxic and uses just water to clean-up the plate after exposure. Both intaglio and relief matrixes can be formed using simple UV exposure techniques. I will be making intaglio solarplates for this project. After opening my plate from the UV protected bag, I placed it emulsion up on a small board to receive a halftone screen. The screen was placed on the emulsion side, then a glass sheet was clamped onto the glass and board. The plate was then exposed to UV light for 21/2 minutes. Then I removed the screen, added my acetate positive then exposed the plate in the same manner for 31/2 minutes. At this point the plate is ready to be submerged in water to take the ...

Earlier in the year I printed some sheets to use as covers for one or more art book that I want to make. I am working on the book project today. This is the cover I printed for a codex I made. I sewed 5 signatures of paper together for this book and added a ribbon closure that I have printed from a relief matrix that I carved. The end papers were handmade onion skin papers, that I tinted with watercolours. I am cutting out a window in the pages, but I can only cut a few windows at a time to avoid the opening warping. Now I wonder why I made it 5 signatures over 3, hopefully it will be worth it.

At last, the reduction cut print is finished and drying!   Here is a video that demonstrates how to make a reduction cut:  

I went to a very interesting demonstration on copper engraving today. The lecture was given by Zoltan Janvary who is one of just six copper engraving printmakers in the USA. Zoltan learnt his engraving skills in his native country of Hungary. Seen here are some of his fine engraving tools and beautiful examples of his engraving skill.