'Felt' like more printing...

When I was out yesterday I had a look in Homebase for some wallpaper for our bedroom. I picked up a great graphic print but they did not have enough stock of the colour I wanted. Took another colour sample and just scanned it in and messed about with another photo to produce a joint image. I was going to try and change the colour in Photoshop to see what I could do with it. More importantly though was this other sample I picked up.

This pink wallpaper was in the children's section and I think it belonged to the Barbie range. It had such a shiny background I wondered if this would wipe clean on a collagraph plate and leave the hearts a shade darker. So, I took a sample and make a quick and dirty plate. Up above was a print pulled after inking with a mix of black and metallic pewter ink. Here is the metallic silver on its own. Not a brilliant artistic effort but it served its purpose and now I know how it will work if I ever want to use the paper as part of another collagraph plate.

Finally, I found a piece of felt I made ages ago, steam pressed it and then printed a collagraph plate on it. The felt had a slight hint of colour from some transfer dyes but the camera has not picked it up. It adds another dimension to the mix - do you try plain felt with inked up plates of more than one colour - or try single coloured plates on felt that has been dyed or painted? I did a couple of these and this worked better because I didn't take too much ink off the plate. The wiping of the plate is critical to it's success at any time but on fabric, especially absorbent fabric, it is even more so.

There's obviously scope for so much more experimentation. Can't wait to get on!