Print obsessed

After a morning of dodging showers and cutting down overgrown plants I felt I had earned a few hours in my shed carrying on with my printing trials. I searched through my box of collagraph plates and found this one that I made in college a couple of years ago. I only printed it once and not with much success but I got out the yellow ochre and midnight blue and started to play. This print below is the first pull. It looks like I could have blended the inks more but I think the marks in the plate and the way they hold the ink have something to do with the patchy look. I like the shape but need to get better at my colour theory if it is going to improve.

I then took another couple of plates, inked them in a lovely dense black and then wiped them.

Excuse the wonky photo, but this is the square plate after printing. The clear area was wood glue and should have wiped white so that worked. The darker edges to the circles are carborundum and they really held on to the ink. The centres were a coarse moulding paste and they held on to the ink more than expected. When I printed it I also added a small piece of a photo from an old book, not for any aesthetic reason - just to have a go at chine colle.

The most interesting experiment came with an old plate I'd made with some gingko leaves from my garden. I printed this on an offcut of the fine felt blanket that came with my press. I can see immediately that I could have wiped the plate better but if the surface is smooth it will accept the ink whether it be paper or fabric.

I would like to try and experiment with printing techniques on fabric and I might try and make some fine felt to try out another print on. This worked because the felt was extremely smooth and commercially made. Once dry it might offer an opportunity for further embellishment with some threads and beads. Not sure. Will wait and see - but it has at least shown me that collagraphs can be printed on fabric. That's a starting point.