Quick collagraph

 I went to Cheltenham yesterday to join a one day workshop led by my lovely chum Sue Brown. It was entitled 'Quick Collagraph' and I just felt that,despite supposedly knowing what I'm doing, that a day spent with other printmakers would kick start me into action for 2016.

I'd made a couple of simple plates at home but then threw the kitchen sink of techniques at them whilst I was there adding stuff like reinforcing rings  and masking tape etc. None of the plates were sealed so the ink did not get cleaned off between printing meaning we obtained interesting tones with each subsequent pull. We also played with chine collee techniques and whilst I love the quick prints I produced, as ever, I love the plate itself. How it turned out purple , blue and brown is just lovely.

 The other girls on the course said I could post some of their photos too:

You can see that for a small group we were very productive. Some were new to collagraph and you could tell they'd caught the bug by the end of the day. I spent my long car journey home full of enthusiasm and planning some new plates and some future workshops to combine books and print.

Sue and I are going to agree a date soon for me to run a book making workshop at her space at The Yard. This will be in the autumn in Cheltenham so if anyone is interested in being kept updated let me know or sign up for Sue's newsletter on her blog. There are lots of lovely courses coming up in 2016 and the atmosphere created there is fabulous. I met a really great crowd of people yesterday and now I'm raring to get to that press of mine... quick...