Over recent months I’ve documented my progress in printing some Banksia themed solar plates I was given late last year. Some of them are quite worn, or possibly not etched deeply enough to start with, but they have been a joy to print. I’ve blogged several times showing some of the outcomes on plain paper and I also outlined how I hand dyed some paper ready to take the printed images before collating them into a book.

Once my book was planned I realised that I was short of images so I added to the mix a few of my own Banksia prints and included pockets with ‘hidden’ prints inside, as well as a printed jigsaw in an internal envelope featuring circular cutouts.

Take a look through the book in the slide show below.

This soft-bound book was stitched using a simple Japanese stab binding technique. The pages are slightly warped as the paper used wasn’t designed to be plant-dyed (obviously soaked), dampened for intaglio printing and then wet again with glue to adhere some of the additional collaged hand-made papers and chine colle prints. Despite being placed under weights for over a week it determined not to lie flat.

However, the finished piece was presented to the lady who originally gave me the plates as a memento of her print plates and she was delighted. So job well done I reckon.

Note to self: I need to resolve the buckling issue for the future, obviously that comes down to paper choice.