Last week I attended a 4 1/2 day collagraph workshop and created 3 new plates. I decided to try one of them on the handmade Hemp paper I’ve been sent to experiment printing with. The first piece I printed for the client is here.

Piece 2: Collagraph with oil-based inks

The collagraph matrix was created using mountboard as the base with some areas cut away. Texture was applied to the surface including: PVA glue, Hornby Train ballast (a grey coarse grit used to shore up miniature train tracks), adhesive aluminium tape, fine mesh, micaceous iron oxide, carborundum gel, masking tape and thin papers. The plate was then sealed using Shellac.

The Hemp paper was dampened in the same manner as the previous piece; liberally spritzed front and back before blotting and running through the etching press.

I chose to print on the smoothest side of the paper hoping to get a crisp image and I think it’s come out pretty good. Again, the paper seems to be unsized so it has grabbed the ink and held on to a lot of colour.

Overall I’m happy with the outcome but will probably work further with this plate and adapt it to create more tonal variation.