3D collagraph flowers

Every year I create a set of prints as small gifts for my printmaking friends. This year I decided on flowers with golden Ferrero Rocher centres.

Using mountboard, I drew the design and cut into the board, removing the top layer, to define the centre and petals. The stamen were made the same way. Various gels and mediums were stippled in some areas to create texture and scraps of tarlatan were adhered to each of the large alternate petals. Three different sizes of punches were used to form the circles in the centre.

I chose to print on 25gsm Japanese Unryu paper, until I ran out, then transferred to a Chinese cotton paper of about the same weight.

Ink was applied using toothbrushes, one for each colour, before wiping back with tarlatan and a final light polish with acid-free tissue paper.

The fronts, as above, were looking fine but as the paper is so thin some of the colour had seeped through creating a blotchy effect on the inside. Not a great look, so I decided to roll semi-translucent ink (oil-based ink with a lot of extender added) onto a large piece of perspex, place the wrong side of the flowers down and run them through the press to lightly coat.

This worked well but here’s the thing to watch when doing this: as the paper is so thin it will only absorb a certain amount of ink so beware of printing densely on both sides as drying can be difficult and images can bleed through. Even with a light film of ink on the inside mine took 5 days until they were at a lightly-greasy stage. Two weeks on and they are reasonably cured now.

Using purchased dowel with chocolate holders attached I folded and wrapped the flowers around the centre before creating the coloured stems with florist tape.