I first met this delightful group of people in late 2023 when I travelled to Bairnsdale in Victoria to introduce them to collagraph printmaking. The members were so enthusiastic that we organised 2 workshops, each run over 2 days, to accommodate them all.

Many of the members travel quite a distance to meet up and they were incredibly welcoming to me, my husband and the techniques which most had never tried before. They listened carefully to the initial instructions, then dived straight into creating their collagraph plates. Day 1 was spent cutting, gluing, layering, creating textures and sealing their mountboard matrices. Day 2 was print day.

Here are some of their printed results:

I was thrilled to be asked back in late 2024 to work with the group again. We ran the same format as the previous year: 2 x 2 day workshops, with the first day being plate preparation and the second concentrating on printing.

This time we explored drypoint engraving and chine collé.

Note: Many people refer to drypoint printmaking as drypoint etching which is incorrect. To etch you require an etchant (i.e. a chemical used to etch designs into metal, glass, or other material) and as we were using simple etching tools to incise into a perspex plate surface it’s classed as engraving.

The members came with many design ideas and everyone quickly got underway scratching plastic and preparing collage papers to enhance their prints. Day 2 had them inking and applying chine collé to their plates before pulling the prints.

And a few more as they came off the press:

And a few happy faces:

What great workshops, what lovely people and what fantastic results. And we managed to fit in a group dinner at the pub as well!