Happy New Year!
I was visiting Ripe Digital recently, a superb short run commercial digital printer based locally in Corsham, where Bath School of Art have some of their studio space, and Howard Hodgkin used to teach. Rik at Ripe Digital introduced me to their new digital foiling machine. In essence, this is a short run, or one off, opportunity to apply metallic foils to my print work. A process that previously demanded bespoke metal dies and long print runs to be even vaguely affordable. It's an idea /process that I hope will continue on from where the recent Klint / cut piece left off.
So I'm experimenting with the idea of making a pair of foil based works for the club, in which several, perhaps four, coloured foils will be used to create two new works, probably with some inked areas too. Maybe ish 12 inches square each. Not sure yet, but will keep you posted as the work progresses.
Klint / CUT, Experimental Print Club Edition #9
Spent a good day yesterday working on the 9th edition for my Experimental Print Club. I’ve been making 3 or 4 smaller ephemeral works on paper each year for the club, as a kind of loosening up idea, with the intention of trying out new ideas that may feedback into my main practice, whilst simultaneously creating some hopefully quite collectable smaller works that go out to club members in the post. It’s a nice concept that coerces me to make some new smaller works each year.
EPC edition 9, Klint / cut
I’m just on the brink of making Edition 9 for the print club. The autumn edition for 2018. Having told you that I'm planning to make a piece on silk, and a ‘mantle piece’ in my last post (I’m still intent on making both of these) I’ve been somewhat waylaid by an interesting colour proof print experiment, which I think will make a good new edition to colour up the autumn. Time will tell. In essence it’s a kind of collage from some proofs of my Klint prints, mixed with some foil fragments, collaged onto a sheet of Somerset paper, by way of a backing sheet, with debossing. That's the plan anyway, I'll send some progress images shortly…
Print Club Edition 8
Edition 8 is going to be a celebration of Spring, and in particular that particularly beautiful combination of greens, pinks and deeper carmines that marks out the first flush of really powerful colour that comes out here in May. I've attached an image here of my new tulip border, that I planted deep in the midst of last winter, with freezing hands, sure in the knowledge that I would get a sensational blast of colour as the gardening year really gets going this spring. I have to say that I didn't plan for the bright orange ones, but in fact they have been a serendipitous addition that has no doubt been bolder and better than my original choices.
Motorik / WIP / Feb 2017
Thought I’d post a new study from my ‘Motorik’ series. I’m going to produce it as a pigment print on Somerset, no doubt at The Fine Art Print Company here in Bristol
Patreon Experimental Print Club, edition #3 posted
After a surprisingly complex assembly process, the 3rd piece for my Patreon Experimental Print Club was editioned on the Winter Solstice and sent out to my Print Club members shortly after. Entitled R2 / helios helianthus, it’s the 3rd piece that I’ve made exclusively for my Print Club members.
Laser cutting R2 at Bristol Design Forge
I spent a fascinating afternoon at Bristol Design Forge yesterday, making an initial test cut on a pair of metallic Lambda prints, working towards completing the 3rd edition for my Experimental Print Club.
In essence, the laser cutting technology allows for incredibly fine cutting of the photographic paper, which I've then reassembled onto a thin sheet of metallic gold card.
Radial / TWO / helios helianthus / Second edition / Patreon Experimental Print Club
To complement the concept behind Bloom, I've started work on this new piece, reinterpreting my Radial / TWO geometry as a work on paper, that will see it recoloured, laser cut, and interlaced with a sheet of gold foil. These two components will then be applied to a backing sheet of handmade paper, debossed, and will hopefully form an intriguing new study, that will radiate a little late season sunshine this Autumn. That's the plan anyway.
Bloom / editioned
Ros Ford and I completed the Bloom edition last week at BV Studios, and after 4 or 5 days drying time, the completed, editioned, etchings are packed and in the post to my Experimental Print Club members today.
It's been a fascinating process working with Ros on the etching. For clarity, Ros made the copper plate, and has done all the inking and printing, my input has been the original drawing, the film work, all the digital stuff, and the print finishing. I've chosen to leave one naturally deckled edge, and 3 cut sides, partly to show orientation, but primarily to make a real feature of the beautiful softened edge of the handmade Somerset paper. All the prints also have a full watermark in the bottom r/h corner.
Bloom / Patreon Experimental Print Club / 1st edition, April 2016
We're looking forward to inking up the copper plate we completed a few weeks back, and actually printing the first edition - Bloom - at BV Studios this week. After a certain amount of trial and error, we've chosen to use a digital bitmap of the original drawing at 500 ppi, transferred to the copper etching plate using a laminated photopolymer film, exposed with an aquatint screen. All good stuff. There are just a very few decisions left to be made about the exact hue of the black ink, which is likely to be fairly warm.
Klint / reDux / A new series of work for the Beautiful Crime vs Microsoft Surface 3 exhibition
For the Surface 3 vs Beautiful Crime show, I've been riffing on a new idea, that combines the ghost of a previous study, Vortura, with my love of Japanese paper folding, notably the crane, digital print making, and the classic designs of the Le Klint studio, a widely celebrated lighting design company, who perfectly combined those two most critical of materials, light and geometry, from 1943 onwards.