Collagraphs and dismantled boxes
Making collagraph plates from dismantled oxo packaging
collagraph print made with a Terry’s chocolate box
Collagraph plate made with a pears soap box
Collagraph print made with a pears soap box
Collagraph printing plates can be made of any material - the word basically means collaged together - typically I use cardboard and carve into the surface with a craft knife - peeling away layers and scoring marks into the surface. You can add textures like masking tape or fabric/string to create areas of detail. The whole plate is varnished with a thin layer of shellac varnish (sometimes called button polish) to seal it allowing you to wipe ink all over the surface and into the grooves and textured areas that will hold more ink, as with all intaglio printing you buff the ink off the plate you and clear areas you want to remain white, the plate is then printed onto damp paper with a high-pressure etching press. I have found the more textures and sharp edges the plate has the higher quality paper you need to be able to mould around the plate and capture all the detail. I use Hahnemuhle 300gsm paper as it has a high cotton fibre content and is really forgiving with difficult cut out shapes.
Using found objects to create printing plates has taken my work in a new direction - the graphic shapes of the opened out packaging is fascinating in itself but works really well against the natural shapes and marks of the birds and trees. I wanted to make sure the birds looked like they are flying out of the frame, breaking out of the boxes and that meant using the shapes of the unfolded boxes to dictate where i could create movement in the image. I have also played with the idea of reconstructing the box once printed and it works wonderfully, transforming an everyday object into art.
While looking for interesting packaging to use I found the Terrys chocolate orange boxes which have holes cutting of the centre as part if the design , they lent themselves perfectly to becoming moons once i put birds inside them. The Pears soap box packaging had embosed logos on which inside ore the wrong way around - but of course with printmaking you want text to be the wrong way around as it will print correctly- and it worked brilliantly adding a ghostly font to the final print.
Collagraph plates can be quite durable but the plates made out of packaging are very delicate as the card is thin and my cutting made them even more vulnerable, I could only get a very small edition printed before the plate starts to degrade due to the high press of the press.
I am building up a body of work based around corvids - jackdaws and crows and ravens - Im using collagraph for its speed and immediacy when creating the plate - plus I love the rough and deep textures that i can achieve with the cardboard. Im planning on bringing all the work together in a physical exhibition in the future so for now I will just keep creating and adding to the pile.
Some artists working with collagraph that I like and that you might be interested in
karen wicks https://www.instagram.com/iacartroom
Marian haf https://www.instagram.com/marianhaf/
Sue brown https://www.instagram.com/sb.brown21/
Sarah Ross Thompson https://www.instagram.com/sarahrossthompson/
Suzi Mackenzie https://www.instagram.com/suzie.mackenzie.printmaker/ (she has written a great book on collaraphs - well worth a look if you would like to teach yourself)
