Project 12: Collatype collage prints - Part 4 - "Colony"

For my next attempt I decided to work on a larger scale and to develop on from the etchings I did on the intensive printmaking course this summer. I drew a basic design onto an A2 piece of mat board and started cutting and peeling as well as sticking and gluing. I created shapes by peeling in two corners of the plate as well as applying smooth foil which would wipe clean. These areas represented firing strands from an expanding colony. In the central area I used various things to create circular shapes of varying sizes: The contents of my hole punch, printmaking paper, cartridge paper, foil tape which I also drew on with a Biro to create patterns on its surface. For smaller dots, I applied drops of PVA and sprinkled them with carborundum. I also used the nozzle of the glue bottle to draw patterns in PVA. I thoroughly enjoyed creating this plate. 

After ensuring everything was stuck down I coated the plate with several layers of shellac.

The mat board I used was black as it was the only board I had left in my studio. This wasn't a problem when I was creating the plate, but I realised it was not a good base when I started inking and wiping the plate because I couldn't really see how much was left on the plate. 
I decided to ink in two colours an olive green and a dark blue-grey. The fact that I couldn't see the inking meant that I wiped away a lot of ink that I would have left if I could see and also, despite using bits of yellow pages to try to stop fingerprints while I was wiping, I managed to leave fingerprints all over the place. 

 Because of the fact that this is an abstract design and most of the focus is in the centre of the page, I found it difficult to decide what the orientation should be. I had originally intended for the print to be displayed vertically but I kept rotating it and in the end decided on a horizontal orientation. 

I then reprinted. I inked up as before in blue and green but this time I relief rolled over with the blue/grey ink. 

I found the rolling over very difficult because my roller was much smaller than the plate. It created lines at the edges and this meant that I had to go over and over the plate to try to eliminate the lines. I didn't manage to completely eliminate the roller marks. The print ended up being much darker than the previous one. I had tried to ensure that it wasn't too dark by wiping back selected areas at the edges. Although the print is darker, I think the tonal variation is adequate to create interest and I particularly like the way that the relief ink has picked out the surface detail of the central circular pieces creating good contrast with the green.

Close-up of the central area.

I would have liked to continue experiment with inking and wiping this plate in different ways. Unfortunately I had run out of large printmaking paper and time so I really needed to submit assignment 4 at this stage. 

What I learnt:

• Black board is not a good choice for a plate - white or pale is better for seeing where the ink is and how much to wipe
• Try to keep your holding hand flat on the paper when you are wiping to avoid fingerprints
• Drawing with PVA creates wiggly lines which can be wiped pale. 
• Dots of glue with carborundum take up the ink very well. 
• Rolling over a large plate with a small roller is problematic. 

I have struggled on a couple of my prints with the fact that I have small brayers which can't cover a large plate in one pass. This wasn't a problem when inking my lino projects because  I could go over the repeatedly until it was evenly inked. However, this is a problem when rolling over collagraph plates that are already intaglio inked. One way to get round this would be to buy a very large spindle roller. However, this is beyond my budget right now. So I'll have to think of other ways round it. When I have some more paper, I plan to try relief inking only selected areas of a collagraph plate by using stencils or masks to protect other areas.