Collagraph Workshop

Last weekend I drove up to Eugene for another fantastic set of workshops at Whiteaker Printmakers, this time with Robert Canaga, a longtime printmaker and supporter of the arts in Eugene. This first day was an exploration of collagraph techniques. The word has the same root as collage and "chine collé" and refers to the glue that holds things down on the plate.

This technique has a ton of potential, but just like intaglio, it didn't grab me. Robert did a great job of showing us the ropes while leaving us completely free to do anything we wanted. His standard answer to students asking "can I do such-and-such" was "yes, let's figure out how" or "let's try it!"

 

[Relief on the left, intaglio on the right]

He brought an inspiring set of boards that showed us a few of the many, many items that can be used to create interesting marks. On the left are the results of rolling ink onto the surface of these objects. On the right, you can see what happens when you print the same objects intaglio-style by applying ink and wiping it off with a cloth. As I've said before, I have no patience for wiping and no desire to get my hands dirty or to waste all of that ink so intaglio is out of the running for me.

I also came with an agenda, which is probably not a great idea. I am looking for a way to bridge my weaving work into my printmaking work.

 

[Scraps from my world]

I tried all kinds of stuff with the types of things that I have kicking around in the weaving studio.

 

[The results]

And here is the predictably uninspiring result. I'm interested in the rhythm of my weave structure as it gets translated to printmaking, but as yet don't really see a place for it in my printing work.

The second day of the workshop covered a specific monotype technique with caran d'ache pigments and acrylic medium. Stay tuned to see the results of that workshop...