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We have two Japanese Maple trees in our garden, different varieties with large and small leaves. Luckily a friend saw my printing activity and supplied more from her garden! The leaves have a very attractive shape and outline which is ideal for printing as you can make interesting patterns. Before printing, I dry and place the leaves in a special multi plate flower press, I bought this years ago when I was creating flower collages and it has proved very useful. Here is a selection of the prints that have been created using a gelli plate and acrylic paints. Many of these prints are available to buy in my shop. Each print for sale is unique; they are not reproductions or digital at this stage although I am considering using photoshop to apply some of them to products next year. Producing handmade prints is a joy and sadly time spent on a computer less so! Any thoughts on this would be appreciated as I not sure if I should keep producing "one offs" or use the original prints as a starting point for digital work.
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All around there is uncertainty with covid updates everyday and the situation not improving yet. In the past I've struggled to cope with change and lacked direction. Now I think its best just to keep on printing because on most days it brings a lot of joy. Here is a snapshot of my small prints which are all for sale in my online shop. Next time, when I've worked out how to do it I shall post a video of the process. I'm also waiting on a large printing plate to arrive and the plan is to work bigger! Just walking back from the studio to get a cup of tea, and noticed how lovely the flowers look in the Autumn sunshine. The news is so gloomy with covid19 infections rising steeply, its nice to escape for a few hours. Here's a few pics to share with you, some hints of autumn in the sunshine. As soon as you step into the shade there's a reminder of winter on the way! A monotype is a print, but with one major difference from other printmaking processes: the artist creates exactly one print, instead of multiples (called editions). This is due to the way a monotype is made. To make a monotype, the artist applies paint or ink directly onto the plate — which can be metal, glass, plexiglas, or even gelatine. The plate is pressed against the paper to transfer the ink. (So the finished print is a mirror image of what’s on the plate.) The printing can be done with a printing press or sometimes by hand.  It’s a simple process that allows for lots of experimentation and variation. The artist can create layered prints, use objects as masks between plate and paper, or selectively apply pressure to create a trace monotype. After the first print is pulled, there will be some ink left on the plate for a second, fainter ghost print.  The cow parsley print above is an example of a "ghost print" which was pulled from the residue left on the gelatin plate and then further layers of paint added. Its a very exciting process to use and there is always an element of the unexpected! The best prints are a combination of controlled techniques and with added elements of surprise.
On Wednesday it rained all day, in a torrential sort of way and caused a bit of local flooding. On Thursday the sun appeared briefly and it was an opportunity to gather leaves and flowers from the garden so that I could dry them out before pressing them in my old flower press. I can almost see these leaves as prints already! But alas, I will have to wait a week before they will be ready. Fortunately, I am going on holiday to the north of Scotland for a week of serious dog walking along beautiful beaches. Sunshine or rain...... The past few months I have been spending more time in my studio and garden due to the Covid19 pandemic and lockdown. At first, like most creatives, I felt blocked, numbed, and dreading the uncertainty for all of us. And then the sun came out and everything settled down, the flowers bloomed and I just felt grateful to be here, healthy and at home. Here are a few pics from my garden which can sometimes distract from working on art, but now is combining with my new monoprinting venture. I hope that you like them? Monoprints are made using a "gelli plate" and acrylic paints. They are great fun to make but can be quite challenging to control. For me the unexpected textures and layers are part of the joy and mystery of this process. Also, my plate is quite small and I hope to invest in a larger one soon so that I can work on a larger scale. Below is a selection of my recent monoprints available to buy in my etsy shop. After the initial shock of having our lives confined to staying at home, under a cloud of uncertainty about the future health of the world, I found that it was quite liberating to have no pressures to create. Lockdown removed this completely and for me this was liberating. I bought a small gelli plate and started experimenting with printing flowers from the garden and wild flowers from nearby woods. What fun it is! Colours and effects so easily obtained, textures to dream off and no spending hours and hours waiting for results! Joy indeed. So after producing quite a lot of prints that I liked, the next step was to relaunch an online shop on Etsy. Whether this was a wise move remains to be seen but actually it gives me great pleasure to share the results with you whether anyone buys them or not. For me it is about the joy of creating something beautiful and I love them all! UPDATE 25 July 2020, the prints below are now all SOLD and off to a new home! I've listed some new sterling silver foil earrings and collages in my Etsy shop and all these items are available to buy from stock. There is no charge for postage in the UK! Please visit and if you would like to leave feedback on any items that would be greatly appreciated. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Grafikmo Been busy adding new items to my online shop. It gets easier with practice! Every piece has to be photographed from different angles. I need to find someone to model my jewellery! Having initially started with my trusty Panasonic Lumix camera, soon found that iPhone is much quicker and easier to upload and edit. My first sale on Etsy was a pair of paper globe earrings. Delighted that the shop is gradually attracting more viewers. Please pop over and have look and leave any feedback or add my shop to your favourites so that you can see new listings as they are added. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Grafikmo |
AuthorMMDesign was founded by Maureen Mitchell in 2009 and has been building up a clientele from websites and various trade events. Archives
December 2020
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