Some of the others – like Suzanne -- had put in the work during the week and had plates all ready. I tried hard to listen to LM’s instructions at the same time I was building up my plate. I also stopped several times to go over and check out other people’s prints. Kristie made her plate by using a piece of string, coating it with ink and laying it against an already printed background. So simple, yet so lively. There were several other abstracts and all in all everyone was very involved with the whole process.

I hastily inked my plate and ran it through the press. I was not totally unhappy with it, but I knew it definitely needed a bit of brightening up. But by then it was time for our lesson on silk collographs and so I put the first run print aside to dry and went for the next lesson.

LM showed us the pieces of styrene plastic that she uses for making a ground for silk collographs. Silk collographs are made by painting a piece of styrene a solid color – black, in this instance – and drying it thoroughly. Then a piece of silk (which these days is actually nylon) is laid over the styrene and painting onto the plastic. The paint serves as a glue, as well as deepening the plate. When this is thoroughly dried as well, an image is painted onto the plate using another color, basically blocking out portions of the plate. When the image is finished, the plate is inked and when it is run through the press, the blocked out portions are not colored while the background is.

After picking out our pieces of styrene, we students spent a good few minutes passing around pieces of silk, hair dryers, paint and sandpaper. It is necessary to sandpaper the styrene plates both to remove imperfections and to make the plastic absorbent enough to hold paint, but smooth enough to run through the presses.

I realized that the plate – like the others – would print in reverse of the image you laid down, so I took that into account when I started working on my design.

Again, I had to work fast if I wanted to participate in the pressing and watch the others do their pressing. Most of the others chose to make abstract shapes and designs with the buildup of paint on the plate. LM looked at my plate and said, “Ah! You chose to make a poster.”

Here is my plate. The blocked portion picked up the ink color but you’ll get the general idea.

I made the dots at the top and bottom by dipping my finger in thick white paint. The central picture was done with white paint on a brush and the lettering was a combination of using a small paint laden brush and the end of the brush handle. Fortunately for me, one of my many peculiar talents is that I’m able to write backwards without having to refer to any kind of plate or image. Again, the image is not perfect, or even very interesting, but it was a good learning process.

Here is the actual print:

The plate can be scraped off, dried and re-inked as many times as it will hold up. So I did re-ink it and printed it again:

I was really hoping to get a more visible separation of the yellow and blue, but it got kind of smeary and very greenish -- which was okay because it was a peapod on the picture.

At the start of the class, we were told that there was going to be a reception and art showing for a silkscreen artist, so we would have to be finished, cleaned up and out at 6:00. So, although, I enjoyed the silk collograph work, I was anxious to get back to my original collograph plate and see what could be done with it.

I re-inked portions of it and drew divisions between the colors with the end of the paint brush. I ran it through with new inking twice more and this was the result I got at the end of the day.

I was particularly happy with the texture of the sky. I had used feathers as clouds, and even though the color on the feathers bled through the white ink a bit, I was pleased with the image on the whole, though it still looked unfinished. Lisa Mackie was quite encouraging and even said I should try finishing it off with pastels or the transparent acrylics I like so much. Which is something I intend to do shortly, and I will display the results for you.

The cleanup and packing up took a lot longer than I had originally anticipated and it was just about 6:00 when I was finished and ready to roll.

Before I left, I took a good look at the silkscreen works of Eiichi Nishi, which are on display in the front gallery of Manhattan Graphics Center for June and July. Though I have no examples of them here, they are beautifully designed pieces of very formal, but almost organic shapes and forms. I spoke with the artist and his wife on my way out, both charming people. I hope to get a better look at them when I go down to use the presses sometime in the near future.

The whole class and process were very enjoyable for me and I would love to take a monotype printing class sometime in the future. I am going to be exhibiting at the WorldCon art show in Anaheim, California this year (http://www.laconiv.org) and I would like to bring a series of science fiction and fantasy prints with me. I’ll keep you updated on how it goes.