And now for something new…

One thing I’ve never really done (aside from carving erasers) is printmaking, so when the opportunity to try something new presented itself, I took it.

The type of printmaking: drypoint, on plexiglass. At the Spokane Print & Publishing Center (same place as the bookbinding workshop), so we would get to use their big presses.

Another super fun experience, with amazing people. And another experience where my expectations were so low (I’ve never done this before — it could have been a disaster) that any success was magic.

My radish, taken from *James Harter’s Plants* (a collection of royalty free etchings from the 19th Century), scratched in plexiglass and printed on a big drum press. 2″ x 2.75″

I obviously have much to learn, but I think this was a good first effort, and it was a really fun thing to do.

I’d like to do more of it, so I attempted to an experiment (based on a YouTube video): using a pasta machine as an etching press. Obviously there are size limitations, and it will take some experimentation with materials to really figure it out, but as a proof of concept, it worked.

The substrate: a used berry container from the grocery store. The flower illustration, also from *James Harter’s Plants*. I need to work on my inking skills, and the plastic was difficult to manage while scribing, so that will take some work as well, but it was an interesting experiment.

I took a Zoom workshop a couple of weeks ago, offered by the Book Arts Program at the University of Utah, with Rebecca Chamlee from Pie in the Sky Press. The workshop, Print at Home: Craft-Press Printmaking, featured printmaking using craft embossing machines (like the Sizzix Big Shot). It. Was. Amazing.

Rebecca Chamlee is a generous teacher and artist. She sent participants samples of prints made on these presses.