Collagraphic Print: Ritual Object

 

22×30″ Hand-pulled print on BFK paper

 

I have been experimenting with a printmaking technique that is new to me: the collagraph. I have printed from etched copper and zinc plates before, and in some ways this is a simpler method: the printing plate does not get coated or dipped in a chemical bath–instead you print from a plate that is basically a collage. Using mat board as a base, you create a collage of cut shapes, incised lines and material glued to board, anything that is flat enough to go through the press. Then, using cards, brushes, tarleton, fingers, you spread printmakers ink on the place and run it through a press so it prints onto a damp sheet of printmaking paper.