Duck Story

A little while ago I mentioned how I had borrowed a stuffed duck from a pub called The Marquis of Lorne. In order to take the duck I had to give them something in return for the time duckie spent with me. So my little soft toy lamb, that I saw in a junk shop in Northcote, and couldn't resist, sat dutifully on the shelf in the pub for almost a month. I bet it was the time of his little soft toy lamby life!

So, Duckie became my model, I drew her, painted her and finally made a plate. A large perspex dry point plate. Almost didn't fit on my press!

It took a lot of rubbing and wiping to ink up this large perspex plate. Perspex isn't as nice to work with as copper is, I find it takes extra effort to get the ink just right on the plate and it's confusing because you can see ink on the back of the plate too. 

I inked up in sepia brown tones with black rubbed over the top in areas. I rubbed the ink clean in areas I wanted white and then over the wing I inked in a mixture of turquoise and black to give that flash of metallic green. That part of the duck has a special name, my mum knows what it's called, but I can't remember. Anyone else know?


And here is The Marquis Of Lorne's Duck. She'll be in my Exhibition next Thursday!

More Crows

I've been working most days in the gallery that I work in at the moment. My boss is away so my shifts have increased from once a week to four days and I'm just not getting much of my work done, hence no blog posts! 

But I've finally managed to print a few of my smaller crow plates. I've in fact made all eight plates into an artist book which I have yet to bound, but which hopefully will be included in my exhibition in September. I have also printed a number of the plates separately exclusively for my etsy shop which you can view here.

The prints are dry point and carborundum on 6 x 6cm recycled copper plates. I used the back of other plates for these, I wanted them to be rough and have lots of foul bite marks but many were a lot cleaner than I had hoped! But I feel they have turned out similar to how I planned. I really like the thick dark grainy tone of the carborundum and enjoyed painting straight onto the copper. 

As I learn all these little bits and pieces of technique and experimentation I get more and more excited about moving to Belfast at the end of September and getting into the Belfast Print Workshop and work larger scale again. I'll definitely miss Australia but I'm glad I'll not have to endure Melbourne summer next year. I would indeed prefer 9 months of winter than experience another summer like the last one!

Turquoise Crow

I think this is the largest print I've made so far. It only just fit on my little press. At an estimate, from memory, it measures about 40cm across. It was made by drawing with thick PVA glue straight from the bottle, then grit poured on top, like glitter! I then sealed the plate with shellac.

The texture is very deep and it embosses the image into the paper as well as printing the inked image. I went through quite a bit of tarlatan (the cloth used to rub back the inked up plate) because the grit kept ripping it up, like rubbing cloth over sand paper. I also used an etching needle to score into the cardboard plate for the lose lines around the bird. I wasn't sure how this would work, but it seems to have worked as well as if it were dry point into copper. The edition is small, only 4 or 5. I'm hoping to have it in my upcoming exhibition at Bird's Gallery, Kew in September.

What have I been up to?

Recently I've just disliked sitting at my computer, hence lack of blog posts etc. I always feel I should be getting on with something else. Here are a few of the other things I have been getting on with instead.

The Crows.
I started playing around with unique state prints made from two plates and various scraps of fabric. I found it all a bit stressful, which sounds silly, I should just immerse myself into 'playing' but constantly at the back of my mind I keep thinking 'deadline, I've got a deadline' and should concentrate on work that I'm more sure about for my exhibition in September. I do like the deep red crow with black lines on top. He was made with a collograph plate painted with PVA and grit inked up in red, then a dry point plate printed in black over the top. I really like the deep rustiness of the red colour.





Sketch Etchings
These are dry point etchings, the plates of which I made at Wye River in January. I decided to sketch straight onto the plate, rather than make the plate in my studio from drawings in my sketchbook. I like the immediacy of this way of working, but it is a bit nerve wracking because you don't want to mess up the copper plate.



I must also mention the winner of my may giveaway was Stef of Distracted Muse. I'll be posting her little felt brooch to her this week! Thank you to everyone who took part. I'll have another giveaway soon!

The Currawongs

Ok, so, I charged up my camera battery and put it in, ready to take photos for new years eve and... my camera has finally died. I think it must be all the dropping of it. I've never been very good at holding on to it! So I went into town yesterday and simply had to buy a new one. So I'm all ready now and here we go...

My larger recent work.

I remember first hearing currawongs when I lived in Abbotsford. They actually say "currawong currawong." I think they are lovely looking birds, about the size of a crow but a little bit sleeker. Apparently they are a little bit evil and rather clever.

My original drawings of the currawongs were done with black ink and a brush (see above) and I wanted to recreate this effect in etching by using sugarlift. This process involves painting your image onto the plate with a sugar solution. You let it dry and then paint diluted bitumen over the top and let that dry. Then put the plate into warm water and the areas where the sugar solution was painted lifts off, exposing the copper plate below. An aquatint is then applied by dusting the plate (still with the bitumen covering the areas where the sugar solution was not lifted) with fine rosin grains and melting them with a flame. Aquatint creates texture on the surface of the plate so it picks up more ink and creates an even dark tone. Then place the plate into the acid for the desired length of time. When the plate is ready take it out of the acid, clean off the bitumen and melted aquatint grains and you are ready to ink up and print.

Newly Listed Etchings

Although I made this "Four Goats" etching a month or so ago I hadn't got round to listing it on etsy, but I did today, probably because I should be vacuuming or washing the dishes or twenty other things that should take priority. Well , I don't feel guilty, so there!


I also listed this etching of a rather vain peacock. It is the only one I have left but it is taking up room in my small living room / workshop / study / print store, so I thought I'd give it a go on etsy too.

New Website, What Do You See?!

I have made a new website for my printmaking. I didn't think I was clever enough to be able to make one, but I have, so there you go! I'd love to know if it works on everyone's computers, I find my old website still pops up every so often. I'd appreciate it very much if you could tell me if you see birds or horses! I'm hoping birds.

Four Australian Water Birds

I have made a new etching. I wanted to make a four bird etching with the theme of waterbirds. I already had plates for the Wood Duck and the Black Swan, but I needed two more. So I decided to make a Pelican and an Egret. I had drawings I had already made of pelicans from a trip to Merimbula, New South Wales, last year and the egret I was able to draw from bird books. Although I hate to do this (draw from a book or photo) I didn't have enough time to go egret hunting. But if anyone knows where a handsome egret lives I'd love to call by and ask his permission to make a quick portrait!

Editioning and Birding

I'm slowly getting my etchings editioned in time for an exhibition entitled Bird Song at the Australian Print Workshop. It starts on 13th April and I have to have my work finished before then. It's slow work, but satisfying. I'm only in the Print Workshop once a week at the moment, maybe I should go more often?!
Here are some of the pieces that are going to be shown.


I've been doing some looking on the Internet lately at other bloggers. I found a really lovely site called bird by bird in which the author/ artist, Pica, draws a bird she has seen for every post. It's very interesting reading about American birds and her sketches are beautiful, really capturing the essence of each bird.

Four Legged Friend Exhibition

Tomorrow night at Bird's Gallery in Kew, Melbourne, an exhibition opens called Four-Legged Friends. The exhibition runs from 19th Feb - 15th March.

I have three works included in the exhibition. They are dry point etchings and are taken from drawings I made while at Wye River last month. It was quite a rush to get them made and framed in time. I actually had the frames made before I was even able to make the etchings! This was possible because I had already made the plates for the etchings so knew what size the pictures would turn out.

These are my sketches from Wye River

I was pleased with how they turned out because I find it far easier to draw birds with only two legs rather than dogs, cats, cows or other four legged creatures, so when these drawings actually did look like dogs I was happy.


To make the plates I dry point etched into a thin perspex sheet with a sharp pointed needle. I decided to use sepia ink for a softer image.
They are each from an edition of 5, marked E.V. for Edition Variable. The variations are caused due to my technique of rubbing back the ink. I don't rub all the ink back beacuse I want to create tone in areas where there is no line work. It is very difficult (for me) to rub the ink in the exact same way for each print, thus E.V.!



In a few weeks time I will hopefully be listing the rest of the edition of these etchings in my etsy shop. Keep a look out for them, or just visit Bird's Gallery in Kew to see them in real life!


Or come and see me at Rose Street Artist's Market where I have a stall most Saturdays.

Back in the APW. Hooray!

Yesterday was my first day back at the Australian Print Workshop. Last year I was at Uni so I used the facilities there, but I'm glad to be back at APW, I missed it.

So I spent a long hard day in the workshop trying to get etchings made for markets and galleries, in 8 hours I managed 16 etchings, it's such a slow labour intensive process, but well worth while. I'm working on editioning two prints at the moment, hopefully I'll have them ready for next weekend.

I always choose to use the little old wooden press, instead of the big spring assisted presses. Apart from it always being free because no one else wants to use it, I like the feeling of really putting all of my effort into turning the wheel and pulling the print through. I am often seen with my feet off the ground putting all my weight onto the arms of the wheel to get it turning. It's good exercise!







For each picture you have to ink up the copper plate, it's a messy process and the ink is very thick. You scrape the ink on with an applicator, then with tarlatan (a mesh like material) you rub the ink into the etched lines. Then with another piece of tarlatan you rub the ink back so the rest of the plate's surface is clean. See how the ink is black in the etched lines but the rest of the plate is clean and coppery. I give the plates a final polish with a page from a phone book and then they are ready to print.

Line up the plates using a template under an acetate sheet, get the soaking paper from the water bath, dry it off a bit, line it up over the plates, fold down the etching blankets, then, with all your might, turn the wheel to pull the print bed through the roller and voila! Your etching has been made. Phew!

Now, start all over again for the next one.