Month: January 2017

We’re really getting stuck into using our new Ready-Made Thermofaxes.
Two weeks ago we showed you how we used some of them to print patterned papers in bright colours to make all the pieces seen here:

We printed a big stack of these papers using six of the Ready-Made Thermofax designs. We then used these papers to make a découpage chair! Here’s how we made it:

We cut a 3 x 10cm template from a piece of plastic and used it to cut up our papers into rectangles.

A while ago we got hold of two vintage chairs. We used the first to create this Block Printed Chair and now we’re ready to use the second!

Using Mod Podge we began to glue the pieces in a line down the centre
of the chair.

We used a foam brush to spread a slightly watered down Mod Podge over the surface of the chair and then over the top of the paper, one piece at a time.

We overlapped the edges of our chair to be trimmed later and left a few gaps in the pattern where the wood can be seen.

When the glue was dry (we waited overnight) we used a scalpel to trim the edges of the overlapping pieces.

The surface was then covered in another layer of Mod Podge.

The glue dried overnight to a clear finish, leaving us with a bright, print-covered chair!

To have a go with Thermofax printing yourself, take a look at our
Ready-Made designs or
make your own! See how the designs
were printed in our Blog Post.

My name is Elizabeth Harbour.

I studied illustration at Maidstone College of Art and went on to study an MA at the Royal College of art. I am a Printmaker, illustrator, designer and
crafter and run art classes and print workshops in Kent and Sussex.

Describe your process

I always make several drawings for ideas, often exploring mark-making and colour-combinations. Then I decide what print process my design is best suited
to, as each print process produces a very different result and feel. Once this is decided, I refine the image using trace and work out the colour.
Sometimes I like to make colour separation decisions halfway through the print process.

How and I where did you learn to print?

Maidstone College of Art’s print room where I gained my first print experience, this was with large cast iron presses. In the last 20 years I have developed
my own printmaking methods: mono-printing, screen-printing and relief-printing all of which can be done from home. I always paint directly onto my
screens, this method reminds me a little of the lithographic process.

Why printing?

I love that fact that sometimes print making can be unpredictable, this has been very freeing for me as an artist. I also love the fact that you can print
in multiples with some print processes – printing on paper, fabric and even printing books, I have always found this exciting. In the last few years
I have been making limited edition prints as well as hand-printed cards, printed papers and textiles.

Where do you work?

From my studio on warm days in my greenhouse and even from the kitchen table!

Describe a typical day in your studio.

I love my studio days, which are three days a week, as I also run my own Art for Enjoyment art classes in Kent and Sussex, which I really enjoy.

Once my children have left for school, I work in my studio from about 8.00a.m. I always listen to music when I work (I love an eclectic mix of music).
For laborious processes such as cutting 80 tiles for a paper design I listen to Radio 4 drama from the BBC website. I always have ideas and projects
that I am working on, whether it’s limited edition prints, new card designs or printed papers. I also love creating new seasonal crafts for Country
Living Magazine, which I have been asked to do again this year. Some of the crafts use simple printmaking techniques.

How long have you been printmaking?

30 years

What inspires you?

 Exploring Processes, Folk Art, Kent, Nature and 20th Century British Art and Design.

What product/tool could you not be without?

I am afraid that there are several: a Japanese hole-punch (it’s great for cutting holes in designs), a wooden-handled lino-cutting set and my homemade
silk screens.

What have you made that you are most proud of?

I still love an etching with aquatint that I created in my Maidstone days – ‘Ice Skating’ and more recently my block printed-paper designs and Lavender
Tabbies.

Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

Leadbetter and Good, Emma Mason Gallery, Edwards and Todd Hastings, Barnstar Rye and on my website and web shop.

My Twitter and Facebook pages (where I often show work produced in my print workshops) can be accessed via my website.

What will we be seeing from you next?

More Designs for textile animals, hand-printed papers and large monoprints.

Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?

Good prints can be created from home and the process doesn’t have to be expensive.

 

See more of Elizabeth Harbour’s work at elizabethharbour.co.uk

We’ve been working hard at Handprinted getting lots of designs together for a new range of Ready-Made Thermofaxes. We wanted to create adaptable designs that can be printed as they are, in repeat, layered to create textures
and printed onto paper or fabric! A special project using these new Thermofaxes is underway and we can’t wait to show it to you. Here’s a few of our new designs being printed:

Our new Zigzag design:

Printing our Circles design:

Six out of eleven of our new Thermofaxes printed onto paper:

All eleven Thermofax designs are available to buy through the website now!
We’re really pleased with them. Which is your favourite?

 

 

We are delighted to have Sue Brown joining us for her signature workshop next Autumn! We asked Sue to tell us about her work and processes:

I am Sue Brown and have been an artist/printmaker for nearly 20 years. I live and work in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and drive a 2CV.

What kind of printmaking do you do?

My specialism is Collagraph printmaking. Collagraph is an intaglio printmaking process which involves making a collage combining DIY filla, carborundum
and found textures. The technique produces prints with deeply textural surfaces.

How and where did you learn to print?

I learnt to do etching in the early 80’s when I studied for a fine art degree at Bristol Polytechnic. It was when I returned to teaching adults art in
a college of Further education after having 3 children that I discovered collagraph. I was checking out art departments after a career break of 10
years and discovered collagraphs being made at the local Stiener school, I introduced the technique to my adult learners and have been a technique
magpie ever since. I continually add new processes, materials and ideas to this flexible way of printmaking. In 2012 I graduated with a Multi Disciplinary
Printmaking MA from the University of the West Of England (Bristol Poly with another name).

Why printing?

I love the stages of plate making, inking and printing. I am a hands on sort of person and I enjoy the practical problem solving that only printmaking
offers me.

Where do you work?

I used to have a studio in the cellar of my house, then moved it into a posh garden shed. 2 years ago I took the step of renting a studio with a teaching
space just up the road from where I live. I can still get there in my pajamas but only in the dark so the neighbors don’t see.

Describe a typical day in your studio.

I would love to say there is a typical day, but in reality it varies unless I have a teaching day. If I am plate making or editioning I will start early,
lots of coffee will be involved and radio 4 will always be on.

How long have you been printmaking?

Professionally I have been printmaking for nearly 20 years, but I have been working on and off since art college in 1979.

What inspires you?

All things ornithological.

What products do you use? What product/tool could you not be without?

At the moment I love Hawthorn inks, their metallic inks are gorgeous. I cannot live without my Art Equipment press, I was able to buy it 20 years ago by
cashing in an insurance policy.

What have you made that you are most proud of?

A full sized collagraph of an Ostrich. Printed at the Cheltenham Ladies College who have a press the size of a double bed.

Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

The last 2 years I have been fortunate enough to have been asked to demonstrate in the printmaking tent at Art in Action, Oxfordshire. My work can be seen
in several galleries around the country from Much Wenlock to Bristol, Lancaster to Godalming. This autumn I have had 2 collagraphs selected for the
RWA’s 164 Annual Open Exhibition in Bristol.

What will we be seeing from you next?

I am planning to explore birds perching on heads and create a series of textural pieces using polyfilla and carborundum. It is Cheltenham Open Studios
in 2017 and I want a new body of work that might surprise.

Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?

I like the advice novelist Neil Gaiman gives to creatives: There are 3 things that make a good artist, being on time, making good work and being nice…but
you do not have to be all 3 at the same time. If you are late, but are nice and make good work you will be forgiven. If you are on time and make good
work you will be forgiven for being a bit hard to deal with. If you are on time and nice to deal with they will still like your work even if it is
not so good.

I maintain however, above all do good work, keep doing good work, you get no where without the work!!

To see more of Sue’s work, visit her website or The Yard Art Space. You can also keep up to date on Facebook and Twitter.

Click here for more information about Sue Brown’s
Mixed Media Sketch Book Techniques Workshop at Handprinted.