Stratograph

© 2005 Cathy Savage

I first learned about stratographs from Anna Marie Pavlik, a wonderful artist that really, really, took stratographs to the limit. You must see her work. Anyway, I was hunting down my one and only stratograph the other day because I wanted to work on the image in a different medium and wanted it for reference. (I have an info sheet on how to make stratographs, but it was penned by Anna Marie and I want to get her permission first before I offer it up to the world, so check back in a week or so and I'll hopefully have more info.) If I recall correctly, stratographs are almost synonymous with frottage. You take an inked piece of plexi, gently place your paper on top, then your stencil--nice, because it doesn't get all inky. Then you run it through the press with fairly firm pressure. The cowboy is a stencil cut out of poster board using an exacto knife. It's a delicate wispy thing, and I'd take a picture of it but somehow in the last 24 hours it's gone missing. Anyway, you get the drift. The handkerchief was made from a piece of tracing paper that was painted on with 3D puffy paint, then taped to the stencil.