Stamps! Speedy Cut Officially Rocks!

Wow. This stuff is excellent. I carved today, inked, and then even fixed my plate. Here's what went down:

Carved. (I eventually cut the birds out so they are separate hunks.)

Printed

Oh no! Mini accidental line incised right smack in middle of bird. How did that happen? OK, this stuff maybe shouldn't have been thrown in my backpack with all other kinds of crap. How did I fix? I gently rubbed it with my finger, and I removed enough of the eraser-like material down so that it wouldn't show when printed. See below.

All better

I know you're wondering, why is this bird green? I was lazy and the green was already out. On Friday I'll have a beautiful black+blue mixed up--to print a perfect male grackle!

I Have a Plan

E.A.S.T.--East Austin Studio Tour--is right around the corner. Yikes. I plan to be in my studio every day for the next two weeks trying to get ready. (Do put me on your list of studios to visit for Nov. 15-16 weekend, or Nov. 22-13.)

Step One: Map Out Space
I have to admit I stole this idea from my studio mate who has her space already mapped out.

Step Two: Determine What Needs to be Finished
Step Three: Get Things Done

Step One is done and I've kinda started on Step Two. But because of a really fun but ill-timed commitment, I need to get ready for an event on Friday before I can really kick some butt on my list.

Enter Speedy Cut--oh hell yes
So, I have an event this Friday and, well, I've been completely underwater of late with PrintAustin, so I haven't given it much thought until now. I need to come up with a hands-on activity that uses reclaimed materials and my art.

Voila! I'm going to whip out some stamps and use old textbooks and maps for folks to "Put a Bird On It." Here's more info on the Austin Creative Reuse's Raise the Roof event:

20 bucks for food, brews, wine, art, crafts, music, live entertainment, and more! You're coming to our Raise the Roof event on Friday, right? 7-11pm at South Austin Brewery!

You have seen these birds before, but they've been woodcuts that I've cut out and collaged onto maps and monotypes. That will really be impossible for a large group hands-on activity. Speedy Cut will be my savior and I can cut the birds out like rubber stamps after I carve them. Stay tuned--I'll be posting results.

Kepler with cyanotype

I finally did this. I used Lumi dye as the sun-sensitive ink. LOVE!

WPA is having a demo on Lumi dye + relief + screenprinting on Nov. 8. It's free. Here's a link to their Facebook page where you can get more details and RSVP.

I've been knee-deep in PrintAustin business, but plan to get into the studio to start a new plate this week. (Have you joined PrintAustin's Print Exchange yet? You may get a Kepler!)

Speaking of PrintAustin, the deadline to apply for their juried show is quickly approaching--Nov. 9. Sign up or get more info here.

Cranking it OUT!

I slapped Kepler on some hankies for PrintAustin's exchange using Speedball Fabric Block Printing Ink. It worked fine, though the ink "rolled" differently and it took a few Keplers to get the hang of it. I'm going to try sun sensitive Lumi ink next, putting in some celestial stuff in Kepler's background. Stay tuned for a full report on Lumi. I'm super excited to try it.

Hankies and Flags!

PrintAustin has an upcoming print exchange which was inspired by these flags, which were once part of an installation by Women & Their Work titled THIRST. They had 14,000 or something flags strung up around Townlake during the installation and at one point were selling the flags--possibly still are. 2 bucks a flag I think.... Anyway, I own some and they make me happy every time I walk inside my door.

Now, regarding PrintAustin's print exchange. You can find more info about it here with two other calls. The deadline is Dec.15 to enter and you don't need to turn in the prints until January, so you have time. Basically the prints are supposed to be on handkerchiefs so they can be displayed Tibetan prayer flag style. LOVE IT! I'm buying some of this ink this weekend so I can try printing a hankie with a linocut.



Luckily I'm in charge of PrintAustin's hankie inventory (insert evil laugh here) so I have plenty of test subjects.

Update on this Tree piece
I've posted on this thing a few times (suppressing yawn). Basically I'm redoing a recent collage as a drawing/watercolor. A drawing fits more into the budget of the individual who commissioned the piece. Plus she wanted to tweak the color palette--something more subtle. Here's what I have going on in the drawing so far. Tomorrow I will finish it. Without a doubt. Done-zo. I'm ready to work on some new prints that I dreamt up today, so I really need to move this piece off my desk.

But still good news because I found a buyer for the original collage, Yay!

And now completely off topic
I'm considering rethinking how I check email. I've become somewhat hooked on my phone that can grab emails when I walk into WiFi zones, but they still manage to pile up. And then my inbox gets nuts and I miss dates and it all goes to hell. One art marketing coach I follow, Alyson Stanfield, checks email only at certain times of the day so she can focus on reading and responding at the same time. She downloads her emails when she's ready to handle new email vs. having them arrive automatically. Food for thought anyway. Here's a link to her blog post on managing email.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

I entered 5 pieces into the Georgetown Art Hop--Opening Reception Oct. 11, 3-5 pm in case you're local--and I was lucky enough to have 2 accepted. What's funny is the work that was accepted I liked, but I thought the rejects were stronger. These are the ones that made the cut:

Tesla and Crooke's Radiometer, 23 x 12 x 5", mixed media

After Archimedis' Atikythera Mechanism, 30 x 22", collagraph

I've been working on my website for the last few days and the print I had as the welcoming work on the front page is a recent favorite, but my husband insisted I switch it for the one that's there now. This one:

Brahe, Kepler, and Planetary Motion, 20 x 20", monotype, intaglio, mixed media

(Which I should point out was rejected by Art Hop.) I have to admit I no longer take rejection personally, but do find it curious. I would really benefit from a professional critique. One of these days I'll look into that. 

Collagraphs from recent workshop

I was lucky enough to turn 4 more people on to collagraphs. Well, maybe 3. It's not for everyone. But the 3 that were turned on really seemed to love them. Here are some prints that came out of the class. I teach this workshop now and again at Flatbed Press and I'm waiting to get on the workshop schedule for WPA, so it'll happen again. I'm terrible about sending info out to my mailing list, but you are welcome to inquire and I'll hopefully give you a heads up for future dates. I am better about posting this kind of stuff on my Facebook page, so you can always "like" me there and hopefully get updated.

Skipping Rocks

My pity party from Monday is over. Thanks for the well wishes. :) I've learned that when down, it's best not to binge watch TV. On the up side, once Mad Men season 6 was consumed, I moved on to cleaning cabinets and that did a world of good. I marched back into the studio today and actually feel renewed! Yay! Besides, my experience gave me at least a title for a print (not this one below, but a new one)--Illegitimi non carborundum.

Detail of plate on rock skipping, started eons ago.

I brought this plate out of the archives to work on. I learned quite a bit about gesso as a background texture when I was working on Newton--love it! It does need to be sealed with diluted PVA because some of it wipes off when cleaning the plate after printing. (I guess with Akua one could just leave ink residue on the plate and never seal it, but should the plate need to be reworked, ya gotta get the ink off of there.) I've been sealing with 2 coats of 1:1 water to PVA. To keep brush strokes to a minimum, I card on the mixture.

Stuff I need to do on this plate:
1. seal this baby since I learned the hard way that gesso is impermanent.
2. make some areas lighter by applying coats of PVA--diluted or not, multiple coats or not, depending on how light I want it.
3. add more text by tracing printed text using a pencil and tissue paper. Flip tissue paper over so pencil is face down on plate and burnish.
4. ink this baby and proof.

I did start that new plate--the one mentioned above, Illegitimi non carborundum. I have lots of loose ideas jumping around in my noggin. It'll be fun to see where it goes since I'm being non-characteristically spontaneous when working the plate. 

The Facts of Life

Tis true. You win some, you lose some. I admit after the last few rejections to print shows I'm beginning to wonder about my work--recent not-good-enoughs are below. Typically I have the "I don't care if you like it or not" attitude, but this last rejection kinda stung. Oh well. Soldier on! Today to get over my blahs, I'm cleaning cabinets. It sounds lame, but it's been pretty effective. Tomorrow I head into the studio to work on another potential reject. I plan on taking the approach that I need to continue working in the direction that makes me happy, and damn the naysayers.

Newton!

© 2014 Cathy Savage, De motu corporum (On the motion of bodies), 30 x 22", Collagraph

I'm dreading editioning this morning, which I have scheduled in about 35 mins from now. I wish I had a staff. I love the platemaking and getting to the first print--even though this one took me 5 states. I just really, really, really want to work on a new print and instead I'm doing the responsible and I'm going to edition. This will be a small one. Maybe 5 if I'm lucky. OK, I'm going to stop whining now and get going. (Oh! I did watch Cosmos the other day and the episode was on Newton. What a treat! I took notes like a nerd. Science is so fun! Puzzling for my non-scientific brain, but way super cool.) 

Building a Plate

I've been working on a new plate for the last week. Spring Break is happening, so my studio time is somewhat limited. It's been fun hanging out with the kids, and every evening when they are winding down, I have a nagging need to work on my plate every night, so I've been in my home studio putting in an hour here and there.

I started by gessoing my Sintra plate. I'm not sure why I did this other than Jill Alo has done it before and I liked her results. After some sanding, then came Newton in pencil.

I added some grit for the dark parts and gel medium for the light parts (the grit will hold ink and the shiny gel medium will wipe cleaner).

I added some dudes on a cart using a combo of carborundum and gel medium.

Here's where I am now.

I have more to go before I proof this, which is looking like next week. To be continued.... In the meantime, I'm looking through some sewing books to start on a soon-to-be-identified project. I have loads and loads of fabric and it's time to put it to use. 

Well hello Isaac Newton!

I sat in on a fabulous workshop last year and never really experimented the same technique using my Akua inks dum dum dum... until now! I had fun experimenting last week using a charcoal pencil sketch and turning it into a print.

First, ink up plexi plate with thin layer of Akua intaglio opaque white, straight out of the can. Then on tracing or tissue paper, use a charcoal pencil (or charcoal vine) and sketch something. Shake off any charcoal dust. Next, place your paper face down on your plate and run it through the press in order to transfer your drawing to your plate.

Here's my plate with my tissue paper drawing face down, ready to be transferred. 

Drawing on the left, freshly transferred to the plate on the right.
There's enough charcoal left on my tissue paper to transfer to an additional plate.  

Next, on top of your plate, roll on a thin layer of Akua Release Agent, apply your dampened paper, and run through the press. Voila!

The charcoal is sandwiched between the opaque white and the release agent, so there's no charcoal rub off. I was just experimenting here, but you can see there could be some fun reasons to use this technique. The charcoal line looks very much like a lithograph crayon. 

Incidentally....

Well, well, well. I'm back! I needed to take a break from the blog unfortunately, to help put on the most amazing print-related event in Austin's history (I'm guessing this anyway), PrintAustin. The older I get the more I try and keep my family time sacred, and even though I cut into it somewhat with PrintAustin, something had to give and it was the blog. I can only do so much.

I did get back into the studio last week and it felt great! I accidentally left the plate at home that was I planning to work on, so I made due and put something together in an impromptu sorta fashion. It felt pretty good to do that since my work is otherwise very tight and controlled.

The first thing I did was bevel my plate (I'm using Sintra), then scuff it up on the concrete floor to get incidental marks by kicking it and stomping on it.

Then I cut circles out of clear contact paper and started sticking them down on my plate

resembling another print I did on Archimedes' computer.

Inspiration

It was great not needing to worry about sealing the plate with a coat of PVA, which is what I normally need to do when using collage materials.

Next, I printed. I made several variations but this one looked the best. I think the first 4 prints were a warm-up since it's been so long since I printed.

paper size, 30 x 22"

I hope to be back printing and posting with more frequency as the weeks roll on. 

Child Labor

Hey Friends. Sorry I've been ignoring this blog for awhile. I was slammed with a miserable cold and I'm just now feeling chipper enough to perform non-essential tasks. I hope you've managed to avoid this season's crud!

I had my kid whip up some cranes for me to send as thank you gifts to our recent studio subscribers. I had to pay Wes (11) $1 per crane, but it beats giving Wes money for presents for his paltry chore list (I need to change that for 2014). Here's a step by step on how to make your own. I'm thinking they will make great ornaments with a little pin prick and a piece of string. And one thing that's cool about cranes? I've heard their good luck!

Carolyn and I slipped the cranes into these gelatin cards we made awhile ago--maybe at the top of 2013? (If you haven't played with gelatin printmaking yet, you need to try it. FUN!)

Happy New Year! I'm really looking forward to 2014. Life keeps getting better and better, and I can't wait to see what's next. Be well, be safe, and happy printing!

Dusty Little Thing

It's amazing how I can successfully dig up prints when I'm in a crunch. I'm trying to get work together for a show at TASTE Wine + Art (Kirchman Gallery) in January in conjunction with PrintAustin. The owner has gravitated to my older bird prints verses the math/science direction, so I'm pulling out all kinds of dusty things. The show goes up January 13, right in the middle of my PrintAustin freak out, so I'm getting them framed a little early. Yay me!

before--drypoint, printed with Akua silver metallic ink --love that stuff!

A little color added

The Bees are a Hit!

Received this from a happy subscriber! Carolyn and I had a good time pulling together our monthly offerings. Our first 6-month subscription has come to an end, but we're doing another for 2014! If you'd like to receive more info on our next art subscription, send an email to csavage at savageartist dot com and I'll be sure to send you our upcoming announcement. 

Yes, my Dog wears a Coat

Look! I made this! Luckily I have an impressive stash of material including fleece from a project a few years back. Doesn't Io look adorable? I tell you what, I had a ton of stuff to do and I just ignored it and grabbed my sewing machine. It felt great to turn off the monitor and take a break from my to-do list and just sew.

I think she likes it. Raleigh said I should embroider the phrase,
"Don't I look fetching?" on the back.  :)

I admit I had a dog jacket that I laid on top and used as a pattern, just adding on some seam allowance. I did find some free patterns online and this looks very much like what I ended up doing.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for so many things in my life, one of them being Cathy Savage fans. Thank you all so very, very much. Truly. I hope you have a great weekend with family and friends. I'll be back next week, but first, let me show you a pic of my latest Tesla:

The Pirate Shirt is Back!

Did you ever see that Seinfeld episode? I was thinking about it the entire time I was working on Brahe's shirt.

 © 2013 Cathy Savage, Brahe, Kepler and Planetary Motion, 20 x 20",
intaglio, monotype, trace monotype, handwork, silver leaf

As a finishing touch to this print I added trace monotype on Brahe shirt since it needed some jazzing up. Here's how:

First, I created the design. I looked at costumes from the period and found a doo-dad that looked great. After drawing it, I scanned it into the computer and copied and pasted it over and over again to get the pattern. Next came lining up the plexi to the already printed and mounted Brahe. I created a Sharpie outline on the back of the plexi so I'd know where to wipe off excess ink.

After rolling up the ink, I wiped the edges

and was ready to place my print face down on the inked area.

I was careful not to rest my hand on the back of the print, knowing just the weight of my hand would lift off ink. I placed my pattern on top of the print and began tracing using a ball point pen.

Voila! Fancy!

It would be lovely to see you...

...during E.A.S.T.*! My studio mate Carolyn Kimball and I will be opening our studio during E.A.S.T. (East Austin Studio Tour) and we would be thrilled by a visit! You can find us at Canopy, 216 Springdale Rd, Bldg. 1, Ste. 218 here in Austin. I have a feeling we'll be doing some live printing of Tesla (linocut in process below), or perhaps just noshing on treats and sipping our boxed wine, but either way we'll be ready to answer any questions about our work or on printmaking in general. Hope to see you! E.A.S.T: Nov 16-17, 23-24, from 11 am - 6 pm (I will be arriving around 3 pm on the 17th, but otherwise I'll be in my studio both weekends.) *E.A.S.T. is a super ginormous studio tour and it's advisable to take a took at the online catalog to plot your attack. There are a lot of great studios out there with impressive work. And it's fun! Tesla will be printed on the pages of an old Electrical Engineering book. I'm excited about that! I'll also have these guys--Brahe and Kepler as a nod to my father-in-law the astronomer. I had some fun playing around with silver leaf, especially on Brahe's nose (He lost the real one in a duel. I'm not kidding!). I'll have grackles of course. A year ago I started making these grackles and changed them up a bit by collaging them onto old Austin maps. The grackle part is a 2-color woodcut and all is mounted on 6 x 6" panel. Come, share some of that boxed wine and let Carolyn and I tell you what we've been up to this year.