Books, books and

some collagraph plates.

I finally got round to doing something with a little slot book I made out of paste papers. I didn’t really intend to do anything with it, but it kept telling me it wanted to be drawn in, so yesterday I sat down with some metallic pens and pencils and doodled.

Mostly I just drew the shapes I saw in the paint – which is why the book ended up being called ‘Leaf’ – but I did make some holes as well.

 

So that’s another 8 drawings, which brings the total to 91, and it’s not September yet.

 

 

 

I decided I was suffering from a lack of embroidery in my life – so I had a little play with some Colour Catchers, left over bits of soldered sheers and hand-dyed thread. [To be honest, this one has been hanging around for a while – I finally got round to finishing it.]

The Colour Catchers were Bondawebbed together in pairs, which gave a firm base, then the sheers were appliquéd down and a bit of running stitch added.

Closed book bottom left, with different page views above.  Not very much embroidery but I enjoyed doing it and I like the result. But Wensleydale says they're not drawings so I can’t count them. :>( [I’m sure he’s right!]

 

And to finish off a typical pre-Bank Holiday Sunday [i.e. wet and windy] I collected a pile of junk.  

 

 

 

I covered some of the junk with double sided sticky tape.

 

 

 

 

 

And stuck down other bits of junk to make collagraph plates.

I have no idea if these will work – some of the textured surfaces are not very textured – but I will give them all a second coat of PVA in the morning and hope they dry in time to try them out in the afternoon.

Go out on a Bank Holiday Monday? Not blooming likely! I can have much more fun at home!

We survived!

Yesterday was our first full day of Babybel-sitting [the noble Mrs. Cheddar is covering the other days] while her mum and dad were at work – and despite the day starting at a time that I had forgotten existed – we had fun. We did some dog walking and running through puddles - of which there were many – and which necessitated a complete change of clothing when we got home. [Note to self – give morning bath after dog walk if there is any likelihood of puddles on dog walking route.]

Then after lunch we did shopping in the local pet shop [very popular], followed by a bus ride to feed ducks and visit the play park. After which it was time to go back home to wait for daddy.

Just as  when I was teaching, I had massively over-prepared, so the box full of craft activities never got touched, nor did the dishwasher full of clean things and the pile of dirty dishes which her granddad [or, as she would have it, ‘Grangrad’] had saved for her – washing up and dishwashers being top favourites. [Bet that changes by the time she’s old enough to do it unsupervised …]

Then we went to bed and slept and slept and slept – although I can’t speak for Babybel.

We had a lovely time – but I think there is probably a very good reason Mother Nature prevents women of my age from having babies…

The calm before the storm …

so I’ve made another book – although I’m a bit underwhelmed by it.

The pages are sheers – one black, one off-white – glued together with painted Bondaweb and rather a lot of sprinkles – they came out in a bit of a rush. The pages, cover and holes were cut with a soldering iron.

It would probably not have appeared here except that Wensleydale likes it – he went on about galaxies and Fred Hoyle. so much so that I was tempted to call it Galaxy Quest, but in the end decided Black Hole was equally appropriate. 

I’m happier with the results of playing on the computer.

These are all GIMPed variations

 

 

of this. I turned it into a pattern and then played around with the filters. I particularly like the ‘cubist’ version, bottom right, which will become drawing number 82.

I tried printing it on black paper painted with emulsion paint – Inkaid definitely works better!

This is number 83 – done in Livebrush, which you have to try, even if you think you can’t use drawing programs. [I found this tutorial was a good introduction.]

I used two brushes – Fractal Nerves for the background and Floral Threads for the plants – and once I'd worked out how to select the colours I wanted, it was dead easy.

Then I changed it around a bit, using Irfanview and Picasa. 

And the best bit of all this is that all those programs are free, although you can spend $10 on the Pro version of Livebrush if you are feeling rich.

So, as its another ‘no telly worth watching’ night, I'll be playing again tonight.

And the storm? Babybel. Tomorrow we are going out with her and Mr and Mrs Cheddar. And on Thursday we get to look after her all day all by ourselves.

Her daddy is famous for coming into our bedroom when he was not much older than her and saying ‘Brace yourselves’.

We are braced.

Who knew?

That Louise Bourgeois had made a fabric book? - this one, which I find quite inspirational. It has a vintage feel, like fabric samples in old trade catalogues. Thanks to the Peter Blum Gallery for putting images of all the pages on line, so those of us who can only dream of owning a Bourgeois can admire. Thanks too, to Green Chair Press for posting these and other links about the books – and about this book about Bourgeois’ fabric works, which has gone on my wish list. It seems to be due to be released in the UK in October but is much cheaper from Amazon in the US, where it’s not due out till next year. Either way it will have to wait till I've saved up  - or dropped enough hints about Christmas presents …

My fabric books may not be up to Bourgeois’ standard - I’ll be able to spell her name by the time I’ve finished this post – but I’m having fun with them. I’ve been playing around with different folded books, like this one. It’s a shaped concertina with pop-ups, which reminds Wensleydale of cathedral windows. This is almost the last piece of the painted fusible interfacing fused to hand-dye [PFIFTHD] – but I like it so much I've made some more. [I should make clear it’s not the colour I like, but the feel, weight and stiffness, which work well for books. As you can see. However, there is no mark-making and its 3D, so I don’t think I can call it a drawing. :>(

However this one has marks and folds flat – so a drawing it is. It’s inspired by one in Heather Weston’s ‘Handmade Books’ [the one middle right on the cover] but made with Lutradur rather than paper, and cut with a soldering iron. I think I got the angle a bit too steep, but I like the contrast between the different sides of the Lutradur which the folding brings out.

Finally, the one I like least. This is another [and the last, thank goodness] piece of the yucky painted calico, which for some reason reminded me of a map. And as I’d reached the map-fold page in Sue Doggett’s book, I added some map-like lines of black satin stitch and a fake leather cover.  Lines – so it’s a drawing, right? Which, together with the sea book from the other day, brings the total to 81.

One thing I do like about it, is the flatness of the finished book, and the way the image gradually appears as you unfold it. It would be interesting to add holes, so that the rather nice back view was more visible – may get the scissors out tomorrow.

But tonight, as there’s nought on telly, I'm going to play with this. It looks like fun.

The goodness continues …

We had a pleasant afternoon yesterday – although I got the best of the bargain. While Wensleydale investigated the plumbing at Babybel’s new house, Babybel and I investigated the local play park, [approved of, especially the slide] the railway bridge [no trains, unfortunately] the sewing cards in Gran’s handbag [a little too challenging at the moment] and a selection of toys and books.

When we got home, I finished this – the four ‘drawings’ on Bondawebbed sheers, inserted in covers made from painted fusible interfacing, fused to some hand-dyed cotton.  The painted fusible has a slightly suedy feeling, which I like. The binding is sort-of Japanese.

However, today started badly, at 5 a.m. [Why is it that on mornings when I can lie in, I wake up stupidly early? If I had had to get up then, I'd be snoring while W. wafted coffee under my nose.] The good bit was that I did get quite a lot done. [‘Always look on the bright side of life’.]

I rejigged this by taking off the one piece cover and replacing it with separate ‘boards’ front and back, with a removable band to hold it shut – definitely an improvement, as you can now spread the pages out better.

 

 

 

To find inspiration for these books I have been consulting Sue Doggett’s ‘Handmade Books’ –and on the page following the pocketed accordion above, she mentions flutter books. I have never seen a real flutter book, or made one, but they seem to be very long accordions. So one thing led to another … 

This is made from tissue paper, which I daubed with emulsion paint a while ago, intending to paint the paper blue, and tear it up to make a collage seascape. Instead I sprayed it with dilute blue Quink, and put it into plastic pockets, sewed round and across them, cut them in half and sewed them into a long accordion.

You can see the extended accordion, top right. I think real flutter books have a one piece cover, but this has two because I wanted both sides to be visible. The ribbon slotted through the covers is to keep the slippery pages under some sort of control! I would love to say this was six – or even twelve – drawings [because they are two sided – sort of] but it was so simple to do I don’t think I can claim more than one.

I don’t have the nerve to call the last of the day’s efforts a drawing at all. For the fabric book experiments I have collected a heap of fabric which I previously dyed, painted, bleached or otherwise mistreated.  I pull out bits from the heap which I think will work for what I am trying to make. But I was so convinced this wouldn’t work that I took a yucky piece I thought was the only thing which might be stiff enough. 

It was a piece of calico which for some inexplicable reason I had painted green, yellow, orange and silver. No photos of the original to frighten you, you'll be glad to hear.

To begin with, I thought I’d see if free machining each patch of colour with another colour would improve it a bit – which it did.

So I persevered, cutting it in half, making slots in each piece and working satin stitch all round – and to my surprise it interlocked and actually stands up! Of course it’s quite small – 3” high and 10” long – and tomorrow I think I will sew down the folds to make them sharper and firm it up a bit more – but it has encouraged me to go on exploring book forms which might be made from fabric or [plastic pockets, of course] even if I think it won’t work …

It’s been a good week …

despite spending Sunday worrying that Mr & Mrs Cheese Minor's buyer from Hades would change her mind at the last minute – although, given her Scrooge-like tendencies, the prospect of losing her deposit seemed likely to encourage her to complete.

And so it proved. Babybel and her mum and dad are safely ensconced in their new home, and enjoying walking/running next to the canal, waving to train drivers, playing in their new garden, and unpacking boxes. Well, maybe not the last.

Mind you, someone was heard to complain that he couldn’t sleep because it was too quiet. No pleasing some people.

While all the moving was going on, Wensleydale and I were drawing nudes in Southampton – and, much to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. W. did as well - so much so that we’re thinking of joining another drawing class next term.

Will I include my half dozen efforts in my 100 drawings? Well – it was the same teacher – but I think she might let me get away with it.

After the class was over, we went up to admire the new house, and deliver the champagne and Thomas the Tank Engine birthday cake. The latter was appropriated by Babybel, although she did allow the rest of us to have some. [The chocolate cola birthday cake she had helped her mum make was much nicer.]

We had a pleasant time with Mr and Mrs Cheddar, Babybel and her mum and dad, and two dogs, sitting in a darkening garden [the inside seats were still under  a pile of boxes] eating chips and cake and drinking champagne, while the birthday boy opened his presents. Tomorrow we are off there again so W. can help with plumbing and I can take Babybel out while her mum sorts the house.

I know who I think is getting the best deal…

As I expected, now the long distance worrying is over, Ms. Muse is back and has hit the ground running.

I mentioned that I had got a bit bored with the 100 drawings, and wanted to go back to making books. I’ve been re-reading ‘The Penland Book of Handmade Books’, and was struck by some comments from Dolph Smith, the US book artist. He writes about capturing ‘acts of nature’ in his book making – by which I take him to mean being aware of, and taking advantage of, the natural characteristics of the medium you are working in.

This was a ‘doh’ moment for me. One of the things I have struggled with in making fabric books, is trying to make fabric act like paper, without resorting to the dreaded craft Vilene.

But why not make books which make the most of the things you can do with fabric which you can't do with paper? The books may not be the same as paper books – but why should they be? Time for some experiments.

If you use translucent fabric, you can have see-through pages – very see-through if your definition of ‘fabric’ is broadminded – and if you layer it  you can put stuff between the layers.

This is a pocketed accordion like the green one here, crossed with this and this. [Sorry about the size of the last one, it dates from before I found out how to post sensible sized images. Wish I could remember how I did it.]

Of course plastic pockets don’t fold very well, but with ‘fabric’ you can use stitch to hold in the folds.

This one actually looked better before I added the cover, but another of Dolph Smith’s principles is that books should be ‘anatomically correct’ – i.e. have a book block, a binding and a case/cover. I was observing that principle, but the way I chose to attach the cover – which is a slice of a blue plastic pocket – restricted the opening of the book. I’m sure there’s a way to get round that - time for more experiments.

Another difference between fabric and paper is that fabric is stronger, so you can cut holes in it with less chance of tearing.  And if you remember to use your soldering iron [thanks A.] you can use it to attach your holes to other parts of the page.

I must confess that I made these earlier -they are waiting to become a Japanese bound book. They are two layers of sheers, glued together with painted Bondaweb sprinkled with glitter and stars. The stitch is double running, so it’s reversible.

Here’s another one I started earlier, before my ‘doh’ moment, so the pages are stiffened with Sizoflor. The pages are polyester, scrumpled and soaked in the last of the Setacolour from my sun printing experiments. It was free machined to the Sizoflor, following the tree-like marks in the paint, and then folded into a double sided accordion. There are more soldering iron holes, both in the pages and the cover, which is painted Lutradur from a Kim Thittichai workshop.

Quite arbitrarily, I’m counting this lot as 6 drawings – so the running total is 78, not including the nudes.

No muse is good muse?

Er- I think not.

Perhaps after tomorrow – when we are going on a life drawing class – and the Cheese Minors’ move should, finally, take place – my muse will return. [By the way, thanks for all the kind comments about their move – much appreciated.]

Not that I haven’t been busy. We have had a visit from Babybel and her dog, so her mum and dad could have time to sort stuff – and then took her up to Mr & Mrs Cheddar, our co-grandparents, for their turn.

So art did take place – it just wasn’t mine. 

 

I did manage to finish my version of this - which is not nearly as small as it appears in the photo. It stretches.

A nice, straightforward pattern if you have a few balls of mohair looking for  a home – mine took exactly 3 50gm balls.

And I have spent a happy afternoon weeding clothes which no longer fit out of the wardrobe. Happy because although I’ve had to junk quite a lot [or send them to the charity shop, if they are still wearable] it’s because they are too big, not too small. And that is a very nice feeling.

Mind you, it is Babybel’s daddy’s birthday on Monday so by the time we’ve been to the house warming/birthday bash - [fish and chips, champagne  and birthday cake are not the most slimming choices] I may need to dig those bigger jeans out of the charity shop bags…

I haven’t died

or gone on holiday – just been worrying about my children. Babybel’s mum and dad have been involved in the house removal from hell – we’ve had some rocky moves but theirs has been far far far worse than anything we have ever experienced. I know moving house seems to bring out the worst in otherwise quite pleasant people, but they have been mucked about by everyone else in the chain, and their buyer makes Scrooge look like a spendthrift.

It all seems to be resolved now [fingers crossed] – apart from the move on Monday…

It’s a great move from our point of view because Babybel [and her mum and dad of course] will only be 30 minutes drive away, instead of 3 times as long, and a much nicer drive too. And we get to look after her one day a week, although I suspect that is going to take a bit of getting used to…

But all of this long distance worrying has got in the way of my creativity, so very little has been achieved, since it all began to look as if it was going pear-shaped. Of course, there was nothing we could do while their buyer shilly shallied, and it is so hard to deal with your children’s problems if you can’t kiss them better!

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Ophidiophobics, look away now.

although slow-worms aren't actually snakes, as I’m sure you know, but  lizards.

It passed by while we were sitting outside this afternoon, slowly enough for me to get my camera and chase off Quality Control, who was very interested.

It has been such a nice day that I wore my sun hat, so I apologise in advance for any change in the weather. Somehow when the sun shines, and I have a clear afternoon, I feel the urge to sit outside and draw. This is a concertina book – 7 simple drawings and a title [to be added] – perhaps ‘leaves from my overgrown and snake infested garden’?

I also made this, inspired by this. I have spurts of collecting security envelopes, as there is a wide variety of patterns and you can use them for book pages, but at the moment I don’t have many, so the choice was a bit boring. In fact I find the whole thing a bit boring.

 

 

So I decided to try different found paper [sorry about the reflected flash – no idea why I got it in one but not the other]. These bits came from a Saga holiday brochure  -so there is a ‘summer’ connection! The result is more to my taste – I like those jazzy hands and arrows, punched from headings.

 

 

And finally – I ripped up some of the less successful collagraphs and monoprints and made a landscape. 

So I think I’ve reached 72 ‘drawings’ – must count them some time to check! What will I do when I reach 100? Keep going? Or collapse in a relieved heap? Only time will tell…

On a non-drawing related topic - I fished the hot water bottle books out from under my old Singer – but although their tendency to flip open has been curbed a bit, they are still a bit unruly – but fun.

I’m in love …

with Wensleydale, of course – but also with collagraphs. [Or possibly collographs, there seems to be some disagreement.] Whichever it is, there is more information and some good examples here. I’ve wanted to try collagraphs for years, so the 100 drawings was an opportunity to get off my back side and actually make some.

So here are mine. Look, I’m just beginning, right? None are good enough to be one in a hundred - although I might cut up some of those leaves and make a collage. But I am really excited by the process.

Being me, I worked from two sets of instructions – one set by Jane Wild from the last WOW, and one set by Heidi Miracle-McMahill from an old edition of Quilting Arts. I used paper for these try-outs, but I’ll move on to fabric when I've got some more carpet tape.

Miracle-McMahill suggests using fun foam to make the print plates – the ordinary type for the base, and the self adhesive type for the collage.  The two plates on the left were made like this. I wondered if they would stay stuck together in use, but they did – even those small dots on the plate in the centre [well, all but one]. The disadvantage of this method is that you have a limited range of textures available – although I happened to have some fun foam which is sort of sandy textured, which I used for the leaves on the centre plate. For the other plates [only 1 shown here] I used a variety of textured papers and fabrics, stuck on to card with carpet tape and sealed with diluted PVA.

Wild suggests using a pasta machine as a press – you make a sandwich of the inked plate, some damp paper, and a piece of felt and roll it through the pasta machine. This of course limits the size you can work with – which is why the plates are long and narrow. I found the size quite restrictive and by the end was printing by hand twice on one sheet of paper. I also found that you needed good paper with the pasta-press – thinner papers crumpled or stuck to the plate – or both. I wanted to experiment with papers – emulsion painted paper of different types, backs of envelops, failed monoprints, etc. Didn’t tell you about the failed monoprints did I? – that's how failed they were - but much improved by being cut up and collagraphed on.

If you Google collagraphs you’ll find that some people say you must use a press, others say you can do it by hand. I felt I got just as good results [sometimes better] with hand pressure – but a bit of further research suggests it depends what you want to print. If you want to print the surface of the collage, hand pressure, or rubbing with a spoon or a baren, may be enough. If, on the other hand, you want to print the edges and gaps between the raised areas, you will need a lot more pressure [and a wiped plate]. Some sources suggest putting the sandwich between two pieces of board and standing on it – or omitting the boards and driving over it …

That’s probably more than you want to know about collagraphs – but if, like me, you like a touch of the unexpected in your work and have lots of textured bits and bobs lying around, they are fun to try.

Just don’t put the print sandwich though any roller of the pasta machine except the one for making lasagne. Ask me how I know.

In my defence, I've never actually used a pasta machine to make pasta – I got mine on freecycle to use with Fimo and I’ve never used it for that either. But yes, it was stupid!

I also made some books. The green  one is a little accordion with pockets, made out of one of those failed monoprints.

The other two are based on a book in Re-bound I said I’d never make. But I was fossicking around in the airing cupboard for something else -and found a redundant hot water bottle…

I changed the fastening because I couldn't get rivets through the thickness of the rubber – but that means that everything but the thread is recycled – old hot water bottle for the cover, recycled packaging for the pages and the ties.

Yes, they're odd – but fun odd! They don’t close easily, but I’ve put them under a lot of weight overnight to see is that helps.

Our current hot water bottles are a much nicer colour and much more interesting patterns. Wensleydale got quite worried when I started inspecting them …

And finally – I haven’t completely neglected the 100 drawings. I’ve been GIMPing and turned this failed bit of land art -

 

 

 

into this – definite improvement. 

55 to 61 in about 11 months.

Or how to cheat on your 100 drawings. [You can achieve quite a lot when your husband is [relatively] immobile and not up to going out.]

When I was tidying up yesterday, I came across this, which resulted from a Contemporary Textiles workshop last September – it’s a scratched black and white photo of a bit of an ‘installation’ which looked  like a flower, with added Inktense pencil.

I’m not beyond a bit of creative recycling, so I decided  to include it in my 100 drawings. But as I had some cartridge paper with scraps of emulsion painted newspaper stuck to it to hand [as you do], I decided to try printing the flower on it.

Which led to this. I like the way the scraps of newspaper add to the shadowy background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, you will not be surprised to learn, I introduced the printout to the scanner. And printed one of the results on another bit of cartridge + newspaper I had.

Why do my inverted colour scans always come out blue and purple? Not that I’m complaining – I like blue and purple.

 

 

I scanned that version- and printed a grayscale version on – well, fill that bit in for yourselves…

I stopped there, you may be glad to hear – but that brought the tally to 59.

 

 

 

 

No. 60 is a very different flower piece.

I’ve been taking Sharon Boggon’s on-line GIMP class at Joggles, although I'm a bit behind. This is the result of an early class – a photo of cone flowers, posterized, bits selected by colour, and the result printed on black paper painted with Inkaid. I’m very pleased with this, and I think it is very embroiderable.

And no. 61 – a piece which is not of flowers, doesn't have much to do with summer, and is very heavily influenced by the work of Chris Kenny and an anonymous contributor to the somethink collective blog. This is a page from an old road atlas, folded into a book, with sections cut out. Anticlockwise from top left, from fully folded to fully opened. Yes, it does end up upside down!

I can see a lot of possibilities here, for stencils, for example, and abstract pieces. And cutting out the sections was quite a contemplative activity – until the craft knife became uncomfortable to hold.

Yesterday’s post caused a flurry amongst the Chinese porn spam comment merchants – maybe I shouldn’t have used the heading ‘Naughty Granny’?

Naughty granny keeps her promise …

at last.

Several weeks ago, I offered to make one of these for Babybel, who is into dollies – or was then.

And the weeks passed, and I lost the instructions, and I forgot about it – but when I was having a tidy up earlier in the week, I found the print-out – and then I found some fabric – and I felt like doing a bit of straightforward sewing – so here’s my version.

Slightly modified as I had to cut my doll sling according to my cloth, but the instructions were clear and it went together quickly.

So, flushed with success, I decided to make a bag as well, using some similar fabric from the stash and a magazine pattern.

I have ranted written before about my difficulties with a magazine pattern. This one was no better. From the mysterious metre of bondaweb mentioned in the list of materials, which never appeared again, to the ‘you what?’ instructions for the straps, to the downright wrong instructions for sewing up the main bag piece. Not sure if it was badly written in the first place or badly subedited [do sub-editors still exist?] – but if you didn’t have  any experience of making bags you would have ended up very frustrated, and with a back pack with it’s straps on the side rather than the back of the bag.

It is finished, but as with the last one it is an odd size – a backpack which looks as if it is meant for an adult but with straps only long enough for a child. I think it will probably become a toy bag!

Next time you see me tempted by a magazine pattern, warn me off!

Any problems with this are entirely my own fault. It is, as I’m sure you recognise, a knitted book.

I was not so foolish  to think that I was the first person to think of knitting books, but Google only came up with knitted book covers. But then, when I fossicked around Aimee Lee’s website, where I'd gone to drool over her sari book, I found this and this and this - and a lot of other wonderful stuff.

I love the materials Lee uses – not that I want to copy her, but I do think I need to explore other colours and textures. Having said that, mine feels lovely – soft and squishy. More experimentation needed.

It’s definitely not a drawing though.

Going round in circles.

 

I realised after my last post that I hadn’t mentioned our trip out on Friday – so the first circle is posting about Saturday and then going back to Friday …

Our trip was very enjoyable, although it might not have been. We set out to visit this, armed with a grid reference and a printout, dated June, that said it would be in place for about two months. We had an enjoyable drive down to that bit of Wiltshire and drove round in circles trying to find it – without success. [A further Google – which I should have done before we set out, revealed that it has been dismantled :(]

However, in our unsuccessful attempts to find something which no longer exists, we noticed signposts to somewhere which I have been saying we ought to visit for years – ever since I first realised it wasn’t that far away.

 

This is Stourhead, which is every bit as magical as I thought it would be. We managed a circular tour of the lake, but missed out the house, as as we didn’t have the legs for that as well, I took a few photographs of views, trees, flowers, stones and shadows.                

And us. My hips aren’t really that big, I like to believe.

 

So disaster was turned into triumph and we had a great day out, topped off by NT tea and cake, and a visit to the Stourhead Farm Shop – well, we couldn’t resist a sign which promised 31 varieties of cheese. [We only bought 3 – the Partridge Blue is great but we haven’t tried the other two – Smoke Acre and Wyfe of Bath - yet.]

And when I got home I had enough energy left to play around with a few images. The top one is a photo I took at Highcliffe last month. I printed it on newspaper painted with Inkaid [middle image], then scanned it as a black and white image and printed it again on black paper painted with Inkaid. The bottom two will be added to the tally.

I suppose that’s more of a progression than a circle – but the next one I worked with is definitely circular.

 

I don’t think I showed you the top image – an almost proper drawing, starting from a magazine photo, which I made  a few days ago. As usual I scanned it as a negative [second image], and then, as I was in the mood, printed it on black paper and Inkaid [third image]. That one is going into the homework book too – but just to see what happened, I scanned it as a negative again – and it’s almost back to the beginning.

I really like printing on the Inkaid – on the newspaper it makes it stiff enough to go through the printer and partly obliterates what’s underneath, which is good, and on any paper it adds texture to the print. Ever the cheapskate, I’m thinking of trying paper painted or sponged with emulsion paint, to see how that works.

I think that brings the total number of ‘drawings’ up to 55 …