Jacqueline Ford Fine Art (Look What Jacq Made)
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'Show and Tell' in Jules' Print Shed

26/7/2012

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Picture of Jules' Print Shed in her garden
Some people have fairies at the bottom of their gardens - Jules has a glorious 'Print Shed' at the end of hers!
 Last Thursday night (19 July) I had the most fantastic evening and met some more lovely artist makers care of an invite to visit Jules’ Print Shed. I first met Jules Rumsey at the end of June when she kindly chauffeured and gang of us up to the Oxford Print Makers Cooperative.  At the end of that evening she extended an invite to Cath (Emerald Frames and Gallery) and Ann (Picture this Art and Framing) to come and visit her ‘Print Shed’ where she produces her collographs.

Well, this invite soon extended to a couple of Jules’ arty chums from the village, Eliza (who I found I had met before at Emerald on my open studio day) and Lis. The remit for the evening also transformed into a wider ‘show and tell’ event.  After a couple of glasses of Prosecco in the kitchen (what a treat on a school night!) we marched out down the garden followed by Dylan the Tibetan terrier and passed by two normal sheds before reaching THE Print Shed.

Jules has transformed her shed (more of a cabin I’m sure you will agree) in to a glorious light an airy working space and although she joked that it didn’t always look this tidy, (and whose work space ever does all of the time?) she had all of her materials stored and labelled in what looked to me a very organised manner – she had lots of lovely scrap papers too that I would love to repurpose in my work. . .

We indulged in some delicious canapés and then our host talked us through how she makes her collograph print plates which was fascinating. Jules’ skill with a scalpel is second to none and the details and textures that can be created through cutting down into mount board and layering papers was amazing. Jules also places PVA wood glue in dots, lines and patterns to add a resist over the paper which helps creates highlights and myriad of textures. Jules also uses textured papers, fabric and even dried plants to add layers to print from.

Another technique using a firmer board/wood base is to use grout and carborundum powder mixes to create layers that can be drawn into while wet and further distressed with a blow touch to create a super bubbly texture – Jules showed us a particularly fine looking crab that had been created in this way!

I have not seen collograph plates before and they truly were works of art in their own right and I would happily of had any number of them framed ‘as is’ on my wall.  Because of the impermanency of the materials used, each print plate only has a life span of 15 to 20 prints at most, making them precious commodities.

In the slide show that follows I’ve tried to capture the stages of inking up, printing and the final reveal!  I didn’t use a flash and so some of the ‘action’ shots have a natural softness of focus about them – rather than indicating the Jules’ works in a blur (or my intake of Prosecco!)
Next up on ‘show and tell was Lis England (a new Emerald Girl too!) who shared with us some exquisitely detailed gouache paintings that she produces on book covers. Again, I have never seen anything quite like these before and what a great idea to ‘up-cycle’ old unloved books and transform them into works of art.

Lis showed us how she sews the pages together after splitting the book in half (that way she can get two paintings out of one book) to enable them to be cleanly mounted and framed. Lis shared a picture of a robin, some dapper gents in bowler hats and a lighthouse which was stunning. She also bought along some greetings cards that she produces that had an image of her cute dog and another of Windsor Castle.

Lis also told us about the Windsor Emporium that she and Jules take part in on the first Sunday in the month. In short you can book a table upstairs in the Guildhall and there are a variety of artist makers along with antique stalls. I’m putting the first Sunday in August in my diary now to go and see and find out more!
Picture of Ann, Lis and Eliza sitting in Jules' Print Shed
L to R: Ann, Lis and Eliza with a small selection of Lis' illustrations on old book covers - a clever and effective technique.
Eliza Leftwich (a soon to be Emerald Girl we hope?) didn’t bring any work with her this time, but does pen and ink drawing and is currently working on a series of work based on British wildlife – the hedgehog is next!

Eliza bought one of my Prom cat cards from Emerald and said that it inspired her to have a go at scanning and manipulating her detailed drawings in new ways – how fantastic to have sparked some new creativity! Eliza popped into Emerald when I was doing my Open Studio day as she was keen to learn what type of paper and ink I used to reproduce my cards as she wanted to try and get the same ‘chalky’ effect on hers. We had a great chat and I sent her off with a long list of things to look for. It was lovely to meet her again and find that she is getting on well with the Jessop’s papers too.

Jules had an example of an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ inspired card that Eliza had made featuring a beautifully drawn and hand embellished hare. The hare was layered in front of an ornately drawn frame and there was poetry/text behind the frame to highlight the hare – I really should have taken a picture as my explanation doesn’t do justice to the lovely imagery.

Last on the bill was me. I took along my ‘suitcase full of gorgeousness’ – a small old fashioned leather case that I paid £1.99 for in Oxfam, filled up with a very small (tip of the iceberg) selection of the kind of materials that I like to use to construct my work from. I had produced some step-by-step photo boards for the Open Studios day and so talked the girls through these – although Jules was ahead of herself and kept asking questions that would be answered later!

I didn’t take any photos of all my stuff in the Print Shed which was a shame and maybe I will take some soon and showcase my suitcase in a future blog entry? The girls were certainly intrigued as to where I got a lot of my stash from. I did offer to take them shopping some time – but entering the world of craft products is a dangerous path to take and not for the feint hearted.

The thing that made the evening so special for me was being able to talk, laugh, share and learn from other artist makers who are producing new and exciting contemporary work. We were all on the same page with our passion to create things and are all keen to explore new opportunities to share our work - and that brought an exciting energy to The Shed. I know I’ve said this before, but since meeting Ann and Cath my arty horizons have been widened so much and I continue to meet such fantastic people. I am so grateful that Cath acts as a catalyst to make introductions that lead to new friendships.

The ‘art of the possible’ is easier to achieve with arty chums than on your own – so fingers crossed that this was maybe the inaugural meeting of the Emerald 'Art Shed' Collective?
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Oxford Printmakers Cooperative

2/7/2012

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Picture of a print press dating back to the 1800s
One of the print presses at the Oxford Printmakers Cooperative that dates back to the 1800s
On Thursday evening (28 June) I was privileged to be able to accompany the Cotswold Branch of the Fine Art Trade Guild on a visit to the Oxford Printmakers Cooperative in Tyndale Road, Oxford.  The OPC is an open access Fine Print workshop that offers fantastic printmaking facilities:

http://www.oxfordprintmakers.co.uk/frameset.html

The lovely Cath at Emerald is the Chairman of the Cotswold Branch and had told me about the trip when we were setting up Bucks Open Studios. When she said that our chum Ann (Picture This Art and Framing) was going too, I jumped at the chance to book a 'guest' place.  One of my colleagues at work, Warren Ralls, is a master print maker and so it was only right that I invited him as well as it sounded right up his street.

Cath met another Chalfont based print maker through Bucks Open Studios, Jules Rumsey, who specialises in collographs and invited her to join our merry band. Jules very kindly offered to chauffeur us all on what had to have been one of the warmest days of this year so far!

In all there were seventeen of us, a mix of artists and framers (including Stuart Hibberdine who won the 'Best Mount Design' in the recent Guild competition), plus Louise Hay who is the CEO of the Fine Art and Trade Guild. We knew it was going to be special - but none of us realised just what a treat we were in for.

Six artists kindly gave their time to demonstrate a range of printing techniques to us:

Betty Ebanja (relief printing)
Patricia Drew (mono printing)
Jenny Lines (colour etching)
[Tea break!]
Keith Isaacson (preparing and printing stone lithographs)
Heather Power (screen printing on glass and paper and etching)
Morna Rhys (three plate colour etchings)

With the kind permission of the Oxford Printmakers Cooperative I was allowed to take lots of photos of the artists at work and will be popping a disc of these in the post to them as a 'Thank You'.

The rest of this post is split up into a series of slideshows, by artist, that demonstrate some of the stages of their chosen print 'technique' for that evening. The slideshow can be paused, if needed, as some of the commentary is quite long!

Unfortunately (unlike my boss), my brain is not the size of a planet and I apologise if I have got terms wrong or misunderstood what I have been told or heard - if I have made a mistake please do let me know and I will happily update this post. 

The evening, as you will see, was fascinating and I learnt a great deal. I have had a go and doing (very) simple mono prints in the past, and may have done (very) simple lino cutting and printing at school, but had no experience of the other techniques being shown.

I learnt that I while I may not have the patience for producing a lithograph at this point in my life; I loved the immediacy of the screen printing. I also loved the 'physicality' of the machinery and the efforts that went onto turning the wheels or levering the presses to produce such amazing results. One thing that will stay with me forever is a new appreciation of print making which will help me, the next time I look at an etching or the like, to truely understand how it was made - and for that knowledge I am truly grateful.

As an endnote, it should be made known that I found it really hard to motivate myself to go to work the next day as all I really wanted to do was get in the car and drive to Oxford to learn more and have a play!

Note: In some cases I have taken photographs of finished works produced through the demonstration process. Images of the finished articles are of course, copyright of their respective creators.

General pictures
Betty Ebanja (relief printing)
Patricia Drew (mono printing)
Jenny Lines (colour etching)
Keith Isaacson (lithographs)
Heather Power (etching and screen printing on glass and paper)
Morna Rhys (two and three plate colour etching)
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    My name's Jacqueline and I invite you to join me on my adventure in mixed media 'arting and crafting'.

    I craft from my kitchen table at my home in Marlow-on-Thames in Buckinghamshire in England and want to use this blog to share my latest ideas and work.

    If something you have seen inspires you to have a go please do share the result with me.

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