Printing 101

I have been taking part in the Printing online workshop with Traci Bautista at Strathmore Online Workshops.    Traci has a very loose, modern, colorful style, but her methods could be applied to many types of mark-making and printing on paper or fabric.  Most of my prints have been on Strathmore Printmaking Paper, 300 Series.

Traci takes us through the process of making masks, stencils, and using both positive and negative images.

The first one shows a background printed with needlepoint grid, a mask and stencil I cut and used to print.  The dark blue is a watercolor paint diluted with water and sprayed through the stencil.

You can see the same leafy stencils used in a different color palette.  The square shapes are from my 6" x 6" Gelli Plate.  The black flowers are from a hot glue flower that I made and used as both a stencil and a stamp.

Traci is all about not wasting the paint left on the printing plates, stamps, or brushes, so you need to have journals and lots of papers ready to print the extra paint.  Here are pages in my Mixed Media journal absorbing some of the extra paint.  I used white ink around the darkest leafy shapes.

Here are two shapes I cut to use as stencils/stamps.

And here are some of the prints made from them.

The first one has a background with lots of marks, stamps, and doodles in oil pastel and acrylic paint. Then I printed the dark flowers with the Gelli Plate.  Looks a little like Matisse to me!

This one is mostly "ghost prints" from using the extra paint on the gelli plate and hot glue stamp.

Here is another with the background from Week 1, added doodle, and the black gelli plate print of the fern.

 The next two are just on computer printing paper, again extra paint absorbers.

 Here is one that is sort of a hot mess of doodles, paint, and prints.  Might make a good background!

For a very different look, I changed to a warmer palette and made some interesting bright prints.  The plaids are from notching the edge of a credit card and scraping it through the paint on the Gelli plate. The big black areas did not work out, so will be covered with something else.

 It is very messy and time-consuming to go through this layering process, but you can produce some very unique papers.  Of course, you can print fabric the same way.  I would probably use fabric paint and/or mix a textile medium into the acrylic paint if I wanted to sew through it.

Have fun!

Art and Quilts

After our very long weekend in the mountains for Merlefest last weekend, we decided to stay in Raleigh this weekend.  I took advantage of a chance to attend my old quilt bee in Wake Forest, which meets on the first Thursday of the month.  They have gotten three or four new members since I became relatively inactive in the group.  It was nice to meet the new ladies, and visit again with my old friends.

There was lots of good show and tell.  One of the most remarkable was this cross-stitch embroidery quilt by Mary Nennstiel.  She found the blocks at a yard sale, washed them, and set them with this lovely sashing that really makes the blocks glow.  She machine-quilted and was sewing on the binding at the meeting last night.

And the award for perseverance goes to Kathy, who created this postage stamp quilt with one-inch squares.  She constructed it by making nine-patch blocks, then making a block five by five with the nine-patches.  Truly amazing!

Kathy also made this modern baby quilt that has Minkee on the back.  I found it interesting that her husband did the long arm quilting using a teddy bear panto!

Carolyn also made a modern quilt top using Oriental fabrics and a white sashing.  

Lori Mann was still working on her Halloween-themed Baltimore Album quilt.  She is adding beading to every block.  These are truly works of art.

Speaking of art, since I had a rare day in Raleigh to myself, I decided to see a special Exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art, which is only about three miles from our home.  

Estampas de la raza/Prints for the People: The Romo Collection will be there from April 13–July 27, 2014.  There is a special fee to view this exhibit, which is waived for members of the museum on their first visit.  It is well worth the price of admission to see the collection.  Here is a description from the NCMA website:


Ranging in date from 1984 to 2011, the works in the exhibition embody social, political, and economic issues, as well as explorations of identity and race, faced by Mexican American and Chicano/a artists. The exhibition is organized thematically in the following sections: the melding of Mexican and American cultures; Hispanic icons Frida Kahlo, Che Guevara, and César Chávez; the struggle for equality and labor rights; the search for Mexican American identity; and the influence of Latino culture on contemporary American life and art. 


You can expect to see many bright primary colors as well as some more muted colors in these prints, most of which are silkscreens. I was unfamiliar with all of the artists whose work was included, but I admire the work tremendously.

Raul Caracoza, Young Frida (Pink), 2006, screen print, image: 36 1/8 x 26 1/8 in., Collection of the McNay Art Museum, Gift of Harriett and Ricardo Romo, 2009.42, © 2013 Raul Caracoza

The museum grounds are also an art park and greenway.  Just the short walk from the parking lot to the exhibit pleased the senses with a large garden of yellow roses.

And there is a long garden bed of Russian sage that was catching the late afternoon sun.