Mordant printing frenzy!

I really enjoy teaching workshops on natural dyeing because I get such a buzz from inspiring people to look at nature in a different way, to learn more about the plants they use and exploring the many and varied ways to utilise natural colour for our enjoyment. However, when I am teaching I rarely get time to explore new techniques myself.  So it was with great anticipation that my good friend, Sylvia Riley from Sydney, came up to Canberra for a long weekend so that we could have a print-fest at Megalo! Having her there enabled me to print the full width of fabrics on my textile screens - around 140cm wide.

Squeegee passing with my print-pal, Sylvia, at Megalo

Megalo is such a great place to print because it has a full-width 8m table 👏 We both managed to get metres of fabric printed, although we were exhausted at the end of it.  My meterage is to be used for one-off naturally dyed and stitched scarves for the upcoming Open Studio Day.

Different mordants printed onto cotton

The only trouble with mordant printing is that when they dry, they are almost invisible, such as the alum above.  The slightly stained part of the design is a very weak iron and alum mix. All the mordants are printed and aged before dyeing.

Process from print to dyed fabric using a range of mordants.

The first dyebath I put this mordant-printed scarf length into was Acacia catechu, or Cutch. This gave me a lovely range of browns and tans, however I felt the scarf was a little 'dull' so once I washed and ironed it, I over-printed with some alum and another iron mix.

Adding more detail to the scarf with new mordants

Barely visible now but will show up in the next dyeing.

These small prints will add further highlights once I dye in my second dyebath, Rajentot.  I am waiting for this mordant to dry as we speak and will show the finished cloth in a few days time.
By the way, I am teaching an intermediate class on repeat printing at Megalo for the next two Saturdays, more details click here.

A VERY BIG END TO THE YEAR!

I am always surprised at how quickly the end of the year arrives with the momentum akin to a steam train at full throttle! At the start of every year I feel that it's going to be a slow and cruisey ride, but somehow opportunities and deadlines manifest from nowhere and before you know it you are on the downhill slide to Christmas.  This is a perfect time to say thank you to all my loyal customers and friends who have supported me throughout the year at my market stalls, studio sales, exhibition openings and faithfully opened and read my Mailchimp newsletters and, of course, this blog. I hope you continue to enjoy the work I make for sales and exhibitions, because it is all made by my hands with love and passion.

What better way to have ended this year than with the World's Longest Screenprint!!! This was a world record attempt by Megalo for their 35th Birthday Celebration. It took place at 11.15am on Saturday 12th December in the Fitters Workshop at Kingston, but staff have been planning the event for months. In order to produce the world's longest screen print, a silkscreen frame and stencil had to be made the entire length of the Fitter's Workshop - yes! that's 35 metres!!! Teams of volunteers started at 7am in the morning to help move everything from Megalo into the Fitter's Workshop for the day.

Here you can see the sides of the frame on the floor with the hand-cut stencil lying
on top of the fabric beneath it. The stencil took the staff weeks of bonding over
sharp scalpels and craft knives.

A 35-metre paper stencil was designed to showcase the history of Megalo over the last 35 years - incorporating each different location and the services provided as well as other interesting facts. The paper was then cut by hand and joined to form the 35m stencil. A wooden frame was then erected over the top of the stencil and fabric underneath it.  Once in place, Megan and Jemima rolled out the 43T mesh over the top of the stencil, then teams of volunteers lined the sides to help lift the frame and staple the mesh to the screen as taut as possible.

Jemima and Megan roll out the mesh in preparation for attaching it to the screen frame.

This was a tricky procedure and it all fell into place beautifully because of the attention to detail in the construction and how to organise the many volunteers in a safe and supportive environment.  A lot of this work was done by the partners of Megan, Ingeborg and Jemima, who had us all working like clockwork to fulfil our tasks.

The mesh is stapled to the sides of the frame and temporary supports locked in place.

An ingenious system of supports were drilled into the screen sides every two metres so that the screen remained straight and true.  As the ink was squeegeed down the length of the frame by the rotating teams of printers, these were taken out and then replaced again to ensure the frame did not collapse. Myself and Yasmin Masri were support printers, just checking the print as it was printed and cleaning up any sloppy bits.  As you can imagine, to man a squeegee that is about a metre wide and print 35 metres of ink is an heroic task.I  don't have photos of the print process to hand - because I was too busy helping to use my camera! But several people did take videos of the whole procedure (can you believe it took less than 5 minutes??) so I may pop one up on the blog in the next post.

Here is the finished print - all 35 metres of it!

Once the whole screen had been printed, teams of volunteers and the general public descended on the frame and lifted it up to rest it against the workshop wall.  You can see in the photo above that the paper stencil has attached to the back of the screen by the viscosity of the ink.  The coloured design at the start of the print was done on the fabric beforehand. 

And here you have it !

Congratulations to all the staff at Megalo for including the print community and the general public in this momentous (and hopefully world-record) performance. We  LOVE MEGALO!!

HAPPY A VERY HAPPY, SAFE AND CREATIVE FESTIVE SEASON 

SEE YOU IN 2016!!

GLINT open studio talks

A few photos of the open studios at the Glassworks last Saturday. Here is Spike giving a talk about her work in GLINT. Unfortunately Deb and Nicci were overseas, George was in Adelaide and Luke was MIA, so there were just two of us to give a few insights into the residency as a whole. In the foreground is my work, showing my 'mega-slides' which captured everyone's attention.

GLINT Open Studio

Finally found time to sit down and post some photos of the last of our GLINT residency at the Canberra Glassworks and Megalo Print Studios.  Also to invite you to the Open Studios tomorrow, Saturday 26th, 2pm in the Engine Room at the Glassworks.  A few of us will be talking about the residency and the works produced - Deb and Nicci are overseas and George is in Adelaide but their works and display and we will speak on their behalf.

So, as you can see, it has been quite a while between posts, which can only mean one thing in my experience....complete overload of making work and no time or energy left to sit on the computer. My apologies, but hopefully you will understand when you see how much work has been accomplished.

In my last post I left you with some tantalising images of work not yet sandblasted, a ready-made carafe and a small glass disc.  I exposed some images onto a photographic film and adhered them to the objects ready to take down to the sandblaster.  I was doubtful that the intricacy of the design would work but you can see here for yourself. The frosted parts are the sandblasted design on clear glass.

Sandblasted carafe with more icebergs in the distance

This very intricate design sandblasted well to my surprise

While we are on the subject of sandblasting, my digitally printed 'mega-slides' FINALLY arrived from the printers.  My project was to make some very large microscope slides as prototypes for new work.  This would give me an idea of how successful the digital printing looks onto a fully transparent medium, how my designs translate onto it and finally, what sandblasting would look like incorporated into the design.  So, here are a couple of 'slides' I had printed.  The plain background on the slide on the right is the one I aim to sandblast post-printing.

2 of the 6 slides I had digitally printed (75 x 25cm)

As a starting point for the design I used Dr Christine Cargill's SEM images of Phaeoceros spores, together with some artwork I made for textiles from the Generate exhibition about Charles Darwin. I chose these images to see how well the details reproduced and to get something very quickly to the printers....luckily, because they took 4 weeks to arrive back...not speedy enough when you've only got a 6 week residency, but at least now I know the timeline for getting glass printed. And below is the image that I have sandblasted carefully after the printing.  I think it looks fantastic and is definitely the way I will be pursuing the new work in the future.  

Mega-slide with sandblasted top and front

The concept was inspired by antique Victorian glass microscope slides, which were beautifully decorated with intricately designed papers. If you are in Canberra tomorrow, do come to see the slides in person, they are great (and I am not biased...haha!)

Apart from the digital printing and sandblasting, I was also inducted into the Cold-working area to enable me to finish off my pieces once they had been cast, blown or fused.  I had a mentor, Peter Nilsson, who is a terrific teacher and has a keen eye for scratches, irregularities and symmetry.  His work is also fantastic, so intricate and imaginative with enormous attention to detail.  You can see his work here - he is a specialist in engraving and coldworking.

Grinding the edges of one of my icebergs under Peter's watchful eye!

You must develop strong thighs from all the squatting...

I was also industrious in the mould room with Spike in the last week of GLINT, frantically trying to get as many of my projects realised as possible...just another case of too many ideas paired with the excitement of working in a new medium.  So once I had a full fleet of icebergs ... actually I am not sure what the collective of icebergs is...and quickly looking on Wikipedia it is either a crush or a drift.....neither of which aptly describe my majestic crystal blobs. As I was saying, I started the other casting project I was looking forward to and that was lost wax casting some seed pods I had made years ago with Geoff Farquhar in a silicon mould-making course.

The wax seed pods are prepared for casting.

They are covered in about 4 layers of plaster silica and a final layer of PSG

Once the mould is made around the wax forms, the moulds are taken to the kiln and placed upright so that the wax melts out of the cavity overnight and you are just left with the plaster mould. The mould is now ready to go into the casting kiln.  Crystal is weighed out for the total volume needed for all four seeds, but because each opening is small, and the crystal pieces are large, we put all the glass into a terracotta flowerpot so that the glass melts and runs down the hole and into each of the 4 openings for the seeds.

Two moulds of 4 seeds each, one with aqua crystal, the other clear.

So on the final day of GLINT I picked up my cast seeds ( it took 5 days in the kiln.....) and I have been so busy I have not even had time to divest them yet!! so if you are coming to the opening tomorrow I may just have done them....

OK this is a long post, but bear with me because it is about 4 weeks worth! The final images I want to share with you are some finished pieces that involve the glass printing, fusing and slumping to make some cute plates bowls and maybe even wall plaques.

Eucalyptus buds design printed in two colours on 2 glass sheets then fused together and slumped

Very fine 2mm glass printed and later slumped into a cute bowl

Two 2mm discs printed with "woodgrain" design 

So, that wraps it up for the GLINT residency, but I haven't finished my work at the CGW just yet!! Lots of cold-working and sandblasting to do, and lots more ideas to work through.  A few of us are keen to get our steps to induction in a few other areas, so we will be in and out of the Glassworks for some time to come. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the CICF for enabling me to fully enjoy the GLINT residency and to try out new materials and techniques - and thanks also to the Canberra Glassworks and Megalo Print Studios for organising such a wonderful project.

Last of all, but not least....to all my fellow GLINTies....you guys ROCK! Hope we catch up in the future and perhaps there will be a group exhibition further down the track.

Week Two flies past

I have no idea where the last week has disappeared to - somewhere between the Glassworks and Megalo no doubt. Since our induction into both organisations the "Glinties," as we've been calling ourselves, have been hard at work trying to get up to speed in newfound media and work regimes and conscious that we are almost half way through our residency. Yes, scary.

So, what have we been up to?? On Monday I helped Deb and George put their designs onto some photographic screens, and we spent time going through all the necessary steps so that they learnt how to coat and expose a screen themselves. Actually they were very good at coating their screens so the rest of the procedure went smoothly. The afternoon was spent printing their designs onto fabric which is always exciting as the following photos show.

George is highly excited about printing her 'Sprinkles" multicolour design.
Photo by Debra Jurss.

Nicci Haynes invited us to a woodblock printing demonstration at the ANU, and gave us a very informative talk about the types of wood and tools to use, the creative possibilities woodblock printing can offer and introduced us to a few of the students who are making large woodblock prints. As well as using the press, Nicci also showed us how to transfer the prints by hand.

Nicci using a plastic burnishing tool to transfer the ink from the woodblock.

Now, I have to confess there were a few laughs about my optimistic post last week, where I mentioned I was looking forward to opening the kiln the next day to see how our casting lesson went...haha! As anyone who lives and breathes glass will know that putting the work into the kiln is one thing...waiting for it to come out is an entirely different beast. So I waited...and waited...and then finally four days later we were able to open the kiln and retrieve our samples.

My casting samples....hmmm ... what is it you say????

After four days I was super-excited to see how things turned out.  You can't really tell from the moulds what lies inside, and what our high expectations are.  So...breaking the plaster mould to reveal what lies within...

Two icebergs have landed  in the cold room....

I decided that my first casting project would be a series of icebergs inspired by my residency in Iceland a few years ago. Having an ipad with a store of photos from that residency with me was great - I just tapped straight back into Jokulsarlon and the beauty I found crossing the lake filled with icebergs and walking amongst them on the beach.

Jokulsarlon, 2011

Yes, pretty cool

So now my icebergs are out of the kiln (...that sounds like a weird oxymoron) I am just waiting to learn how to finish them off to get rid of the jagged edges and polish the bottoms.

During the week there was also an impromptu lesson on cutting glass circles with Ruth Oliphant. Ruth was teaching Spike how to cut circles out of glass and before you know it we were all having a go - successfully too I might add.  It was very satisfying but also relevant.  For those of you who know my work, you will realise that the circular form plays a major part in my artistic concepts - referencing looking down the microscope; the circle of life; the micro and macrocosm.

Carefully scoring the glass, then snapping it

Two of my perfect circles using window glass.

Then finally, on Thursday I taught Spike how to put a simple one colour design into repeat so that she could start printing fabric lengths.  This was a major breakthrough for her, and it took her a while to get the concept between the screen width and the repeat width, but then the light went on and she was off and away. Here she is happily printing at Megalo and thankfully everything joins up perfectly. Well done, Spike!

Spike prints Cats and Ravens repeat length

This coming week I will be exploring screen printing with powders onto glass; engraving and sandblasting; organising my digitally printed prototypes and trying to fit as many working hours into the week as possible.

Until then,

GLINT!

Last week was one of the most intensive weeks I've had for a while because I started the six-week GLINT (Glass+Print) residency with the Canberra Glassworks and Megalo. The reason why it was so intense was because the GLINTers had a 2-day introduction to printing techniques at Megalo, and then a 2-day introduction to glass techniques at the Glassworks. The six GLINTers are three print artists (myself, Nicci Haynes and Luke Chiswell) and three glass artists (Spike Deane, George Agius and Debra Jurss).

Me, George, Debra and Spike in the Megalo screenprinting studio

The first day we were all given an induction and WH&S instructions by Jemima, who demonstrated screen preparation, fabric printing and paper printing to the group.  This is totally new territory for the 'glassies' so during the residency I have offered to help them with their textile and print related processes.  During the six-week period we will all be working on our own ideas but will collaborate and help each other to realise our individual projects, because it is such a short time to produce work in a new medium.

Rory printing off one of the etchings in the Press studio at Megalo

The second day at Megalo we were introduced to the Press Studio by Rory who again took us through all the relevant WH&S to do with chemicals and equipment.  In the morning we explored the etching process and in the afternoon it was lithography.  Although I have done some relief printing and etching before, it was a long time ago, so this was very intense.  I have also wanted to find out about lithography, but never had the time, so this was a perfect introduction to working on directly onto stone.  I didn't realise what a time-consuming process it is, and as a consequence have a lot more respect and admiration for lithographers! Just the sheer physical work involved of grinding stones for hours before you even start to work on them is almost enough to put some people in our group off! However, we all conceded that there are many aspects of all our practices that involves concentration, dedication and perspiration, but not everyone is suited to that particular process.

Day Three of the Intensive week saw us rock up to the Glassworks to have an induction and WH&S with Emilie Patteson, the Artistic Programs co-ordinator who was also a GLINT 2014 participant.  Emilie makes beautiful work that encases botanical specimens within glass, and I can see many similarities in our interests and concepts.

Debra, Emilie, George, Nicci and Luke exploring fusing.

Emilie took us through ways to fuse glass and print powders onto some small tiles in the morning.  The printers learnt a whole lot of new terms and techniques, although Nicci has done workshops in glass before so she was a few steps ahead of Luke and I. In the afternoon Matt Curtis, who is the inaugural Creative Fellow for 2015, showed us the techniques of etching and sandblasting onto glass, and I think these are two techniques I will be using a lot with my project.

After lunch George and Debra booked a slot in the hot glass workshop for us and demonstrated glass blowing and stringer -making.

George pulling some glass out of the furnace ready to work, Debra assisting behind.

This was the first time some of us had been down on the floor of the Hot-shop as opposed to watching from the safety of the balcony. Ben Edols also had a team on the floor, so we were introduced to the etiquette of pas-de-deux between furnaces and glory holes! We were assured that it was a quiet day, but frankly I would not want to be down there when it was busy. I was conscious of trying to avoid globs of molten glass the whole time! George and Debra were great, and I really admired their cool and confident handling of the glass tools and heat, their skill in pulling stringers, jacking-off (yes, this is a glass-term!) and finally putting the finished pieces into the annealing kiln.

Debra pulling a stringer from a single blob of molten glass

The girls enabled each of us to explore the addition of different objects into molten glass - for me it was a piece of metallic-silk organza; for Luke it was a dollar coin and an American dollar bill; and for Nicci it was some different metal wires.  It was really enlightening to see what worked and what just ended up as ash. My experiment turned out well, with the silk thread burning and depositing ash but the copper metallic thread stayed in tact and formed a weird fibrous object encased within glass.

For the last day of induction we had the whole day with Spike, who taught us how to make plaster moulds around clay objects so that once the clay is removed, the void is filled with broken glass, then fired in the kiln.  This did take a while, as there were three separate layers of plaster to cover our clay sculpture, the last one containing grog (again, another glass or ceramic term!).  At the end of the day we managed to get our moulds into the kiln and I am impatiently waiting for tomorrow when I can see what the result will be.....

Spike helping me smooth down the last layer of my two moulds

This residency is not only going to be a great adventure into the world of glass, but also fun, and already I feel we are all working together to help each other realise our projects and to learn as much as we can. Stay tuned!
I would also like to acknowledge the support provided by the Copyright Agency CICF grant for my GLINT project.

Winter Markets @ the Canberra Glassworks

This Saturday afternoon, the Canberra Glass works will be holding Glass 2015: Winter Glass Market from 4-11pm to celebrate 100 years of the Kingston Power House, and I have been invited to have a stall selling my textiles....But wait...!??? If it is a Glass market, why was I invited to sell textiles??

Because this year I have been selected as one of the Glassworks GLINT (Glass and Print) residents for 2015!! This is an exciting residency for me that starts in August and continues for 6 weeks.  Three glass artists will collaborate with three print artists utilising the joint venues and workshops of the Glassworks and Megalo.

Although I am a textile artist predominantly, my mixed media exhibitions have always managed to include some aspect of glass....whether it is the etched scientific watch-glasses found in Generate, the glass-covered sticks and the glass-fibre nets of transgenesis, or even my digitally printed bus shelter in Allinga Street in Domain 2007, I am keen to learn more about the medium of glass and the techniques of digitally printing and screen printing onto this non-textile substrate. So bring it on! I have a great project in mind for this residency, so stay tuned to see the outcome.  I will keep up a regular blog during my GLINT residency so you can enjoy it too!

I hope to see you at the Glass 2015 Winter market this Saturday night because there will be free entry, market stalls, live music, lucky dip and lucky door prizes, Winter glow garden, make your own glass, silent auctions of glass by renowned makers as well as hot food and cool drinks!