Have You Seen Her...Tell Me Have You Seen Her?

Remember that song ...”.well I see her face everywhere I go, in the streets and even in the picture show - Have you seen her, tell me have you seen her”?

This is a photo of myself and a long time friend Susan Carlyle, who grew up in Australia. I think she has dual nationality though I am not certain. Her dad is English – I wish I had his contact details. We met through both working in London, at a Jewish residential unit , a social care project. We became good buddies and have always maintained contact. This photo was taken on a day trip to Cambridge, in the university grounds. I had just bought that green hat, from a little street market, which at that time cost me sixty pounds and I was delighted with it. It's made by a French designer Jacque something or other.

Then these American or Canadian tourists spotted us and asked if they could take our photo so we agreed and they took our contact details and later sent the photo.

The man kind of apologized afterwards saying he had been acting on impulse and just though that we looked such an absolute picture - especially with "that hat" .............kind of looked like a little Irish Leprechaun. Imagine his embarrassment when I mentioned that I actually was Irish!!

We just all laughed about it.

On a more serious note I have lost touch with Susan though I am under the impression that she is here in the UK. I just hope she is OK. I will be so pleased when I hear from her.

Lots of Clearing Out and Tidying Up

What a headline, doesn't sound a bit exciting and it wasn't just hard graft although I am sure that I must have found at least one thing I had been looking for although there are still two copper plates with text on them that are mysteriously missing. I threw out a bit of stuff so that free'd up some space. This IS a small studio really but at least I have one. Some people don't have a dedicated space to work in and that must be awful.

postscript

I found THAT copper plate with the text on it. It was 'where I'd left it" i.e., just outside the wooden hut with a load of turpentine soaked newspaper on top of it. I'm lucky it hadn't gone rusty.

More on the Christmas Machine

Here are a couple of more images from the Christmas Machine exhibition in Berlin, that I particularly like - well one of them is another image by one of the exhibiting artists who I came across a while ago on Flickr : Cecilia Levy. The other image of the bird was actually in the exhibition. See the other post here on this blog for the initial posting about the exhibition.

Mary Fairgrieve, Artist Printmaker

I came across somebody today who spoke with such passion and enthusiasm for her printmaking practice that it struck a chord in me reminding me of my own journey into and through fine art. I was telling Mary how I had spent years doing painting, only realizing in about 1993 that it wasn't the right vehicle for me. It was that point that I took up printmaking and felt a lot happier about my creative outcomes.

I like to work with line and symbols, i.e., to signify an emotion or a memory - that is, in a way, putting things at their simplest. Color is not as important to me as it used to be, although nowadays I tend to like more subtle colors.

Speaking of color, I like how Mary uses this in her works although the two that I have chosen to represent here are black and white. These are probably my favorite of the works that she has available to view
on her website.  http://www.facethisway.co.uk

Trials with PHOTRAK a photo acrylic etch application

Doesn’t look like much but this and the five other images which you can see in the back room studio represent a whole week of trial and errors at getting this roll on, acrylic etch, process to work.

I had previously used this brand of photo etch at href="http://www.londonprintstudio.org.uk/">London Print Studio and although one would have days where the first attempt might not work the second one nearly always did and I transferred some very fine and detailed inkjet transparencies onto my copper plates quite successfully.
I first tried leaving it on the UV exposure unit for 18 seconds followed by 15 then 14 then 16 and the image was becoming apparent, in the developer tray of soda crystal mix (10 grams to 1 litre of water by the way is the standard mix for this) but the image would not stay on the plate after I carefully removed it and placed it in a tray of clean water to rinse it.
So after that first day I thought to myself I have got to speak with Paul Dewis or Lisa Chappell both print technicians/ coordinators at LPS.

Which I did, explaining my efforts in detail. When Lisa said that it was 45 seconds and not 18 seconds I was relieved thinking "Oh great well at least my next days efforts should prove more promising!!!.

However I carried out the tests of the six copper plates which I duly degreased with "Jif" cream cleaner of course, and still it wasn’t really happening. I couldn’t believe it!!.

When I spoke to Lisa again I asked her what wattage their UV box was and therein the problem lied. Our homemade UV box was a total of 250 watts (comprising 2 bulbs, each one being 125 watts, whereas their UV box was/is 1 kilowatt. So I thought multiply the 45 seconds by 4, as their box is four times stronger than ours and hey presto the development time is now established as three minutes.

So the image you see here is the first one that worked - it was a grainy transparency with liquid tuche on it.

Now that I have got over that hurdle I am wondering about the aspect of rinsing them satisfactorily as some parts of the copper plates which should be open for the ferric chloride to break through and etch appear to be not completely open. It's not that easy to judge. I wish now I had left them in the ferric chloride as they would take overnight to be etched if not 2 days.

I was reading in my most recent technical print making book "Intaglio" by Carol Robertson and Robert Adams that one gently wipes it with a soft brush or a sponge which is what I remember doing at LPS. Actually at LPS - we used a swab of cotton wool. You can’t get gentler than that!!