MidSummer Maine II day two

Day two Student work

Today I demonstrated monoprinting on paper and cloth. In between the boiling and steaming which ate up a lot of time, we worked on monoprints and cloth book and stitched pages and stand alone pieces

Paula hard at work on a beautiful stitches piece (more photos tomorrow)

The other side of Judith's child's smock

Obviously happy with her results

Marcella running from the camera, Paula amused looks on...

Kate assembling her plant prints book

Sketch a subsequent monoprint. Oops, those pesky finger marks!!

Lobster pot steaming away. For those of you not lucky enough to live in Maine, the top pot has holes in the bottom and the bottom pot holds water for steaming. I've long since stopped cooking lobsters myself. Our grocery store does it at no cost. YEAH!!

These are amazing prints. Here are some of the possible reasons:

The Arches 140 lb watercolor paper was passed through a mordant solution of 1 quart water, 1/4 cup alum crystals and about a teaspoon of Miracle Grow (copper). The paper was passed through the solution, laid on plastic for about 15 minutes then the plant material was added to the pages and between signature. Then the packet was slid into a hardware cloth folder and clamped. This was steamed in the lobster pot. I also added a steaming basket to keep the packets OFF the bottom of the steamer. These pages can never touch to pot bottom or sides or the images run. Keep them up and in the center of the pot. You can stack packs but keep them from touching the pot's sides.

Part of her success what her (Paula) using coreopsis, chocolate cosmos and false indigo.

Judith's plants were also steamed in paper mordanted with alum water -(no copper) then each bloom was dipped in rusty water before placing between pages and signatures. I think she also added fabric (antique doll and children's clothes).

MidSummer Maine II day one

Student work

The workshop started with a bang! I caught a problematic wood chuck in the Havahart trap (yes, they can't resist cantaloupe) and had to relocated him to Cape Jellison State Park seven miles away. The workshop started 15 minutes late (smile).

I love table cloths and flowers

Judith working on her baby smock- free motion sketching a la Cas Holmes

Washed. You'll see the other side later.

These were Marcella's prints. Not that I am trying to downplay her fabulous work but this paper that came inside a scrapbook was pretty amazing. You'll see more phenomenal prints in Day 3.

This day we simply put the plants between pages and between signature of 140 lb Arches watercolor paper, used a hardware cloth "folder" I made and secured it with a bulldog clamp. They were boiled in 2 gallons of water with 2 cups of vinegar and about a teaspoon of nutmeg colored MX dye. added for 1.5 hours. This is my boiling pot.

Judith's prints

Marcella went back in previously made dried prints with a fine pen for detail

something new with botanical prints

If this weren't something new I wouldn't blog about it. This time I used heavy sketch paper not robust watercolor paper so I had to take care. I had a spare signature of my sketchbook paper with is really nice stuff and I added plant material starting between the last two pages, covered with the next page and IRONED it flat. My premise was that better contact with the paper would give me better prints on BOTH sides of the paper. It's not like the plant matter will not wilt in the boiling process so I tried. I liked!

Next experiment is dye but no rusty bits