Fancy a little printmaking? Try Collagraph with a cuttlebug.

I think it’s time to get back to my arty roots – since the whole business thing is a no – go I’m not feeling very stampy, but I am feeling printy. There is just something about printing that interests me. I remember getting a tiny art set as a kid, it was one of those Remus play kit sets that the local supermarket sold – it was a little set of red rubber letter stamps and it was for a while my most favourite thing in the world, applying ink to something and then getting an impression was magic to me. It still is.

Lately I’m getting the magic via collagraph. I first did this at art college in the 90’s along with screen printing and in those days screen printing was my preference but I stumbled over a facebook printmaking group just before Christmas and rediscovered collagraph. What I like about it is that it uses the process of intaglio and relief printing in one process.

If you are new to collagraph it’s super simple, or as complicated as you want – here are a few pics from my rediscovery sessions, I’ll talk you through a simple version of the process.

In collagraph, you make a printing plate by hand. Typically folks use a piece of mounting board (the stuff you use to surround a print before framing it to hang on the wall). You assemble the plate by making a collage of the image you want to print. In this example I created a collage of a little local gate-house and some trees. I started by drawing the basic shapes of the scene and cutting into the mounting board and adding other layers oof other materials to enhance the image.

Its a scene I pass every day and I like the period building and the trees. I use things like crumpled up tissue paper, bits of old wall paper, crafting paper, sellotape and there’s even a wee bit of moss in there – it’s the green foliage on the edge of the house there.

I also cut into the mounting card and strip away layers of it – the tree trunks are a good example of this – stripping off the top layer of smooth card reveals a fluffier layer of the mounting card – this softer fluffier layer will absorb more ink and will then yield a darker shape than the surrounding flat surface area.

Creating a collage is an interesting way to create a scene, and some things to bear in mind are: the printed image will be the reverse of the collage so bear that in mind while creating. The materials matter – shiny materials like sellotape will print differently to absorbant materials like ripped cardstock. I’m still experimenting and it’s great to make some nonsensical plates to see how different materials react.

I wanted to have a go at making a scene so I winged it and tried to guess what way the scene would print and for a first attempt I was pretty happy with how it went.

Before printing though it’s a good idea to seal the plate, I’m using button polish. The plate is made from paper and card and degradable materials so sealing it helps it to last longer and not fall apart before you have been able to get at least a few impressions. I brushed on once coat and let the piece dry over night.

Inking up is a little scary, but having worked the printing inks into every groove, you then remove the excess before printing.

Just to keep things simple I first attempted an evening scene – here is the plate with the excess ink wiped off – I used sellotape in two of the windows of the cottage, which meant I was able to remove the indigo ink completely from the window panes and pop on a little orange before running the plate through the press. – I wanted my windows lit! I also cleaned off the sellotape moon completely so that the moon would appear inkless and thus, white.

And here is a finished print side by side with the plate after it came out of the press. The masking tape I used on the cottage roof printed lighter than the other areas giving a nice moonlit highlight and the windows have a warm orange glow. The smoke was created by painting on some wafts with a glossy varnish, this was done before the plate was sealed. You can see how all of the different materials result in different shades and textures. I love the process.

These are my favourite of the prints I pulled from this plate.

So – what type of press do I have? I don’t – I’m using my little cuttlebug die cutting machine, I know lots of crafters have these and it makes a decent wee press. Here it is with another little trial plate – this one is going through with no ink – I think it’s a good thing to run the plate through on it’s own with no ink first – this helps compress the plate and it helps me figure out how many shims I need – this is the tricky bit – getting the shims right – depending on how high the relief of the collage is, you will need to footer with shims. Best to do it before the sticky ink is applied.

The sandwich I used for my mounting card plate was different from what I’d use for die cutting etc, and I added a printing blanket (I’m using some cotton quilt batting) which is essential to help with making sure the paper picks up all of the printed details – it also helps absorb moisture – the paper I print onto has to be wet to pick up the inks – if you are interested in the process let me know and I could do a post on using the cuttlebug.

Here’s a few more sample pieces I printed just to see how different marks and textures work – an abstract landscape made with crumpled tissue and masking tape, torn in strips and overlaid. Print on the left, plate on the right.

Another abstract, testing how fine I can go with detail, the lines are just scores in the card made with a scalpel. Print on the left, plate on the right.

And finally a test window, using different wallpaper scraps to show different stone textures in this gothic window trial. print on the left, plate. on the right. Ta for popping in! Below is a close up of the plate being created.