Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Printmaking without a press, with Bonnie Mineo

This past Saturday I took an inspiring workshop with Bonnie Mineo at Fort Point Studios in Boston. Bonnie is a painter, printmaker and and mixed media artist with a prior career in graphic design (hey, that sounds like me!). This was a "printmaking without a press" class using water-based inks and foam plates to create one-of-a-kind prints. It was fun and informative, and Bonnie is a fantastic instructor.

Before lunch Bonnie explained all of the supplies she uses, and demonstrated her process. Then we spent some time creating a variety of plates...different shapes and textures.

After a delicious lunch at Flour, it was back to the studio to begin creating. I had a tough time with the inks because even though I was using the same colors as the acrylics I use, they didn't mix the same, and the results weren't exactly what I had in mind. But, the process of layering different plates and colors was a lot of fun.

I think there were about 7 or 8 of us. Everyone had their own style and we had a little critique at the end. The prints above are a few of the pieces we had finished at the end of the day.

Of course, when I got back to my studio I wanted to continue with the process, but I didn't have any of the inks we used in class. But I do have Golden Open Acrylics, which I love, and thought would work in a similar way. So I made a few new plates and expanded on what I learned in the workshop. I can see that I'm going to like working with a variety of these prints and making collages with them.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What fun! That does it. You've convinced me that I have to get a few of the open acrylics. (Although I do have several colors of the Golden glazes, which are slow drying as well, but very transparent. hmmmm.)

I love what you've done with the plates. Things like this are wonderful in collage!

M said...

This sounds like a great way to spend a day. I love trying new techniques and I'm trying to figure out how the foam plates worked. What kind of foam was it and did you just incise your design and roll on the ink?

Tomorrow I am attending day 2 of a strappo workshop- I've planned a post about it soon. For anyone who loves layering this strappo is a fun printmaking process with no press needed either.

layers said...

sounds and looks like a wonderful workshop-- those inks are so rich and thick and luscious and you ended up with some wonderful collages.