The Batad Rice Terraces pt. 1, cropped.

A scene I missed

How to make the couches from Pixar's movie UP!

A short photo blog.

Figurines by Niki

Excavator

I made this figurine for a birthday cake somewhere in Mt Isa, QLD. Mt Isa is a big mining town and this is a small mining figurine :) Also included some progress shots for anyone interested in how it came together.

Also! Find me on facebook.

All glue guns are born equal, right?

WRONG! Different glue guns are absolutely not equal, despite the fact that all they do is melt glue and push it forward. You'd think this was an easy enough task and what could possibly go wrong if you get the cheapest one from the supermarket?

These are things that don't go wrong when you invest in a better glue gun:
• The glue and tip don't heat up above the necessary temperature and so you are less likely to burn yourself,
• the glue cuts off more cleanly instead of creating webs all over the place like translucent non-cheesy mozarella,
• there is no strange burning smell,
• the trigger actually pushes the glue forward instead of just vaguely attempting it.

There you have it. The advantages of paying a bit more for a decent glue gun.

Skies

hooray! for we are

Escape Together

Guess I should post something in case my one million viewers and I myself start disbelieving that I will actually follow through with the 'resolution' below.

The Return of the Sproutmonster

Since we got back from Europe I've been itching to make art and swimming in pools of ideas but this has been conflicting with massive doses of cynicism because I've been seeing the trends in contemporary commercial art and the majority of it is bullshit. All people want to buy are pictures of vintage birds with antlers on a white background and so that is what all the market stall holders are making. I've been doing birds with antlers on white backgrounds since I was in highschool seven years ago but apparently it's trendy now so it's become totally devoid of charm or meaning and makes people go 'awwww' then they forget about it thirty seconds later.

I've decided to try and go back to 2008, because that is when I made art most often, and when I freely combined different media; something which I have never done before or since. It was short like my attention span. The best part was that it was meaningless and disassociated and only for myself.

It was when I was doing this stuff. There will now be more. Stay tuned.


There will probably still be birds in it.

I might move to tumblr...

Herbs

I made a new small collection of prints. They are cleaner and more intricately drawn than before. I present to you: the herbs series!










If you're of the buying persuasion, you may do so here.

Degreasing without ammonia

A short tutorial cross posted from printsy.

How to degrease your plate

Degreasing your etching plate is important when applying a ground, aquatint, or sugarlift because it allows the medium to stick to the plate. This is traditionally done with ammonia and whiting.

If you don't like the smell of ammonia (it is like rotten fish and pee), what works equally well is household grade powder cleanser like Ajax and soy sauce. You can actually use powder cleanser by itself, but it takes three times as much wiping effort.


You apply it in the same way. Add powder, add soy sauce, and wipe with a clean, grease free rag. Rinse with water.


You'll know when your plate is degreased because the water should stick to the entire plate instead of blobbing up.


Now don't touch it with your oily fingers. The end!

A word of warning about copper sulfate etchant

Last year I posted the recipe for an aluminium and zinc etchant made from copper sulfate. I forgot to add something very important.

Before you etch anything in this, stick an unprotected piece of aluminium into it, about 1x3 inches large. Leave it there for 5-10 minutes. This will take the edge off it so it isn't so strong. If you don't do this, the first plate you etch may become a complete mess. It will bite your needlepoint lines into lines 2mm wide, and it will even bite holes through areas protected by the ground.

Alternatively, when etching your first plate, just make sure to check it every 3-5 minutes to make sure it isn't being ravaged.

It isn't nitric acid, but it is extremely strong.

I forgot to do this just now and have suffered the printmaking equivalent of my computer crashing after drawing something on illustrator for 4 hours and not saving it.

Removing ground

As an alternative to turpentine / methylated spirits for removing grounds, some block outs, and adhesives in general, I use a citrus based solvent called De-Solv-it. It comes in a spray container. You spray it on (outside or in a well ventilated area), leave it a minute, and wipe it off with a dry rag and no effort.

This is an Australian made product and you can get it at most hardware shops. If you live elsewhere around the world, just ask for a citrus based solvent. They work well, are less carcinogenic, are less likely to kill the nerve cells in the tips of your fingers, and don't stink as much!

Copper plate fail 1

My first attempt at copper plate was a mild success! Until I turned it into a mild failure, but I learned some stuff and am extremely excited about the fineness of the lines I can achieve, and with the effects of blocking out and open biting.

My first copper plate proof shows the teeny tiny fine lines which your computer monitor won't render because monitors have bad resolution:



Yes it's a whale.

And this is what it looks like now.



I don't get what's going on in it either. The sky looks a million more times more turbulent than I wanted it (not to mention the horrible disregard and disrespect for the play between light and dark), but the texture is kind of interesting. I also totally wrecked the intricate lines on the flowers at the bottom left.

I've redrawn this image on a new plate entirely and will be etching it when I get back to the studio, which won't be til April, and will attempt to do it a lot more carefully and thoughtfully. Meanwhile I'm going away for two months starting from 26 January, so there will be no posts on this blog until we get back. Not that you've learned to expect frequent posts on this thing!

I have a travel blog which I share with Chris, but am not sure whether we'll post anything on it while we're away.

A pint of that red stuff

One of the problems with etching aluminium in copper sulfate is the buildup of Red Stuff (technical name unknown) that occurs in the etched lines. Feathering doesn't always relieve this. I've gone so far as to scrub the plate with one of those rough sponges you use when washing cookware in an attempt to remove it. This is not recommended because it may scratch the plate and doesn't totally work anyway. Definitely don't do it with the ground still on, because it will scratch your ground. The Red Stuff must be removed because it stops the ink from going into the lines and you end up with the Most Horrible Broken Lines Ever.

Here's a picture of the Red Stuff on the plate and a picture of the resulting proof, to show you how troublesome the Red Stuff can be.





Sometimes the only way to remove the Red Stuff is to go over the lines lightly with your etching needle to dig them out. This is a pain in the ass to do so if you've found alternative methods, let me know.

This is what the plate looks like after the Red stuff has been removed.



And the resulting print, lines intact. (Ignore the colour. I can't find a proof which I haven't already painted)



And to promote myself, here is what the actual artwork looks like as a whole. It is part of my Bahay Kubo series, which you may view on Etsy. Bataw is Hyacinth bean in English, and Lablab purpureus in Science :)



I won't be using aluminium for a while because I've just bought a nice big pile of copper plates (from Neil Wallace Printmaking Supplies, Melbourne) and am (temporarily?) switching to etching copper with ferric chloride. The next post will show you my semi-horrible first attempt at etching a copper plate.

Queenstown, Tasmania

Here's the finished version of the plate below.

Smoking the plate

Smoking the plate is an extra process you can add when preparing your plate for etching. You only do it when using hard ground, and can do it with aluminum, zinc, or copper plate.

What is "Smoking the plate"?
It is darkening the surface of the hard ground-covered-plate using smoke from a flame.

Why smoke the plate?
This isn't a necessary part of the etching process but it can help in two ways. (1) The much darker surface means you can very easily see the lines you have drawn into the ground, and (2) It can serve to cover up any small holes you have left in the ground, if for some reason you didn't roll it on very well.

And how?
After applying the hard ground, take a pair of pliers with which to hold onto the plate. You need this because it'll heat up and you'll burn your hands otherwise. Hold it upside down (hard ground side down) over a flame and move it around.



Be careful:
• NOT to hold it in any one spot for too long.
• NOT to scratch the plate with the pliers. If you take some ground off, just cover it with bitumen after you're finished drawing.

It tends to work better if you have lots of little candles (unlike what I have in the photo), and light a few of them to get a wider flame.

A smoked plate:


A drawing on a smoked plate:

Hard ground

The ingredients you need to make a hard ground is:

2 parts (8.5tbsp) lump/egyptian asphaltum
2 parts (5tbsp) beeswax (white is purer but yellow works too)
1 part (3tbsp) rosin

An ingredients list isn't quite enough to stir up a decent hard ground. You need to know how to make it, too. I have never actually tried this and am mainly posting this as a future reminder to myself. There appears to be a decent recipe/method for hard ground in Practical guide to etching and other intaglio printmaking techniques By Manly Banister, starting around page 11.

Do you have any tips?

Printmaking in Sydney

Here is a list of the printmaking classes in Sydney, Australia, which are not part of TAFE/university courses. If you know of any others, please post them in the comments box and I will add them to the list.

Warringah Printmakers Studio
• Offers an open access studio for members who have gone through a proficiency check
• Holds weekly classes in of intaglio, relief, woodblock, waterless lithography and more. Various days and times to choose from.
• Holds a few masterclasses throughout the year
• Has at least one annual exhibition for members, with opportunities for more
• Promotes safe printmaking techniques
• 1 term is 9 weeks. Cost varies according to classes taken.
www.printstudio.org.au
343 Condamine Street, Manly Vale. Tel: (02) 9949 2325

Hazelhurst Gallery
• Holds 2 weekly printmaking classes
• One or two masterclasses during the year
• 1 term is 10 weeks, $236
www.hazelhurst.com.au/ssc/hazel.nsf/
782 Kingsway St, Gymea. Tel: (02) 8536 5700

Waverly Woolahra Art School
• Various types of intaglio and relief printmaking
• 1 term is 9 weeks, $272
www.wwac.org.au/index.php
138 Bondi Road, Bondi. Tel: (02) 9387 2461

Pine Street Creative Arts Centre
• Weekly classes, from beginners to advanced
• 1 term is 9 weeks, $235
www.pinestreet.com.au
64 Pine Street, Chippendale Tel: (02) 9245 1503

College of Fine Arts
• Excellent facilities and teachers
• Probably won't run any short courses during 2010 and early 2011 because they are undergoing major refurbishment
http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Corner of Oxford Street and Greens Road, Paddington

Info is correct as of April 2010.

Bahay Kubo series: part 1

At the beginning of the year I started making what is to be 18 plates, each depicting a vegetable from the traditional Filipino song Bahay Kubo. I have not done any research into existing artwork based on this and fully accept that such inspiration could potentially already be overused, however I persisted with the idea thinking that since I was relatively new to aluminum etching, it would act as a good crash course wherein I could make lots of plates, lots of prints, lots of mistakes, and hopefully gain some level of proficiency.

***

UPDATE:
This series is now finished.