#25

It’s almost the end of March, and prep for Printopia is really kicking off properly now. I’ve been doing some test prints and trying to organise myself. When I applied for Printopia, I thought that I wasn’t going to be allowed to do Risograph prints, as I thought that was considered digital reproduction but apparently I was wrong so I can incorporate my Riso work in… Too bad my stall holder bio doesn’t say anything about Riso though - oh well - guess it will just be a surprise!

I’ve honestly struggled a bit with getting my thoughts together for Printopia - feeling like I am flitting from one idea to the next and never getting any solid work done - just a whole lot of mucking around. However I know that art is a process and that every experiment is another stepping stone towards the direction I want to go in. I think it just feels harder when your time for art is limited - I get stuck in the ‘graphic designer’ mindset of having to tick x y z off a list for each hour I can allocate to art making.

An example of this was I was excited to try and do some emulsion lifts using my “polaroid” photos - where you use water to get the emulsion out and transfer the image from the photo print to a piece of paper. However after much faffing, I did some googling and realised this process doesn’t work with instax / fuji film - only original polaroid film. I was frustrated but after some voice messages with my dear friend Sarah and a couple of chapters of Rick Rubin’s book I felt a bit better - The below particularly resonating with me:

It was after all this that I remembered I do in fact have a polaroid camera! My sister in law gifted me her father’s old camera a couple of years ago which has been sitting in the china cabinet. When I first got it, I remember I had trouble opening it / the mechanism was a bit stuck, so left it in it’s bag for another day. That day finally came, and after some Googling (what would I do without it haha) I managed to fix the opening mechanism, give it a good clean and I believe it’s now in working order. Next step is to get some (very expensive) film. It’s $40 for 8 exposures!

I’ve been carving a few bits and pieces, including this new A4 ish linocut based on a still life photo I saw in a 1970s magazine. I am trying my hand at doing something with a background and some different types of markings. I’m hoping the paper I ordered from Gordon Harris arrives in the next couple of days as I would love to start printing asap… I have a lot to catch up on.

As the flowers start to dwindle in the garden, I have been regularly picking a few here and there to try and capture them in ink using the Gelliplate - Each time I do this process I have no idea how the final print will turn out. I love the fact there is only one print with no way to duplicate it exactly so every single one is unique and preserves the memory of the flowers I used to make it.

With many of the plants finishing up, I have slowly been collecting seeds - I’m going to combine them into a special mix to have at Printopia in some handprinted seed envelopes. If you are looking for tips on how to save your own seeds, there is a great guide over on Sage Journal written by Elly Keen.

Last month, my boss gifted me these Intuition cards from Wilding Books. They are beautifully illustrated and I have loved pulling a card each morning. My card for tonight’s New Moon is Observer - which I feel is fitting. I know I need to change the way I work and I how I deal with stress, the media I consume, and really focus on creating good habits around self care. This is my sign to stop, step back and notice.

I hope you are all enjoying the last weeks of warm-ish weather before daylight savings ends, and as always, thanks for following and supporting my art. I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing a bunch of you in person at Printopia in May!

Rach xo