What I'm Working On in the Studio

With the nice long holiday weekend coming up, I'm anticipating some great studio time in the next few days. Here is what I'll put my attention to:

1) You may recall the collages I've been working on over the spring and summer. I've got thirty-two now. I'm calling the series Six by Six: Meditations, with each given a number in sequence. This weekend, I'll sign them all and put a label on the back of each. That will make them officially finished!

2) I've already coated these two zinc plates with asphaltum, a kind of heavy, black tar, which is now dry. I can now scratch images into the surface with etching tools, readying them for a first acid bath next week. Eventually, I want to print the finished plates using the viscosity method (explained in a recent post). This process is slow and methodical. Zen-like, peaceful, happy, creative labor.

3) The pile of papers on the left will soon be a hand made sketchbook. Blank sheets inside my own screenprinted covers cut to a 5" by 6" size. I'll take them to my local Office Depot copy center to have them coil bound. I like making sketch books. This one might be dedicated to a semester's worth of notes related to my classes.

4) I'll sit in my grandparents' chair in the studio to sift through books looking for images of birds, fish, or boats (or perhaps something else) as a starting point for cutting my own linoleum blocks for a new series of unique mixed media images on paper. I've been ruminating about this project for quite some time. It would be wonderful to have a break-through moment.

5) On the left, an unfinished screenprint. On the right, a tablet of Dura-lar transparent plastic sheets. I'll create an overlay image by laying the Dura-lar on the screenprint and drawing heavily with a 6B pencil. Then, I can turn the overlay image into a photo-emulsion stencil for the next layer of this screenprint. From that point, I may see my way clear to a resolution to this piece.

6) Ten cakes of ivory soap are drying in preparation for the making of a "soap ground."  It is a new etching process for me. I read about it in one of the Crown Point Press books about intaglio. I'd like to try this method and demo it in the Intaglio class before the end of the semester. This weekend, I'll grate the dry soaps into a powder, a first step for making the ground.

Ahhhh... a package from Daniel Smith Art Supplies. I know what is in it: two cans of creamy black etching ink, my favorite. The order came this week without shipping charges! A special sale. I'll open the box, smile lovingly at the new inks, and put them in the cabinet where they belong, on the ready.

And a happy Labor Day weekend to you, too!