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Sunflower and Moon Bees…Trials and Errors.

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Tuesday 21 July 2009

Sunflower and Moon Bees…Trials and Errors.

Having done one bee I decided to try some backgrounds to accompany it. I have always liked combining images and mixing things up so it's a mix and match bee set. This etching is all a bit hit and miss, every print is a complete surprise… i.e. I have no control!

It’s very easy to over or under-ink the plate and every print is different. I know the master etchers try to achieve a series of prints which are as identical as they possibly can be, but at the moment part of the fun is not knowing exactly what will be revealed.

I first did a quick vine (with, of course, a few pods...) to see how the technique of overprinting, correctly called double intaglio I think, would work.. Basically you have two plates and one piece of paper, and print the paper twice. Just getting the registration right is tricky, but the tutor has a very neat registration system cut out of an old “For Sale” sign. I will try to get some photos tonight.

so.. “Bumblebee and Vines”..3 different papers.

bees and vine

Then, I had read how much bumble bees like sunflowers, so,

“Bumblebee with Sunflower” printed on different papers with slightly different coloured inks.. and different levels of success!

sunbees

And, of course, I had then to have a moonflower bee as a companion…

“ Bumblebee and Moonflowers ” again different papers, different inking and different results.

moon bees

My aim this week is to try to get a few really nicely printed which will be for sale in my new Etsy shop.. “Waving Bee Press” coming very soon, plus a blog too..

Why Waving Bee Press? .. well a longish story but part of a project I have been developing for a few weeks now, which looks like growing into an exhibition, prints cards and some handmade books..it’s so exciting!! The sort of project I love, lots of research, lots of ideas and an end product. More of this later..

As part of the work I have had to learn Adobe Illustrator from scratch.. phew… vectors…The problem is that switching now between Photoshop and Illustrator has me even more confused. It’s all to do with digital letterpress, which is whole new box of soldiers to play with.!… Heaven !

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5 Comments:

Blogger Helen/patientgardener said...

I like the moonbee best. Thanks for all your advice in the past, I have finally found a one day introduction to botanical drawing course to do this August so will be giving that a go to see how I get on.

21 July 2009 at 19:28  
Blogger sharp green pencil said...

Hi there PG.. I am so glad you have found a course to give the botanicals a try .. Very pleased to be of some help.
Val

23 July 2009 at 13:27  
Blogger Unknown said...

These cards are looking so beautiful. Great work. I am enjoying your journey through this process. Judy

25 July 2009 at 00:18  
Blogger Gabrielle said...

I also like the moonbee best. Maybe it is the strong contrasts, or I just have a thing for the moon, I don't know. The bee etching from your last post is gorgeous, too! Anyway, I've been enjoying watching this process unfold on your posts. Good luck with it all.

27 July 2009 at 02:58  
Blogger sharp green pencil said...

Thanks to you both.. I have had fun with the etching..it could become quite obsessive as there are so many possible variations.. but I am really longing to do some lino cuts...soon soon..

6 August 2009 at 11:28  

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