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.

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!

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.

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 !