Whilst we are stuck at home without easy access to art materials it may be time to take a lesson from how some artists have worked in the past ... by using all sorts of materials and re-used containers. The 9 x 5 Impression Exhibition of 1889 featured used cigar box lids that artists painted on. I am often drawn to these paintings when I come across them in galleries across Australia.
www.ngv.vic.gov.au/australianimpressionism
More recently and locally is print maker and teacher Anna Berger who had an exhibition of collagraph prints in Hobart. Anna uses recycled milk cartons, scratches and cuts into the opened out carton and prints from them.
www.instagram.com/wildislandtasmania

So I decided to try working with something that I had at home. We get our milk in a 2 litre plastic bottle that usually goes into the recycling bin. I found I can get 3 ussable panels from one bottle, two at 19cm long x 6cm deep and one at 9cm long and 6cm deep. The amount of usable panels varies with the brand of milk. The inside of the bottle has less texture and so I am using that for scratching into with a drypoint needle.

Two litre milk bottle with cut out panels

I took a plate down to Blue Lagoon in Dodges Ferry and drew onto the back of the plate with a crayon, (by drawing on the back I will ensure the print comes out at the correct orientation). After scratching into the plate with a needle I prepared my paper by soaking in a small tray for a minute and then drying off with an old towel.

Cranfield- Caligo safe wash etching ink and plastic scraper

I then inked up the plate with a water wash up ink. I used Caligo ink, applied with a plastic scraper, pushed the ink further into the lines with some tarlatan, wiped off the excess ink with the same tarlatan and finished wiping with a piece of clean newsprint.

I found that the plates were very flexible and a little hard to control the wiping without bending them, so I had to hold them at the ends, wiping the opposite end then turn them around. After wiping the edges with a rag and placed them on a registration sheet showing the plate position and paper position, I was only allowing a small margin of 1cm all around the plate, which made it difficult to place the paper in place without error. I am using an Enjay RP12 press with a 1.5mm woven blanket closest to the plate and a 3mm felt on top.

I had deliberately only put some scant details into the first state and was happy with how it printed. I then added some more details to the plate and repeated the printing process to print the second state. I noticed that if I left my paper in the water for longer than one minute it was obviously much wetter and I was picking up more plate tone but also the ink bled a bit more from the incised lines, I decided I preferred the sharper prints so, kept with the shorter time in the water. This would vary depending on the ink used.

After printing the second state I returned to the Lagoon and added some more detail to the plate, with an ink pen, scratched in the lines and repeated the printing process to achieve the third and final state.

As an experiment I tried printing using a table spoon, I used a thin sheet of acetate between the spoon and paper. It was hard to keep everything in position whilst burnishing the print and eventually I realised the paper had slipped, the image had still printed reasonably well. Good enough for a proof. It can always be printed again later on a press.

Printing a Drypoint from a plastic milk bottle

Moving Creature Studio