…So if you create a plate which looks utterly beautiful in it’s collaged form, but it just doesn’t print that well - don’t worry! We’ve all been there!  Also, sometimes a plate might look a bit uninspired as a collage, but try not to give up on it - it might create really effective prints!

I’m going to share a couple of plates here which weren’t too successful in terms of their final prints - but which I still had such pleasure in making and that taught me some things along the way.  I’ll also include one that printed better and my thoughts on why that was.

 

The one with the wrong material…

This bird plate was made with tissue, tin foil, felt and pencil shavings.  What I love about it is its simplicity - the bird rising up in such a hopeful way.  But I think I chose wrongly in using the tissue on its body…it makes the bird too jagged and fragmented looking. 

 

The one with too much of one thing…

I absolutely loved making this next one. I used some natural dried elements from my garden and mostly Felt for the rest of the face.  I loved how the plate itself looked.  But in printing, I realised I had too much of one type of texture in the face. It wasn’t defined enough and so the features were getting lost.

The one that varied the textures…

For this plate I decided to just focus on a simple pair of hare ears, popping up into the frame.  I included a sense of a background too, with chunks of plain felt disrupted by woollen swirls…

The plate printed better because the areas of each element were well defined and varied. The ears themselves, a focal point, were kept very simple with hardly any texture, whereas the surrounding areas and head had distinct textural themes.  The variation, and the trick of keeping some elements less “busy”, helps our eyes to feel less overwhelmed when it views the image.

I really hope that seeing some of these experiments helps you to feel freer in your exploration of collagraph. It is a learning process which grows along with you.  Every moment that feels like a mistake, is really just a window into what works and what doesn’t.  Every plate you make, and every print you make, will lead you to the next idea.  No time is wasted, so just let your mind wander and your fingers will create magic!

Remember, if you have any questions at any point, do feel free to reach out - I’m only a message away!