Printmatters: the Blackhand Gang

Just finished a drypoint/monotype course with Peter Wray & Judy Collins at HandPRINT Studio just outside Penzance. I developed tunnel vision and never got round to monotypes, I was so enthralled at scratching and prodding in drypoint. I've never done it before and it was brilliant: scratch, scratch, ink, ink, wipe and peer - put the plate on the press bed, cover it with paper, cover it up with the blanket and roll it through the press. Other end - voila! A print, an image, a thing.

Sadly I did not appreciate until the final two hours that attention paid to inking up the plate and wiping it - was the major part of the deal. So I must do more. Learn how to ink and wipe that plate. Don't have a press myself, having previously handprinted lino and woodcuts by transferring the image onto paper with the back of a spoon or a Japanese barren. But Handprint offer open access days once you've been on a course. So I must keep up my nerve and give it a go.

It was a good workshop. Peter & Judy combine experienced technical knowledge and exploration with skill and humour. Everyone there just got better and better over the two days.
Enough said. Find out more at their own website (see side bar list of sites).

Now - I sleep.