Art School Waihi Music

Margaret came to explore the print making facilities here at Art School Waihi and brought along one of her smaller harps. We didn't get much print making done but listened to some beautiful music while I drew Margaret's portrait. Also Margaret brought along her etching press which had spent years neglected in an exposed situation and needed restoration which is something that I enjoy doing. Art and Music. We are havng a good time...

Waihi Printmaking Class

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Creative Waihi hired me to run a printmaking class for beginners.
Two hours a week for 6 weeks.
If you know anything about printmaking you will know that that is an almost impossibly short time to have 13 total beginners each produce a pleasing print at the end of but all went well and the class was a success.
To begin with I was teacher and we went through preparing the plates, applying the grounds and transferring the various designs and etching the plates in acid.
Then came the first printing and we discovered that all the plates were overbitten and not printing well because of my underestimation of the strength of the acid and the time the plates should spend in the acid.
Week 4 I softened the ink with plate oil, introduced best quality printmaking paper, increased the press pressure to the max and encouraged the students to leave some plate colour so as not to wipe off too much ink.
These measures worked and reasonable results were achieved.
Week 5 and 6 they all went crazy!
My expensive paper was vanishing at an alarming rate, they were tearing into all the coloured ink and making their own colours, queueing at the press, not listening to me, not going home at home time but working on and on. Ink and mess all over the place. Like kids in a toy shop on a sugar and colouring rush. The energy was amazing, the time flew by, as no one was listening to me I had to teach by example and inked a few plates in unusual ways and introduced texture effects and was constantly interrupted by pleas, demands and questions so my head was spinning. It was an amazing experience and we got some great results and many printmaking techniques explored and many interesting and elusive effects changing a simple and pleasant design into something much more.
The poor things are now all addicted to printmaking.
My God! What have I done!!

Stretching Canvas

On Sundays I have "Sunday school" where I am working in the studio and anyone who wants can come along and work there too. Or just hang out. This Sunday Janice brought a bunch of old framed pictures which she disassembled and I showed her how to stretch canvas over the old picture frames. The bevelled edge of old frames makes them perfect for this.
Bill came too and brought Russian slice and did a pastel still life.
I put tools away and swept the studio floor, not too creative but made me feel better and it's still time spent in the studio which is a grown-ups toybox..

Print making studio

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

This mangle from which I made a printing press came from my families farm and has been in the family for at least 90 years. It's got to be my most beautiful toy. The zinc and copper plates stacked on the wood shelf under the press bed and adjacent to all that cast iron and steel framing must, in my imagination, have an electrolysis effect and thus the press has life. Haven't given it a name but it has a phoenix embossed on it's two sides. Lovely.

One thing left to do in the printmaking end of the studio is build a fume extraction box for the acid bath and then print making courses can begin.

Print making attractions

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

Corrosive and lethal fluids, just the smell of some of these puppies does serious damage

Exotic and antique crystals, powders and resins along with filthy black sticky substances and nasty smelling solvents, both antique and modern

Metals! Copper, Zinc, Aluminium, Steel, Old cast iron and wood machinery designed to exert tons of pressure through thick felt pads.
And after all the careful and time-consuming effort working with things dangerous and dirty and when ones hands are filthy and smelly the exciting part involving damp highest quality hand made papers must have clean hands, very clean hands and just when you are raring to go and get a result you must stop and get clean and calm and together for the actual printing.
I don't know why exactly but Women seem to love this work, it seems like such a guy thing, filled as it is with dirt, danger and techo chemical processes and vile fumes and sticky filth but lifting the print off the plate at the end is like a birth and the new baby is always, in some way, unexpectedly beautiful.
Today I plan to have the printmaking part of the studio finished and ready to roll. Yay!

Print making studio under construction

Etching Press Sale Enquiries: johnnymulvay@vodafone.co.nz

After getting out the press and other gear to help Janice make her first print, the first print made in this studio, what was needed for an efficient and safe print studio was revealed and construction and alteration to the setup began .
What a mess! Boytown! Power tools! Dust! Debris!
Can't make an omelete without breaking eggs eh?