Paper Printmaking

One of my dearest and most talented friends, Jay Dee Dearness, hosted a Press Party last Saturday at her lovely Queenslander.

I was excited to go along to learn a new skill as each guest had a chance to try printmaking. Jay Dee had prepared a metal plate the previous night for us to use. Here she is demonstrating how to ink it up.

On the printing press, Jay Dee had marked out for us the position for placing the inked plate face up. Each individual sheet of pre-moistened paper was laid down over this and covered with 2 sheets of felt.

Jay Dee demonstrated the wheel turning with on-lookers KT Doyle and ever supportive spouse, Pete Ward. The press, since christened Shelley after Mary Shelley the author of Frankenstein, may look old-fashioned but is brand new. The design has basically remained unchanged for decades.

This is what the finished product looked like printed on cotton watercolour paper. It is the design for Jay Dee's new gallery space "Myrtle Street Studio" located under her fabulous house. This will be an exciting new exhibition space for Brisbane and I will be announcing more as plans progress.

This is Jay Dee helping Eleni Papadatos. Other Brisbane bloggers present included Alarna Zinn and Georgina Lewis. Thanks to Pete for the great barbeque that followed!

P.S. The inking of the plates uses a lot of paper and Jay Dee has discovered that the pages from old phone books work best. If you live in the Brisbane area, please contact her via her blog if you have any you wish to recycle.