How to re-stretch mesh onto an aluminum frame:

1. First, take the broken screen and cut a ‘plus’ sign into the mesh. I found that this gave me a good starting point to ripping the mesh off. When I tried using a X cut from corner to corner, it left a lot of remaining screen debris towards the corners. Rip the mesh along one edge towards the corner, then rip the other edge towards the same corner, now rip the corner section off. Repeat this for all the edges.

2. You may see that there are bits of mesh still remaining glued down near the corner, try to remove what you can by picking at it and hopefully you can pull it off. I found that using a utility knife helped in removing the last bits. Don’t worry too much if there is some remaining, when we grind the frame it’ll come off.

3. If you can, go outside and set-up a work table. You will be grinding aluminum and thus creating dust, so doing this process inside the studio was a big ‘no go’. You will need several tools. A metal grinder with a grinding disk, palm sander with 80-120 grid sand paper, particle respirator (not a dust mask, a real respirator, protect your lungs), gloves, clamps, and safety goggles.

4. I clamped the screen down to the table, and begun lightly grinding the frame. The idea is to remove all the glue off the frame and at the same time give the frame tooth to accept a new layer of glue. When you’re grinding the frame you’ll want to be careful not to spend too much time in one spot otherwise you may grind a pit into the frame, and that’s not good.

5. Afterward I used the palm sander to quickly run around the whole frame, this cleaned up some (not all) ink stains, hardened emulsions, or weird glue deposits from tape. When finished rub the frame clean with a rag.

6. Set-up a large station inside, I had to push to a couple desks together. I recommend that you avoid using the floor as a work surface, the mesh is oddly charged with static electricity and will pick up all the dirt off the floor. The stretcher we bought came disassembled in 8 pieces and was really easy to build following the manufacturers instruction.

7. Once the system is set-up and the frame in place, coat the frame with a layer of glue. We purchased the glue from the same company that sold us the stretcher, it is clearly an extremely strong contact cement. I recommend that you open a window and wear a vapor rated respirator mask.

8. It takes 8-10 minutes for the glue to become ‘dry to the touch’. At this point lock into the stretcher your desired new mesh. Crank all the clamps down onto the mesh and begin stretching each side a little bit at a time. You can buy a tension meter which will tell you exactly what tension of the screen is or I compared the tension to another commercially stretched screen we had in the studio.

9. When you’re happy with the tension cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the interior of the frame and place it on the screen. Now apply a second layer of glue to the frame. The cardboard prevents any stringy bits of glue from falling onto the middle of the screen. Like I mentioned earlier the screen has a lot of static electricity and so it tends to attract the stingy glue. Once done let the frame sit for 25 minutes.

10. When you loosen all the clamps and remove your newly stretched frame cut off the excess screen mesh. Finally, use metal foil tape (purchased from a hardware store in the duct working aisle ) to cover the glued side of the screen. That’s it, finished.

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Last week I went on the road to New Orleans for the South Graphics Conference. This was the first time attending this conference, actually this was the first conference Spark Box Studio has ever attended, needless to say I was pretty excited. Sadly, since we had residents booked in I had to make this trip alone, which meant a lot of long days and lonely travelling. Lucky for me tons of like-minded printers attend this event every year so the loneliness was short lived.

The trip began early Thursday with a 4 am drive to the Toronto airport. With just one minor hang-up with customs, I was quickly jet-setting to Louisiana. I arrived early afternoon, dropped my publisher booth stuff off and headed to my accommodations (which I found on Air BnB). The rest of Thursday was made up of searching for groceries and relaxing on the roof top of the loft I was staying in.

Friday was day one of the conference. Spark Box had a booth in the publishers fair so I left early to set-up my table. I took a walk through the beautiful, yet very smelly, French Quarter to the Sheraton Hotel where the conference was being held. I was the first publisher to arrive … which made me feel like a silly eager Canadian. But my eager attitude paid off leading me to meet so many nice people and share information to them about our studio and residency. Because of that minor customs hiccup I wasn’t allowed to sell any prints … but I did get to speak about them and the great printmakers who created them. I was set-up near the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Program and got to met Chris Dunnett and Phil Sanders. I now hope that I will get some time to go to NYC and check out their space.

I left the publisher fair early that day to attend one of the demonstrations being held at Tulane University. The demonstration was being done by our university print professor Otis Tamasauskas. The drive to the demo was longer than I thought so I only caught the tail-end but made plans to go out with Otis later in the evening. We met up at the hotel and together with Gravity Press owner Brandon Graving we went to the evenings art walk. My camera died by this point so I didn’t get any pictures but the night was great. We stopped at the Community Print Shop, the exhibit at the Healing Center and Deborah Cornell and Barbara Putnam’s exhibit at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts.

Saturday was another early morning walk to the hotel in order to re-set-up the publishers table (they moved us for day two). I decided the smell of the French Quarter at 7AM was a bit too much so instead I walked along the river. Day two of the publisher fair was held in conjunction with the portfolio sessions.  It was a great day. I split my time standing at the table and walking around looking at all the amazing and talented printed works. Splitting time between the table and other events was a challenge since I was by myself but next year Kyle will attend as well and we will have more time to go to the lectures and demos.

Past resident Josh Dannin came by the booth just as I was packing up and we headed to the Wolfbat Railroad event that he had been participated in over the week. The BFT Wolfbat Railroad was another printmaking project going on at the same time as the Southern Graphics Conference but not in conjunction with it. Wolfbat Studios (Dennis McNett) & Woodcut Funhouse (Sean Starwars) teamed up with Vans Custom Culture to host a three day customization event that was 100% free and open to the public. As the organizers explained it “The event included the construction of a wooden train consisting of 1 steam engine & 20 box cars. Artist, educators, and college students from across the U.S. tricked out their boxcar with screen prints, woodcut prints, flags, paper mache structures, and what ever else they can come up with. Each artist or team worked with at least 2 local high school and/or middle school kids.”

Saturday evening was the culmination of this three day event and was celebrated by taking the train on parade through the Marigny/Bywater area. After the parade there was a party with a great brass band and tons of dancing printmakers. It was a great time and a wonderful way to end the weekends events.

Sunday was my last day in New Orleans and I spent most of the day hanging out with Josh. We did a ton of tourist like things – walk through the French Quarter market, check out all the great street performers, eat beignets at Cafe du Monde and walk around Bourbon Street. After Josh headed back to Philadelphia I went to the botanical gardens with my accommodations host Andrea and then out to dinner.

It was a great trip and I am happy that we decided to participate in the events this year. We are definitely going next year in Milwaukee.

-Chrissy

As you know Kyle and I made the choice to make our studio as safe and green as possible, so there are some processes, like stone lithography, that we can’t offer at the studio. Of course stone lithography happens to be my favorite print process. So, you can only imagine my joy when I stumbled across a video by French artist Emilion explaining a new technique called “Kitchen Litho”. In the video Emilion walks you through her process of drawing with a grease tool (in this case soap made with animal fats) onto tin foil, etching the image with Coke and printing it like you would a litho stone.

I was amazed at how simple she made the process look and excited to get into the studio and give it a try. I called on a few former workshop participants and a couple friends to see if they would be interested in trying this new method with me and the six of us got together a few weekends ago.

We started our afternoon of experimental printmaking in the kitchen, as to keep with the theme of the process, but seeing little success moved out into the studio in order to use the printing press. Unlike the video the process was a bit more challenging. Like stone lithography sometimes your image doesn’t etch into the tin foil or it begins to fill in after a couple prints. However, unlike with stones you can simple crumple up the tin foil and try again– quick and easy!

We experimented with a number of different drawing tools to see what worked the best. We tried lithography crayons, sharpie markers, touche and Crisco. We wanted to see the different textures we could achieve and if spending the money on lithography crayons was worth it. It turned out that sharpie marker was the most reliable tool while the lithography crayons were a close second.

While achieving a print was challenging, the process itself was amazingly easy. Draw your image on the tin foil, etch it with Coke, rub it with vegetable oil, ink it and print (see the whole process in the video on Emilion’s blog). After a great afternoon several of us left with a some good prints and I plan to keep experimenting with this process in the future.

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Kyle and I just finished a bunch of new work for our two-person exhibit at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery. For this show we decided to create a new body of printed work. Kyle took a very traditional approach working with copper plate etchings while I took a more experimental approach combining silkscreen with encaustic painting and collage with watercolour monoprints. For this post I wanted to write about the monoprint because I think monoprint is a pretty unappreciated technique.

I first tried monoprinting when I was attending Queen’s. Our second year print professor, Jan Winton, had us work in this process for several months. With the pressure to pull great prints that would later be judged by faculty and fellow students I was easily frustrated with this painterly print method. Having worked mostly with paint prior to this experience I expected monoprinting to be no sweat but there was more to it then just putting ink onto copper. I quickly started to appreciate the attention to colour required and the way positive and negative space needed to be approached. You really have to consider space, layers, collage and texture so much more than with a painting. The “surprise” element that comes along with printmaking was also something that took some time to get used to but also became a highlight to this process.

Since that class I have used monoprint sparingly in my work– introducing it from time to time to bring a bit more life to my etchings. However, for this latest series of work I used it as one of my primary methods. Instead of using ink I choose to use watercolours. While this process takes a bit more time I wanted the washy, transparent qualities you can achieve with watercolour paints. I took the prints cut them up and collaged them together, finalizing them with embroidery and stitching (sorry for the terrible image once I have others I will update this post).

I appreciate what can be learned from monoprinting as a beginner. During my second year I was unsure why Jan had decided to start with monoprint rather than something “cooler” like silkscreen but now I can see her reasoning. Printmaking takes so much more planning, consideration and attention. Each step significantly effects the end result. Since monoprinting is a much faster and more forgiving technique than most other processes it gives you the chance to play around in the print studio. This speed allows you t understand the printing inks, to use a printing press and to consider how colour, layering, pressure and paper play a huge roll in the final print.

If you are interested in learning about monoprint consider signing-up for a workshop (find out more by clicking HERE).

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Our upcoming workshop is a great place to start learning about printmaking if you have never tried it before.

WEEKEND MONOTYPE WORKSHOP

In anticipation of starting up workshops again I have decided to reflect on our most recent workshop at the new studio with a group of high school students from Belleville. Over the past few years we’ve worked hard to build a good relationship with the different schools around the area. We see art as a truly beneficial experience for any young person. Art provides youth with a place to express themselves in an open and nurturing space and we love giving a young person a chance to participate in an environment where they can freely be who they want to be.

This past fall we had the pleasure of hosting a two day etching workshop with a group of art students from Moira Secondary. Their teacher Rosanne Duke (a big supporter of the studio) she asked if her class could learn intaglio printmaking with us through the process of etching. We have done this workshop with Loyalist in the past and it has been a huge success so we jumped on the chance to share this very old process with her students.

This was the first big workshop we have held in our new space, making it a bit nerve-racking. With over 20 students we weren’t too sure how the space would hold-up, but to our surprise it turned out very well. We first went to their classroom to give each student their pre-grounded plates and the step-by-step instruction on how to carve their image. Then the entire class came to Picton to print their plates on our press. Each student had the chance to make an edition of four prints in two different colours. During the first half of the studio day students were timidly working with the inks and using the press but by the second half they were experimenting with different application processes and producing some really inspiring pieces.

If you are interested in learning about etching be sure to sign-up for our January Etching Workshop >> find out more here <<

This introductory course requires no previous experience with printmaking. Students will begin the lesson with fresh copper plates and learn how to transform them into a small edition of prints. This workshop will teach students a non-toxic form of etching and will include hard ground techniques, aquatinting and soft ground techniques. By the end of the course students will have an understanding of the basic principles of printmaking including the above etching processes along with working with printing inks and using a traditional etching press.

3 day workshop
October 27, 28 and 29th
11:00 – 1:00 PM OR 6:00 – 8:00 PM
$150.00 non-member or $140.00 member

NICOLAI SARAFOV LECTURE AND WORKSHOP

Free afternoon artist lecture starting at 2:00 PM Sunday August 7th

Get to know artist Nicolai Sarafov at this afternoon lecture at Blizzmax Gallery. Nicolai Sarafov studied for five years at the College of Fine Arts in Sofia, followed by six years at the Munich Academy. His etchings are figurative, narrative, filled with a literary references and rich with critical humour. Sarafov has been teaching for 25 + years, he has published a number of catalogues, books and magazines and has exhibited internationally.

There is still one spot open in the week-long workshop running from August 8 -12 from 6:00 – 9:00 PM each evening.

SMOKEVILLE SESSIONS

Smokeville Sessions, a new performance series that will move between different County venues, is holding its first evening starting at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, August 9 at the Tall Poppy Café, 298 Main St., Wellington. Featured are four literary performers, half from the County and half from “away,” a mix that will continue in future Smokeville Sessions as other kinds of performance are featured. In the inaugural evening, County residents Andrew McLuhan and David Harcourt will join Toronto writer/performers Charles C. Smith and John Oughton, with “community” as the common theme.

We are very excited to soon be sharing our studio space with professor of print and innovative artist Nicolai Sarafov. Sarafov will be traveling from Germany to visit friends at Blizzmax Gallery this August. During his stay in P.E.C. he will be hosting a week long etching workshop, as well as an artist lecture.

About the Instructor:

Nicolai Sarafov studied for five years at the College of Fine Arts in Sofia, followed by six years at the Munich Academy. His etchings are figurative, narrative, filled with a literary references and rich with critical humour. Sarafov has been teaching for 25 + years, he has published a number of catalogues, books and magazines and has exhibited internationally.

About the Workshop:

The etching workshop with Nicolai will be a week long workshop starting Monday 8th and ending Friday 12th. The workshop will walk you through the various techniques of the etching process, including hardground etching and aquatint. You will learn about working with copper plates to create images and using an etching press to transfer your work to paper. The workshop is open to all levels, including experienced printmakers.

$250 (includes material fee) Monday, August 8 – Friday, August 12 6:00 – 9:00 PM

About the Lecture:

Here Sarafov will speak about his work, his founding of the “Institute for Bagonalistik” and his publications.

Sunday, August 7 Starts as 2:00 PM FREE *limited seating*

Please contact chrissy@sparkboxstudio.com to book for the workshop or the lecture.