A Printed Epic : Nature Table I&II

I don’t often record how the works are made but because it was an epic process I can share “Nature Table I” and Nature Table I. This may be very boring to some people but ‘bear with it’, as they say

Collections of seed pods, leaves, feathers and bugs “grow” in my studio space and images of these make their way into my works I feel like an old fashioned botanist recording my finds first as a drawing then carefully etched in zinc plate and printed.

The inspiration for the works was a drawing I made for an earlier exhibition ”Pods” at a plant nursery in Pialligo ACT.

For the Nature Table I wanted to represent my collections of Eucalyptus seed pods and leaves as well as Banksia bits but have them organised in a table referencing systems for botanical classification as well as initial recordings of Australian native plants by Joseph Banks.

First I worked up a new detailed drawing with all the seed pods I wanted to use. I then calculated the sizes of the plates of each individual pod so that they fit within the dimension of the bed of the press. 16 small plates of varying sizes had to be cut by hand from a sheet of zinc plate. All plates weremcovered with an acid resistant ground and drawn into with an etching needle. The lines were then etched and aquatint applied to achieve a deeper tone and give the forms dimension. Each plate was then proofed individually and reprocessed if needed. Or proofed again to get the colour and tone right.

In order to fit them together on each run through the press I traced a registration sheet with all of the plates positioned with extra room for leaves to be printed on top.

I also created image transfers onto Japanese Kozo paper of Joseph Banks writings and lists of botanical names to include as chine colle՝ elements under some of the plates.

All of the plates were inked up and placed on the bed of the press and printed in one pass. Often a tricky manoeuvre as little plates and bits of light paper and leaves are prone to move!! The leaves were inked up and printed after the paper had settled a bit but not completely dried. I managed to print about 3 good copies of each Nature table. About 4 weeks work for each print!

Life In The Fast Lane | February Update from Jo

Sojourns