Collagraphs are a kind of printing plate, mostly made using collaged materials. You can glue bits of paper, cardboard, pebbles, etc. onto a scrap piece of cardboard to make a printing plate. But I thought I’d try something a bit different.
I started with a piece of cardboard, a stencil, and ink. Chickenwire – one of my favorite Crafter’s Workshop stencils. First, I inked through the stencil onto the cardboard.
Next, I traced over the inked design with the Best Glue Ever. Since I’m making a plate to print from, I want whatever I glue onto this board to be the same height – like a stamp. Only the highest parts of the design will print. So I was careful to try and apply the glue in a consistent way. Make sense?
Once the glue was dry, I painted over the entire piece with a thin coat of gesso. (The first photo below shows the glued cardboard before gessoing, the next one is after.)
Now my collograph is ready for paint! I grabbed some Golden fluid acrylics and tried it out in my art journal. Not bad, but I think I need a heavier body paint…..
So, I grabbed a Liquitex soft body paint, a blank tag and then stamped. Once the paint was dry I took out my Distress Inks and colored the background. You’ll notice that the paint acts as a resist — it won’t take the ink. After inking I flicked some water drops over the background then dried it with a heat gun.
And onto a bit of stamping to get the finished tag —
