Ground Zero Printmakers CFW Workshops in Printmaking
Hands-on creative and skill building workshops in the rich, generous mediums of printmaking

“Oil-based Stencil Monoprint builds a repertoire of elements personal elements that can be used and reused in different prints different configurations and combinations for years ahead.”

This is an ideal workshop for beginners giving you lots of great colourful & immediate results as well as lots of experience with the press. Discover colours and colour combinations you may never have thought of before. Contrast spontaneous colour and textural effects with planned cut-stencils shapes. Explore working in series using ghost prints, layering, flipping, ink viscosities.
Stencil Monoprinting lends itself to both planned images and spontaneous exploration-“ happy accidents” and both have their own rewards. Some of the many prints created in this workshop can also serve as ground for mixed media work.

Relief Reduction Mini Print
Instructor: Victoria Edgarr

Reduction Print "Achieved by the gradual cutting away of the wood or linoblock following the printing of each colour stage" : a process used in batique, etching, screen printing and wax resist drawing.
This workshop is great way to explore the possibilities of multi-coloured lino cut without the labour. Practice the reduction skills, ink application and handling, while producing surprising beautiful and interesting series of editioned and related prints.
We work with safety-cut in a miniature format, printing gem-like multi-coloured images on a variety of colours and textures of paper, varying ink colour combinations, and finishing with a large series of prints, as well as a handsewn booklet, the cover patterned with your own carved print block.
This process requires no press, uses water-soluble inks, and is easy to do at home.

Sugar Lift Etching
Instructor: Victoria Edgarr

The Sugar Lift Etching process results in finished prints that have the spontaneity of a brush or pen drawing. Using zinc and copper plates we will create images with the strong graphic statement possibilities of open-bite and aquatinted sugar lift plates. This direct method is good starting point for exploring the painterly and sculptural qualities of etching.
Emphasizing contrast and textural patterns, we will print with colours as well as black and white, and
practice the inking and wiping methods that best reveal the rich graphics of the medium.

Polymer Litho
Instructor: Victoria Edgarr

Polymer Litho is a new, nontoxic, and very straightforward lithographic method for the creation of unique and limited edition plates for images and text. It is also useful for multi media printmaking on unusual surfaces that are compatible with the etching press.
In this workshop we will work with two methods for images onto plate: felt pen drawing/ tracing directly onto the plates and simple transferring of previously made images through the studio’s lazar printer.  We will develop skills in the inking and printing unique to this medium, and finish with a number of prints on rag paper.

Multi-Media Monoprint
Instructor: Victoria Edgarr

Multi-Media Monoprint uses varied print methods to produce a single multi layered print. The distintive qualitis of each method interact to produce images rich in line, tone, colour effects.
We will incorporate three basic monoprint techniques: Monoprint Glazing, a method of printing in thin 'clouds’ of colour, Transfer Monoprint, which uses the direct presure of the hand or pencil to transfer ink onto the paper and Stencil Monoprint combining a fixed and repetable shape with a miriad of ink and colour holding posibilities.
An exciting workshop for those with some experience with printmaking who want to” mix it up!”

Cardboard Intaglio
Instructor: Victoria Edgarr

Cardboard Intaglio is the process for a intaglio print by direct drawing on prepared cardboard with a variety of tools including stylus, and roulettes to build up tone and textures. A beautiful and inexpensive alternative to etching.Duoboard provides an especially smooth intaglio surface and contrasting depth for incising. 
Using incised duoboard and acrylic mediums create drawing-based prints. Emphasizing tonal, textural and linear qualities, we work in traditional black and white practicing the inking and wiping methods that best reveal the rich graphics of the medium.

Ink Wash & Chine Collé Monoprinting from The Model

Chine Collé - A method of attaching a thin piece of paper to the surface of a print with glue, in the process of printing. The paper used is often thin and smooth, and thus able to take a finer impression then the more substantial paper beneath.

Chine Collé Monoprinting transforms live-model ink wash sketches into unique finished works-on-paper.
Make monoprint drawings on ‘Japanese’ rice paper directly from the model.
Use the printing press and the chine collé technique to mount your work onto heavy rag paper, adding colour and finish to your live-model drawings.





Monoprinting with Water-Soluble Ink

The magic of Water-Soluble is that it allows the artist to work on a piece in stages over a longer period of time, and also to print a complete series all in one session at the press.
This medium is ideal for someone who likes printmaking but has only occasional use of a press.

In this workshop we will cover lots of ways of using water soluble media to make prints with qualities of watercolours, litho and linocut.
You will practice the basics of perfecting paper dampness, double plate registration, and using shaped plates. You will leave the workshop with prints on rag paper in black and white and in colour and a plate to continue with.





The Monoprint: Monoprint Glazing

Monoprint Glazing / or tinting is a method of building up an image  with thin 'clouds”  of colour.
In this workshop you will build multicolour images through colour glazing and layering, learning how to combine sharp delineations with soft transitions of colour to give shape and depth to your completed image. Monoprint Glazing can combine planned images with spontaneous exploration, giving  your images a broad range of possibilities within the same technique.

V Edgarr                      V Edgarr                             B Thompson                     K Guthrie                   

The Monoprint: The Painterly Plate

“Energy, improvisation, gesture, impulse and chance are all characteristics of this printing process. It is the most "painterly" and immediately rewarding technique available for creating works on paper.”  William Jung, History of the Monotype

In this workshop you will experience the immediacy and gestural qualities of the painterly print, building up surfaces with roller, brush and rag and printing them on the press.

 Working from your own imagery; photos, hand drawn sources and the imagination you will  create monotypes using additive and reductive techniques, pure colour, colour saturation and surprises,  and ink qualities such as transparency, opacity, viscosity, and  textural effects.

You will finish the workshop with a series of hand-pulled monotypes in rich black and white and colour on rag paper.
(No previous printmaking experience necessary)

Images:

A Costaz                   V Edgarr                A Costaz               V Edgarr            A Costaz

Intaglio Etching: A la Poupée

A la Poupée:  The application of multiple colours onto a single plate. A la poupée means “little dolly”. The term refers to the dauber used to apply ink to the surface of the plate. Many colours can be printed on one plate at one time, using very careful application of the ink and wiping the surface.
The Printmaking Bible

In this workshop we will creatively explore inking strategies using ready-made aquatint plates, demo plates and as well as your own previously made plates.
Develop your fundamental skills of ink modification and application, colour blending on the plate, and wiping to achieve a smooth result. The A la Poupée inking method can be used on any intaglio plate; Collotype, Cardboard Intaglio, Photo-etched, Drypoint, Aquatint etching.

Intaglio Etching: AQUATINT

Aquatint: “An intaglio process for creating an even tonal field. Particles of acid resistant material are deposited and fixed to the plate. When the plate is immersed in a mordant, only the interstices around the particles are bitten.When the particles are removed the surface of the plate…can produce an effect of velvety smoothness or of rough stubble.”
The Contemporary Print from Pre-Pop to Postmodern, Susan Tallman

In moving from a graphic linear approach to a more painterly one, Aquatint provides the fluid intaglio surface. We will learn to apply and bite aquatint, exploring a black and white tonal range, and using aquatint to hold a bold or subtle range of colour.
Working with 2 plates we will learn image transfer and direct brush work and complete the workshop with proofs on rag paper.

Soft Ground Etching

Anything - hands, finger, paper - that applies pressure to a soft ground will lift the ground off the plate and expose metal. Soft ground can also be used to take a direct impression of any flexible material—a fingerprint, a leaf, a piece of cloth, for example. Ruth Leaf." Etching, Engraving, And Other Intaglio Printmaking Techniques" GZPS Library
Au Crayon:An image is created by drawing firmly on a tissue paper laid over it, making a clear impression on the ground. When the paper is lifted, the marked areas pull away with it, and the plate is then bitten with acid. A soft ground etched line can simulate the effect of a chalk or pencil line.
Soft ground is an exciting expansion of the ground technique for biting plates.
The "au crayon" method allows for direct drawing or for images to be traced and transferred to the plate.
With the Imprint technique, images are made with textured materials tarlatan, sandpaper, string, tinfoil feathers, and other materials. This technique echoes collage composition, enriched by the random and chosen effects of the biting process.
We will finish the workshop with bitten plates and proofs on rag paper.


Demarteau        Guthrie                                                             Douglas

Non-Traditional Plate Making:
Double Plate Intaglio Printing

“When two different plates are printed, one over the other with different intaglio colours the process is called double intaglio.”
It can be used for combining of diverse graphic or pictorial elements in the same print and creating a crossover of colour to achieve enhanced pictorial depth. 
Etching, Engraving, and Other Intaglio Printmaking Techniques" Ruth Leaf-GZPS Library

We will learn to make compatible alumograph plates and explore the graphic surprises by printing in a variety of colours and orientations. Skills in registration techniques, template making, and paper preparation will be focused on as well as inking and wiping with a colour pallet.

You will end the day with several variations of your plate’s possibilities.

Non-Traditional Plate Making:
Acrylic and Alumograph Collograph

Collograph: A print pulled from a textured surface that has been built up with a combination of materials and objects glued together in the collage manner.
In this workshop you will learn how to make two kinds of plates, collograph plates sealed with acrylic medium and alumograph plates using aluminum foil. Collograph plates can be made with household and natural materials. Alumograph plates provide an immediacy, sealing the composition with foil which is then ready to print.
You will explore your colour and composition sense by organizing and fixing the materials to the plate and then printing with coloured inks. This is a good skill building workshop in using the press, wetting paper, intaglio style inking, and a good starting point for all intaglio practices including etching, drypoint and aquatint. You will finish the day with two completed plates and colour proofs.





Photogravure  (Photo-Polymer) Printmaking