FOG Tuesday Collograph Printing Plates

To start off our new year at FOG Tuesday we are doing a two part session. Part 1 in September is the making of Collograph Printing Plates and on FOG Tuesday in October we will be printing Collographs with the plates.

A collograph printing plate, simply explained, is the creation of a collage of materials with interesting texture and relief on a rigid substrate and the resulting monoprint collograph is created when you apply inks or paints to the plate surface and print onto another surface such as fabric or paper.

Little works of art in themselves.
TL Corrugated cardboard, TR lace, buttons & cheesecloth.
Bottom Lace Doily

The supplies for making a collograph plate are quite simple:

• A rigid substrate: matt board, two layers of cardboard glued together, MDF
• White glue or glue gun
• Paint brush to apply glue and varnish
• Liquitex™ gloss varnish
• Found objects: feathers, netting, lace, buttons, grunge board, foam sheets, corrugated cardboard, toothpicks, elastics, cheesecloth, puzzle pieces, washers, grunge board scrapbooking pieces, cereal box cardboard

Apply a thin surface of white glue to your substrate and create your collage with your found objects. The only real rules you need to follow are:

• ensure that all items you use for your collage are the same height and not too deep,
• leave some open areas around your objects, unless you are doing an overall textured pattern on your plate, for example lace or cheesecloth,
• if you are using letters, make certain that you glue them on mirror image.

If your items are a bit heavier, you may want to use the glue gun to adhere them first, and then do a layer of white glue.

The two items that I used for my first plate were not even so
did not produce a good print. Also, the felt leaves, though
covered in the gloss varnish, did not take the paint very well.

Once the collage is completed you want to let them dry thoroughly (we set ours out in the sun to dry), though you could leave overnight or use a hair dryer to speed up the process.

Fruits of or labour drying in the sun.

When the plates are dry, apply two thin layers of the gloss varnish to the front and back of the plate as well as sealing in the sides, especially if you are using cardboard as your substrate. The coating of gloss varnish seals all surfaces and provides a protective layer once you apply the wet medium you are using, paint or ink, and protects your plate for additional uses.

Great texture.

More texture and letters placed mirror image.

Left Zipper pieces and two layers of grunge board to even the layers.
Top Right Adhesive foam shapes.
Bottom Right Simple shape cut from cereal box cardboard.

More about our printing experiences in October! Stay tuned…

Top Simple cardboard plate, printed on fabric.
Bottom Mirror image grunge board scrapbooking shapes.