Bridget Harris

Having become the lucky owner of a secondhand Hawthorn Etching Press I have been experimenting this morning in my studio. Once I had set up the weight of the roller I got some random flowers, leaves and vintage lace, inked up the plate and off I went. After the first print I took off the elements and reprinted the plate causing a negative effect which can be seen in the second photo. This negative effect is really interesting and something I have been investigating with vintage lace when doing my Wednesdays at The Ropewalk  http://www.the-ropewalk.co.uk/ nts. Another interesting factor was how the sap and stamens from the leaves and flowers bled onto the paper thus causing natural dye. As the garden is coming into full bloom this may be the idea time to carry on with investigating this further. 

Print making and playing with order and position. Often I just use one piece of garment or lace to print with , here I am trying to get out of the habit and use a variety of different elements. The reason is to try and link these pieces with further work in some way. I like the difference between the ghostly images and then the block colour of the lace in the right hand corner,I'm not sure if I could now print and over print to get different textures and colours .

An afternoon at  The Ropewalk  printing, I had been given some beautiful tatting done by a friends Mother and also some Vintage lace as a Thank you for talking to students about my work. I thought about how I could use then and decided to make an impression  onto a zinc plate using a soft ground and then it was etched using a Nitric acid solution. I have printed on both paper and fabric , the results are clear and interesting, if you look closely you can see the small stitches are just visible. I am now keen to see how I can develop this further, maybe by adding embroidery myself or looking at other colours and medium to print with