PEAR SHAPED
a series of prints inspired by pearsConference pears
When I was picking pears from the tree in our garden I was struck by the enormous variety of shapes, unlike anything you generally see in a shop. I started drawing the shapes and became quite obsessed with them. I particularly like the allusion to women being pear shaped, or things that go ‘wrong’ being pear shaped.
Through this process of exploration the pears took on personalities of their own, and relationshops seemed to develop between the different characters.
I spent a long time experimenting with different plate making techniques to get a good pear skin texture, and to balance this with the background texture and colour.
Conference Pears collagraph print
The finished print – yes they were conference pears!
Exploring pear shapes through drawing and mono printing.
Testing out different ways of making plates; gesso, gels, carborundum, drypoint…. I finally settled on aluminium foil over sandpaper to create the texture of pear skin.
Collagraph printing plate
This mountboard plate has textured wallpaper as the background, the pears are made from sandpaper with aluminium foil on top.
A little print from the gesso and foil plate. This pear is flirtatiously looking over its shoulder.
Hi, I’m just starting out with printmaking and I want to try making a large roller. I have a redundant aluminium aqualung tank I used to use for scuba-diving.
It has a circumference of about 70 cm and I was hoping to drill holes at each end and pass a rod through to make it into a roller. I wondered if you have ever heard of an aqualung being used to make a successful roller? Do you think I could cover it in a layer of butyl rubber like pond liner or similar material? Or could I just lay a piece of butyl rubber over the inked plate and rollover it to get an offset print on the underneath of the butyl rubber?
I am most grateful for your website with all its advice as it gives me the confidence to start on printmaking.
Regards
Hugh Fletcher
Hi Hugh, that sounds like a great project, I haven’t come across anyone doing it before.I’d think you could improvise a roller out of any smooth cylinder – the fact that you can drill it and add handles is great. nb the handles dont need to turn – on big rollers they are fixed and they rotate in your hand with the roller as you hold/push it.
If you are planning to use the roller for pressure on the back of your paper, you can use a piece of wetsuit to give it padding, to continue with the diving theme. Avoid any seams though as these will show.
If you plan to ink the roller up for printing the issue is getting a smooth even layer of rubber onto it, ideally with no join, although as it is so big you can probably avoid the join when inking a plate. Butyl rubber often has a textured surface so pvc pond liner could be better as it is generally smooth. I would suggest putting a layer of foam, (or neoprene) around the roller first with pvc on top so it has some padding. Spray on glue is probably best as you need something very even.
Have fun with it – let me know what happens…. Good luck!