It has been too long since I’ve printed at the Kirkland Arts Center so I was almost overwhelmed to be back in class last week.  I took supplies to class but as I said to everyone, it wasn’t as important to me to print that night as it was just to be back with the group and soak up the energy. 

This is the same class that I’ve been taking for awhile now.  It is an advanced class so there are no instructions per se, unless you really need help with a specific technique.  The instructor, Kamla, is really there to help guide your work and connect you to the world of printmaking.  Once during the quarter you have a critique.  You bring in all your current work (and it doesn’t have to be just printmaking) and the class looks at it, makes suggestions and questions you and where you’re going with it. 

I did get some printing done.  I combined my cedar collograph with my tree woodblock.  Essentially each print was run through the press five times.    I want to stitch one of the prints, adding detail to the undergrowth of the forest with threads, beads and bits of wood and felt.  I have to figure out how to best do this – using a beading needle on the heavy-weight rag paper is a killer.

My classmate Joan said the trees reminded her of the trees in British Columbia and Alberta that have been infested with the pine beetle.  This gave me a few ideas for moving forward with one or two of the prints.

The rest will go into the “toned paper” drawer in my garage.  I have a stash of prints, tests, scraps and so on that may or may not get incorporated into other prints and collages.  I’d love to combine two or three end to end…  the possibilities are endless really.