Caterpillar & Warrior Bear - plus continued adventures and misadventures in print

Recently, I think by using Shop Local on Etsy, I discovered juliabhebner.etsy.com. She has really beautiful and unique prints, among other things. We did a sort of bartering arrangement and I got this print I had been eyeing:

Swallowtail Butterfly Caterpillar

And also this:

Warrior Bear Magnet

I love these! And I know I'll see at least one of those caterpillars show up again this year when the fennel gets going. I doubt I'll see a warrior bear in person, but you never know.

For local people, go check out Julia's work, currently at the Visual Arts Studio and upcoming on May 17th at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden's art & craft show

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So, this weekend I dropped in on a print making open house at Visual Arts Center (not to be confused with Visual Arts Studio), which I still very much want to call the Hand Work Shop

To make a long story short, once again I have concluded that print making (in most forms) takes a lot of prep and is messy and time consuming (none of which I'm saying is a negative thing). It's just difficult to get into if you're not prepared.

I thought I finally learned the difference between monotype and monoprint, although here it is explained in a way that makes me think I'm still not quite certain. I'm constantly getting hung up on terminology, I think because I like getting hung up on terminology. I love finding out what all the materials and implements and machinery parts are called. Anyway, I made a very simple monotype. One was the result of drawing with a stick on top of the paper on top of the plate, the other (the one with the red background) went through the press.

Comparing the outcome to last week's project, I think I prefer drypoint, though that is even more press-reliant. I also found out some things about the wood block class they have, and that's really the class I'd want to take the most, although I fear my carving strengths would not be adequate.

So, for now it's just screenprinting for me. The most recent episode involved my attempt to use the leftover photo emulsion which had been in refrigerator since last time I used it. It looked usable as I was pouring it onto the screen. But it smelled gross, and I'm thinking I should have thrown it out. Too late though. The next day, after I left it to burn the image all night, the screen's surface was all globby and uneven. Then when I tried to wash it out at first nothing was happening and then the edges of the images started to crumble off. Lesson (learned?) once again: stop taking short cuts and stop trying to use materials that are past their prime. Oh yeah, but I filled in the chunked off parts with screen filler and I'm going to try and see if I can still get some prints from it.

In other news, my upcoming "reveal" (if this was a reality show) involves the following sneak peek: