Some days are just made for playing! On Sunday 25 July I spent the day at Prospect Studio and explored lino and chine colle, something I'd been wanting to do for a while. I decided to pick an old 20:20 plate, which had been part of a 'Meandering' - a stylised image of the Aberdyfi estuary in mid Wales, as the basis for some trials.
Chine colle is a technique used to add colour to a print by the addition of stuck on tissue paper, as the name suggests in French.
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| Chine colle tissue with overlays |
I used a range of materials, with different finishes and thicknesses - from wrapping paper to coloured cellophane, newsprint selected for its colour - and of course the more traditional tissue paper, whether coloured or hand-painted using watered down acrylic paint. I used Japanese nori paste as the glue and applied this very thinly using a piece of card.
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| Japanese nori paste |
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| Experiment with torn shapes and colours from newspaper print with overlays |
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| Coloured cellophane and hand-painted tissue added too |
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| Wrapping paper too |
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| Torn shapes extending beyond the plate |
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| Overlays and limited colour palette |
I learnt a lot about what I liked and disliked and about the performance of the materials. Main points were:
- Nori paste works really well
- I like the contrast between lino ink and the abstract shapes
- Flat works better than scrunched up chine colle
- Less is more!
- Layers work well adding unexpected overlay effects
- I like the extension beyond the plate edges
- The torn edges are attractive in their own right
- I'm enjoying the white spaces
This is a technique I'm planning to come back to, so it's great to begin a journey of discovery.
