Cardstock Collagraph Workshop

Last Saturday, I led a Cardstock Collagraph workshop at Studio Two Three, a community printmaking space in Richmond, VA. I taught this technique of printmaking to art teachers of Richmond Public Schools last Fall and the teachers created some amazing work, too.

This technique of printmaking is super simple, but can produce very awesome results. Making a cardstock collagraph is basically cutting out designs in cardstock and gluing them to another piece of cardstock. You can cut out the shape and rearrange it, print backgrounds, print multiple times, change the colors, etc. Having the opportunity to teach this class again and experimenting with it made me realize that it's even more creative and fun than I first thought, and the simplicity of making the plates freed me to be more spontaneous with it than I usually am with, say, linocut printing. I also learned a lot about different techniques to try from the participants in the workshop - just one of the perks of being a teacher. Students in the class were very creative and really jumped right into it. They created some amazing stuff! Sorry that I can't credit every print with the artist's name, but I did  when I knew the name of the person who made it. Take a look!

 I created the grassy background for this one, and a student used it as the backdrop for her Alice in Wonderland rabbit! Next to this print, Chris Pool worked on a simple and elegant design for a vase of pussywillows.

Here you can see how artist Sarah Watson used the same grassy backdrop for her flying fish garden. Love the surreal image! Local jeweler Kim Young did the skunk/hummingbird/dewdrop-boy print, and experimented with changing around the positions of each of these delightfully unrelated (yet somehow fitting) images.

 This kite print is so powerful!

 Elegant elephant.

 That rabbit again (and again, and again.)

 

More elephant love by Emily Yeatts!

I will be doing a follow-up post showing step-by-step how I create a collagraph print. Keep a look out!