Independence Day

Independence Day, a day to count your blessings.

The art work is one of my clayprints. My interpretation of the flag of Cuba.

Their flag may have the same colors as our own "stars & stripes", but it certainly doesn't stand for the freedoms that we enjoy. 

Today, celebrate & be thankful for the USA.

Hopestone Gallery

Here are some pics of the Hopestone "gallery". I think it looks great. I have 16 

of my clayprints on display. I hope you can come by & see them.

The Art of Printing with Clay

Here it is folks, and I'm so excited: The Art of Printing with Clay by Mitch Lyons.
I got my copy in the mail yesterday and just flipping through it, I can tell it's full of inspiring techniques.

Mitch Lyons is the "inventor" or maybe the "discoverer" of printing with clay. He tells about how working with clay over the years kept him trying new things including printing. You see with clayprinting the clay is the printing "plate". Pigment is applied to the plate in a design of the artist's choosing and then "lifted" onto a substrate. Most printing processes involve a printing plate, ink, paper (as substrate), and a press.

Clayprinting uses no ink, no paper, & no press. I describe it as: pigment suspended in liquid clay on spun polyester canvas. It's all explained in Mitch's book.

I took a clayprinting workshop from Mitch in June of 2012 in Taos, NM. I have been working almost exclusively in clayprinting ever since.

Mitch also has an instructional DVD on clayprinting.

www.mitchlyons.com

In the Studio

I found this quote the other day: "There is no dirt in heaven." Ann Lee

I'm tempted to take issue with that statement, asking for chapter & verse and picturing an uninviting sterile place. But heaven is not my subject; my subject is dirt.

Our world is made of it, and I'm thankful for it when I enter my studio because I work with dirt.

I get excited when I'm greeted by a blank clay slab (dirt). It's like a blank canvas; it calls to me, inviting me to come and make my mark. Ideas course through my mind, and my imagination starts churning out images. What wonderful print will emerge?

It's just a slab of clay. But add color, shape & line and something wonderful happens.

In the Studio

I'm ready to start a new series of clayprints, so first I must prepare a new slab. Here is the process:

A piece of plywood covered with plastic will hold the slab in place.

I make slices of clay approx. 1/2 in. 

Then I roll, roll, roll with my trusty pizza roller.

Now let the printing begin!

Clayprinting

I feel I must promote clayprinting every chance I get. And to promote the creator of the clayprinting process, Mitch Lyons. I bumped into Mitch (not literally or personally), but in Paul Scott's book  Painted Clay.  And a likely place to find Mitch, even though he was nestled in the back of the book like a post script,. because clayprinting  actually involves painting clay with clay (got that?)

With the clayprinting process you can produce wonderful monoprints with layers of color and texture. What I particularly like about it is the "surprise factor". Because the colors are applied to a clay slab that is only leather hard the clay almost has a life of it's own. Pigments sink into the clay, colors come up from the clay, and lovely surprises appear on the "canvas".

Check out Mitch's prints & ceramics at www.mitchlyons.com.

Wordless Wednesday