Buderim Craft Cottage Winter School 2025
Embossing, Collagraphs and Cut-outs

GET READY …

This workshop is all about experiencing the potential of printmaking WITHOUT a traditional etching press, using collagraph and blind embossing techniques. We’ll explore different approaches to creating, inking and printing textured collagraph printing plates and cut-out shapes. You will be able to continue exploring these processes further at home with minimal equipment after our workshop. There will also be an opportunity to apply gold leaf to artworks as a special embellishment to one or more of your pieces.

DAY 1 will be focused on learning the processes of embossing, collagraphy and cut-outs – from practical demonstration to experimenting with hands-on doing.

• Hand embossing and debossing
• Making, inking and hand-printing cut-outs (shapes and stencils cut from paper and cardboard that can be inked up and printed, and/or used for embossing)
• Making, inking and hand-printing collagraph plates (a simple “collage” made on board that you will ink and print)
• An introduction to “chine collé” – a simple way of adding thin coloured and pre-printed papers to your prints

DAY 2 will focus on applying your new skills to creating small artworks.

• We will start the day with a gold leafing demonstration and instruction. You can apply imitation gold leaf to printed and embossed papers from Day 1.
• After that, you will work on your own ideas and pieces. I will help you think through possibilities and troubleshoot. You may want to work toward some small finished artworks or continue to experiment and play.

This workshop focuses on hand-printing, allowing you to continue creating at home after the workshop. I will bring my small, portable etching press for you to use, so you can experience the difference between printing your plates by hand, as a “relief print”, versus printing them “intaglio”.

SAFETY

We will be printing with both oil and water-washable oil emulsion-based printing inks. We will use vegetable oil and a citrus-cleaner to clean up. A minimal use of solvents may be needed for cleaning stubborn inks. Gloves will be provided as needed for working with these materials.

We will be working with sharp blades (craft knife, scalpel, retractable blades). I will provide demonstration and instruction on the use of tools safely, and it is expected that you follow the instructions and take care while using them.

Please wear closed, comfortable shoes and comfortable clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty. Bring a studio apron if you have one.

WHAT’S INCLUDED

All materials needed for this workshop are included in the Materials Fee you paid when you booked.

If you have your own studio kit (eg. rulers, scissors, cutting mats, cutting blades, etc), you are welcome to bring them with you. 

There are items noted in the WHAT TO BRING section below that will be useful to bring if you have them. But if not, I will have plenty of items on hand for you to work with.

You will leave the workshop with your printed papers, any embossing elements, collagraph plates and cutouts you make, along with information about tools and handouts to keep you creating after the workshop.

WHAT TO BRING

AN APRON! This can be a messy printing process. The inks we use are sticky. If you don’t have a studio apron, then bring an old shirt – something you won’t mind getting ink on. And I will have gloves on hand too.

If you have your own studio kit (eg. rulers, scissors, cutting mats, cutting blades, etc), you are welcome to bring them with you. 

Please also bring a pen and a journal or notebook for taking notes during the workshop.

As noted above, everything you need is included in your fee. However, feel free to bring your own special papers, textures and stencils as suggested below.

FOR EMBOSSING:

• Your favourite stencils, commercial or hand-made.
• Any linocut plates, or other relief-printing plates – these can be great to emboss with.

FOR COLLAGRAPHS:

• Textures to glue to your collagraph plates – ribbon, textiles, heavy papers, adhesive tapes
• Papers for Chine collé. For example:
  • Thin coloured papers – eg. handmade papers, Japanese long-fibred papers, good quality tissue paper
  • Thin pre-printed papers – eg. your own gel printed papers, commercially printed papers, wrapping papers
  • Other thin papers – eg. old tickets, letters, drawings, pieces of ephemera
  • I will have papers on hand for you to use.

FOR CUTOUTS:

I will have a range of paper cutouts on hand to print with. You can create cut-outs before and during our workshop.

By ‘cutout’ I simply mean shapes cut from a medium- to heavy-weight paper. Think of stencils – where either or both of the positive and negative shapes can be used for printing.

I like to use a 200gsm watercolour paper for my cutouts. You can cut shapes out by hand, with scissors or a blade. I will have a collection pre-cut shapes on hand that you can experiment with.

IMAGE IDEAS

If you have an idea of a completed work you would like to create, bring it along – sketches, reference pictures, notes. But also bring a mind open to different possibilities as you explore the process and get a handle on what you can create.

NOTE regarding artwork size: The maximum image size that we will create is approximately A5 (half an A4 sheet of paper) – 21cm x 14.8cm. You will print onto paper larger than that, but make sure your image idea is no larger than A5.

If you don’t have a clear idea of a completed work, don’t worry! You can focus on play and experimentation and we can think through a specific image idea outcome when you have a sense of what is possible.

Below are links to two related Pinterest boards. Many of the examples on each board have been achieved by printing with an etching press, but I have included them to give you an idea of the possibilities.

EXAMPLES

Below are several images of work I have created using the same techniques and processes that you will learn during our workshop:

Title: Three Vessels
Process: Hand-printed collagraphs (cardboard with texture applied), cutouts and chine collé (using an old handwritten letter) with hand-embossing and gold leaf embellishment. The printing and embossing were done simultaneously, and then the gold leaf was applied afterwards.

Title: Untitled
Process: Hand-printed collagraphs (cardboard and textured ribbon), cutouts and chine collé (using a gel plate monoprint) with hand-embossing and gold leaf embellishment. The printing and embossing were done simultaneously, and then the gold leaf was applied afterwards.