Rubber Stamp Portraits at the London Book Launch

We were overjoyed to have Paddy Malloy's "Brave New Face " portrait stall at the London Launch of "Rubber Stamping" . It was a raving success !
Here are a few examples - more to follow !


Paper and Stamp pads were supplied by GFSmith and Blade Rubber Stamps

Rubber Stamp Workshop at the Art Workers Guild

At the end of the rubber stamp workshop participants placed their work to one side for everyone to see.  

Here's a few of the people who took part;

Harriet Higgins

Brother Rosie Collins

Donna Wilson

Demelza Oxley 

Jeannie Wilson

David Lemm

Will Hill

Marcus Haslam

Rob Lowe - Supermundane 

Isla Miller

Jackie Kirk

Edwood Burn

Hector Garay

Elva Fernández Rivero

Brother Roger Kneebone

Brother Celia Ward

Brother Prue Copper 

Brother Meredith Ramsbotham

Chloe Cheese

Pic Hall

Nammi Eu

Alex Czinczel

Eve Archer 

Jane Cradock Watson

Brother Rachael Matthews

Maureen Milsom

Leigh Milsom Fowler

William Fowler

Brother Zeel

Orson Coupland 

Bebe Higgins

Duisa Kneebone 

Tony Collins 

Jackie Kirk's page (top)

Jane Craddock Watson's page (bottom)

Many thanks to GFSmith paper and Blade Rubber Stamps for sponsoring the event ! 

More to follow . . . keep your eyes peeled ! 

"Rubber Stamping", London Launch

The London launch for Rubber Stamping took place at London's Art Worker's Guild.
In the afternoon we ran a rubber stamp workshop in the Guild's magnificent hall.

Paper was generously supplied by GFSmith and rubber stamp inks by Blade Rubber Stamps.
Members of the Guild, and invited guests made carved rubber stamps in response to their surroundings, these prints were bound by Wyvern Bindery and are to be in auctioned to raise funds for the Guilds building fund.

I will post some of the prints over the coming week.

Rubber Stamping, Get Creative with Stamps, Rollers and Other Printmaking Techniques

At last my book's been published by Laurence King !
Nearly 2 years in the making.

Here are a few of its spreads.

Rob Ryan wrote an excellent forward for the book.

One of my favorite sections to write and make rubber stamps for, was the 'Materials, tools, and equipment' chapter. I really enjoyed carving the tool stamps, and putting down on paper all technical detail I've gleaned over the years.

Then came the essential pages of instructions, the basics, such as how to carve a rubber stamp. Here is a spread on deduction printing, the kamikaze printing method.

Overprinting - this spread came about quite magically. I wanted to replicate the CMYK colour wheel but in an imaginative way. Bulbs seemed an ideal solution, the resulting impressions created coloured spotlights of filtered light. 

For the avairy print I made a set rubber stamps from drawings of taxidermy birds I made, with my nephew & niece, at the Bristol City Museum.

Printing on food ! Yes you can print on food, specialist printing inks are available, or why not use food dye ?
Late one night, after several failed attempts I finally mastered how to make royal icing, its the only way to create these stamped alphabet biscuits. 

Mail Art, this is something I'm really getting into, it's remarkable. After sending dozens of pieces of post out into the world, you'll receive an overwhelming response in return. Try it, you'll full in love with the process, a perfect marriage of life & art.

The work here is a record of my correspondence between the artist Jo Cook and myself. 

The last section of the book features several alternative printing methods, or what I like to call primitive printing processes. My favorite of which is Roller Printing.


I hope you like the book, do let me know what you think.

Primitive Print in the City 3

I've been so busy, that I've fallen behind on my blogging, I'm still trying to catch up with my Summer School workshops.

The last class was "Print in the City 3 " at UWE. For the last 3 years we've been running primitive print making classes in the city of Bristol. This year we were based in the MShed, a fantastic museum in the heart of the city, it's focus, Bristol.
Building on the foundations of the previous industrial museum, it holds tons of exciting machines, vehicles, huge signs and other bits and pieces in its storage depot, Eduardo Paolozzi's heaven essentially. Outside, on the harbourside you'll find more signs, and other industrial paraphernalia. An excellent place to make primitive prints.

We started off making clay prints.

First roll out some clay on an interesting surface.

Ink up the clay impression (using relief printing ink & roller)

And press down on paper !

 Plaster Printing 
 Using the items found in the Mshed storage depot as subject matter,

the participants made a number of carved plaster blocks - these have been sealed with button polish.


Frottage or Creative Rubbings. 

On the last day we made a number of rubbings from a number of interesting surfaces.

For a far more detailed and delightful post on the summer school visit Lilla Duignan
blog , its brilliant ! seeingthings.me.uk/blog/?p=2779
thanks to Ruth Sidwick for the photographs.