Print Making: Creating Collagraphs

A few years ago, while at college, I was lucky enough to do a lot of print making. I really loved the process of it and took every opportunity I could to get in the print room and play. Unfortunately, since then, I haven't done a huge amount, mostly due to not having the same access to resources or space.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found some collagraph prints in a box in the top of my cupboard. I decided to make them into cards (which I'm selling on Etsy here if you are interested in taking a look). But finding them made me want to have another go at making a collagraph and seeing what I could print.

I made my collagraphs out of mount board and stuck card/doilies/string/more mount board on to them using PVA glue. I then sealed them with more PVA glue so they could be reused. I wasn’t completely sure what I was doing, as it has been a little while since I’ve made a collagraph, but my aim was just to play around and experiment with what works and what doesn’t work and see what I could come up with.

For my first attempt I used acrylic paint, but gave up on that almost immediately as it dried to quickly and the paper got stuck to collagraph. Instead I used printing inks which were much more successful and gave some nice, clean prints. Also, while doing it, I found that the pattern made on the roller, after rolling over collagraph, was interesting and took prints of that too.

The prints I have made are only really tests/experiments, but I really like how some of them have turned out and so might see what I can do with them. I really enjoyed the process and like the results I have ended up with. I also now know what techniques are most effective for creating good prints which I’ll definitely bear in mind for next time I try this. I particularly like the two colour triangle pattern and I want to see if I can make a bigger collagraph and try it again, but maybe also with three colours.