String Prints continued (M3 Chpt 8)

Introduction

After the slightly disappointing effect of printing blocks made with rough string I made a set of new blocks made with cotton yarn. However I found I was able to use those initial blocks for printing and to a lesser extent wax rubbings. On the whole I got much more out of making rubbings with these blocks, especially those then painted with colour washes. I wonder if this was because some of the rubbings had an archaeological look to them. Liker medieval fields seen from above:

The blocks:

 A city block grid, minor roads, major roads

And the earlier blocks made for activity 2 which I also used for this activity:

Basic Rubbings

I made a few basic rubbings to see how the blocks worked layered with one another:

Then I made some more considered rubbings with wax crayons:

I found it was possible with the right combination of crayon and watercolour to get a very jewwelled effect.


Printing

Although I was able to use all my blocks for printing I didn't get the kind of results I was hoping for:

A way forward:

I wondered about combining prints. I made a few sheets of simple printing on black and white gesso bases then cut and placed them randomly. I may take this forward in chapter 10:

So on with the next chapter.....

String Prints (Mod 3 Chapter 8)

Introduction

I threatened to go off at a tangent quite early on in this chapter as the first activity, identifying interesting areas of maps, did lend itself to a bit of treatment. However I managed to catch myself on and stay fairly focused.

The word 'map' can be used to cover a range of things including: geographical and political maps, road maps, contour/ordinance survey maps, weather maps, geological maps, oceanic maps, satellite maps even Facebook users map.  This is a ghostly web of connections around the world where Facebook is most frequently used, and is fascinating because of what is not there rather than what is:

Activity 3.8.1: Identifying interesting areas of maps

a] Moscow Road Map

 b] Spaghetti Junction

 c] Milton Keynes

d] Contour Map

 e] Thematic Road Map

 f] Medieval Fields

 g] Brazilian Circular Field System

I did some further work on these images, which I've appended at the end of the blog as a bit of an extra activity.

Activity 3.8.2 Making Print blocks with string.

I made two print blocks. One with twisted twine and the other with cotton yarn. I chose a piece based on Milton Keynes and the other on the contour map. I forgot to photograph them in their new condition!

I started with the block based on roundabouts. It was a very disappointing print block and didn't really produce much of interest:

It failed completely as a printing block

Using the Contour printing block was more successful. I'm afraid the pictures are a bit jumbled together.

wax crayon and walnut ink - Maybe my favourite

Activity 3.8.3

I made two connected blocks for this activity using rough string:

Alas, they were a complete failure. So I've remade a number of blocks using the cotton yarn. I've decided to post this blog whilst I'm waiting for the new print blocks to dry.

Extra Activity

I found the initial exercise really exciting and I thought there were so many ways to treat map details that I spent some time playing with these:

Returning to Module 1 - complimentary colours

Using resist