Wednesday 23 April 2014

Chine colle - natural dyes


This must be a bit of shock for those of you used to looking in on my blog... Colour!!, really...??
Its given me a few wobbles I can tell you, but nothing ventured and all that...
The reason for this sudden change of tack is Gloucestershire Print Co-op' Mini print show is coming up and last year it struck me that small prints often benefit from a splash of colour.
Chine colle seemed to a viable solution for me, I can't muck up the colour too much that way.


I tried painting tissue paper with watercolour, but that involved too many colour decisions. After a quick re-think I decided that as I was making images of the natural landscape I should really use natural dyes. The selection of papers above are beetroot, paprika, tea and turmeric.
 

The beetroot proved to be very strong, but when combined with other colours a bit of red added strength.


Controlling the density of the red became my prime focus. Turmeric proved to be a lovely sunny yellow tone, paprika was very weak.

  
This image with a strong wedge of earthy tea paper drew very positive comments.
 
 
Always good to see a multiple of mini prints.
 
picture-frame
 
Gloucestershire Print Co-operative Mini Print at
the Printmakers Gallery, 3rd May - 1st June, weekends only.

5 comments:

Charlton Stitcher said...

Colour was indeed a surprise ... but a good one! I really like the spread of mini-prints. Good luck with the show.

Sue Brown said...

Isn't it amazing the depth a small amount of coloured chine collee gives to a print. A surprising development and working really well, looking forward to seeing how this will change your work.
XX

Unknown said...

Fantastic and inspiring blog. Beautiful sketches! Thank you for sharing!
http://agagasiniak.blogspot.co.uk/

Unknown said...

Searching for inspiration in my drypoint chine colle artwork I stumbled across this blog, I have been using very weak washes of water colour on my tissue textured with salt for interest, I was intrigued by your use of natural dyes but wondered about the archival qualities of this. I appreciate that this is an old blog but wondered if you have any feedback regarding my question?

Wendy Rhodes said...

Hi Gerry - as you thought the archival quality is not great, the tea stained prints have held up really well, but the beetroot disappeared really quickly, even when not exposed to light very much. So beautiful to start with, disappointing in the long run.
Hope this helps - I think the use of natural dyes would probably benefit from more research. Be careful that the watercolours you have used also have good light fast properties. Happy printing!