MONOPRINTING – roller/ink/glass/paper

Printing ink spread on glass then paper placed on top and image drawn. Above right is image when another piece of paper is place on glass straight afterwards and rolled over vigorously which creates a negative image. I discovered this purely by chance but I almost prefer the negative image. I enjoyed learning about this technique and initially I thought it would be easy but I found that i will need to learn how to control the outlines created as I felt mine looked a bit heavy handed. (excuse the pun re the first image!)

I chose two images that feel symbolic to me; a child’s hand resting on an adult’s hand and a Fairy tale like tree. The third image is a bronze carving on a ceremonial vessel. I felt the tree was the most successful as I started to get the hang of different pressures and also using different tools. It gave the final result more ‘texture.’

Marbling

I loved the instant gratification of the marbling! Immediately and with absolutely no prior experience, me and all my fellow classmates were producing great work!! I made many different patterns on lots of bits of paper and if I am honest, for the most part it was pretty much pot-luck what they would look like once I had pulled them out of the tray but the more I did I started to notice how I could control the result a little more each time a therefore create different pattern . I felt that I could use this technique in future especially if I was creating a collage. I continued to experiment at home with some coloured ink which created some great results and I used one of the images as a background in the ‘create our own Colour Wheel’ section of the painting module. I can see how combining different practises can create really interesting results.

I chose to make a cup of tea with some of my marbled papers as I noticed that one of them had what looked like a drop of liquid hitting a surface of water and bouncing off – like a drop of milk in a cup of tea. And the ritual of making tea is historically sacred and important and remains both of these things for me today.

The ritual of making a cup of tea is an ancient one, documented as far back as 1100s when Monks in Japan would drink tea to stay awake. The principles of the Japanese tea ceremony are rooted in Zen Buddhism and whilst it has less ceremonial connotations today, it is still practised as a welcoming to family, friends etc.

In Britain, although tea drinking started out as a status symbol for the super rich, it has long been a common drink that has become part of the British identity. It’s often the go-to solution for just about anything, “Let’s sit down and have a nice cup of tea!”

Everyone has a certain way they like their tea and I’m up there with the best of them in terms of fussiness! The ritual of making tea exactly how I want it, always centres me. And it really is a performance making my tea! I like to drink chia tea that I buy mail order from India. Here’s the performance I go through to get my perfect cup:

• Make fresh homemade almond milk with no salt or sugar.
• Always use two teabags.
• Only use my favourite mug.
• Warm the mug first.
• pour boiling water on top of the two teabags til mug is 3/4 full.
• pour in equal amounts of almond milk and Barista style oatmilk to rim of mug.