I opted for this task because I had just finished digging all the potatoes out of my garden, so it seemed like a sign, and I am just moving into a printmaking project with my grade 8/9 Drawing and Painting class of 30 students this next week. With my background in Art, I have taken relief printing classes at a university level and regularly teach screen printing and lino cut printing at my Secondary School. I could not, however, recall the last time I tried potato printing, so was keen to do something fun and playful.
To challenge myself, I did not pre-draw the letters on to the potatoes and I didn’t worry about matching the sizes of the potatoes that I selected from my drawer. I used acrylic paint for my ‘ink’ and printed onto the paper grocery bag scraps that I had left over from wrapping a birthday present. I like the way that the thick pthalo blue paint looks on the recycled and reused brown paper.
I worked quickly and had this completed in about 10 minutes. Most of that time was spent cutting the potatoes, and I smiled a bit to myself as I realized that many students would create their letter stamps backwards. It is something I always warn my students about, if they are designing a project with words in it.
I really enjoy making things by hand and truly appreciate the time I spend weaving, crocheting, painting, throwing pottery and sewing. This added value of handmade items is part of what drives my creativity. I love the personal touch and the variety within the prints. However, there is no way that I would want to create an entire book using this method of printing and I am thankful that I can reflect upon my printing process by typing out this sentence on my MacBook . ????
Thank you to Johannes Gutenberg for inventing the printing press and thank you to artisans like Paul Collier who help to keep some of the older technologies alive and working so that we can fully understand the advancements over time.
Hi Robin,
Thanks for sharing! It looks like this task wasn’t too challenging for you unlike for myself, haha. It was a very long time since I’ve done potato printing, so before carving the potatoes I didn’t even think about how they would print when stamped on my paper. I just carved the letters in a normal orientation. Unfortunately a few of my letters had to be re-carved so that they orientated correctly when they were printed. This had me pretty frustrated, haha. So you were right to smile as I was one who fell into the trap. I’m sure some others did too.
Thanks,
Grant
Amazingly precise printing. Especially impressive given that you didn’t pre-trace the letters 🙂
Thanks for sharing Robyn, you made this task seem so easy and so aesthetically pleasing. I personally did the manual script as I know I would not have the patience for this. I like how you did not write the letter first but just started carving. I agree with how neat this is, and to appreciate how it comes together to write a whole book I will stick with my computer too.
Robyn, we seem to have a lot in common! I find it interesting how our art minds helped us complete this task more easily than some others. I wrote more about this in my Linking Assignment. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540withmstucker/link-to-task-4/