prickly
Busy with my art work this week but tired and jet-lagged, I must say that I dislike daylight saving time! Tell me again what we are saving.
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by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena printing hands
Last November I wrote about a work in progress, a print combining digital printing and a collagraph. Have a look at that image and compare it to what follows below. My photos are not good but serve to illustrate the process to anyone interested in it.
As you can see above, I developed the image further using a collagraph plate of each hand, added a light background texture of grass paper and tweaked some details and colours. I printed this trial proof and planned to edition it soon after.
For various reasons, I did not get back to doing so until last week. It had been such a while since I’d worked on it that I had to do a few tests again. To my dismay, this time the digital print stuck to the inked collagraph plates as they went through the printing press! Tearing paper, tearing my hair, I spent hours testing ink consistencies, wetness or dryness of the paper and the pressure. Nothing worked satisfactorily. Usually if a collagraph has cured a longer time, it’s less likely to stick, so we in the shop could not understand what changed. I even tried a release spray from the sculpture department with no luck.
An etching printed well. So, we determined that it had to be the coating on this digital watercolour paper that does not agree with acrylic medium based collagraphs. Last year I used the same technique on a digital photorag paper with success. What to do next? I had already printed out the digital run of this print and did not want the expense of reprinting on another paper. A deep etched copperplate seemed the only way to match the textural quality I was after, but most of us in the shop don’t like the toxicity of that process anymore.
With encouragement from Bonnie, our fantastic shop technician, I decided to try inking and printing my own hands! First applying barrier cream on my hands, I pressed them into the ink spread on the glass plate, then test printed first on newsprint.
I pressed them directly onto the digital prints spread out on the table, re-inking my hands in between each. Scary yet exciting!
Look at the details of this cave-woman’s hand!
In the end, I think the direct handprints look even better than the collagraph ones.
‘Twas meant to be, for what better way to convey the cave artists’ hands?
Now for a title…
P.S. The paper colour is not quite this dark, more a warm white – poor photos, sorry!
by Marja-Leena paper hearts
I made these for my loved ones, and also wish to share them with far-away family and friends, including all of you dear blog-friends and readers in honour of Friendship Day! Have a sweet day! Hauskaa Ystävänpäivää!
And, in the ‘always-learning-something-new-department’: Today is the Feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, not Valentine!
by Marja-Leena birthday meditations
another year older, another year wiser
These photos of me taken by my husband last week on our westcoast retreat capture my mood these days,
a mood of reflection and meditation:
on my joy in the beauty of the moment,
on the blessings of the love of my life partner, our family and our friends,
on the gift of creativity and the freedom to pursue it,
on the hope that my muse will be with me again, inspired by new images captured on this trip,
on improved and continued energy and health to follow these dreams for many more years
by Marja-Leena winter journeys
Husband and I have been planning a trip to our favourite place near the Pacific Rim National Forest Reserve, on the western edge of Vancouver Island near Tofino. We call it our ‘treat and retreat’. I’ve written of past trips before, as well as more recently about our yearning to go there again.
At last husband found a week to spare between work projects. Having also repaired his sister’s computer and wanting to return it to her, we first went to Saanich, north of Victoria, on Friday after work. It took that evening and a good part of the next day to reconnect the internet service and set up wireless in her home. The latter just would not work, probably due to some barrier set up by the service provider. Anyway, we had a nice visit, as always, with Brigitte and our nephew and his girlfriend. He’s been teaching English in South Korea for a year and may go back, so it was great to see him.
Sunday morning, February 3rd, we finally left on our short holiday. We took the Brentwood/ Mill Bay ferry across to Highway #1, bypassing Victoria. The sun came out and shone for most of our journey, how very lucky for us. The mountains were beautiful, covered in snow quite far down, something we’ve never witnessed here before, and we could see more and more snow on the ground the further north and west that we drove, but thankfully the roads were clear. It had been a concern after last week’s storm.
As we often do, we stopped for lunch next to beautiful Barclay Sound in Port Alberni. The last stretch of highway furthest west is rough, very windy and made even narrower by the high snowbanks. How I wanted to take photos but there were rare spots to stop. There was snow even on the coast, though less of it, very unusual for this area. Apparently this community was cut off from the rest of the island for a couple of days last week.
We’ve been very lucky most trips to have sunshine on arrival. It was low in the sky when we arrived at Long Beach, always our first short stop for a long look and deep breaths. After checking into our cabin on the waterfront on relatively sheltered McKenzie Beach, we went down for a walk and a mad session of shooting photos, each of us with a camera. Sure, sunset photos are a bit much, but I also took a lot of interesting closeups of sand and surf – who knew what the weather would be like after today?!
Sure enough, we had storms! This is what some tourists come for, though they stay in the luxury hotels, with hot tubs and fireplaces overlooking the ocean. Winds up to 90 kmh, lashing rain and hail, and even snow one day. It was surfers paradise, though they had to choose the quieter beaches. We managed walks in the less stormy periods, but not the very long hikes that we usually do. We both had colds, so we did more of the rest and relaxation this time.
In our visits over the past couple of decades, we have always stayed in one of these rustic gothic arch cabins, all wood ceilings and walls inside, with basic amenities of a small kitchen and bath, without TV, phone or internet. This year, wifi was advertised so we brought our toys. However the connection was very flaky and weak, so I was just barely able to receive a few emails, and post one photo here. We watched, heard and marveled at the storms, listened to music, read, played cards, consumed our provisions, napped and had a couple of fantastic local seafood dinners in town.
The drive home yesterday went safely, noting a few vehicles stuck in ditches or in the even higher snowbanks. If we’d tried to come home a day earlier we’d have run into trouble, not having snow tires on our vehicle. Good to get away for a treat and retreat and good to be home!
Today I’m busy preparing for family house guests for the weekend. Sister-in-law is coming. Our eldest daughter and partner are planning to travel down this afternoon from east of Kamloops, but the two main highways have had avalanches. One of them is now open, or they may have to come via the Okanagan and the southern Highway #3 – a bit of a worry with all this snow and avalanche danger. Hope they arrive safely!
We have lots of great photos to share, but just this one for now for it may take a few days for me to catch up around here, including reading everyone’s blogs!
by Marja-Leena sepia memories
Meandering thoughts inspired by Jean’s sepia photos:
the trials and pleasures of ink drawings in art school days, too long ago
the ecstasy of seeing exquisite and fragile drawings by the Old Masters,
in the Drawing Room of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, fifteen years ago
old Chinese landscape paintings of steep mountains and gorges
by Marja-Leena on the road
during today’s walk….
by Marja-Leena 
by Marja-Leena winter afternoon
At the mouth of the Capilano River at Ambleside Park, West Vancouver, 4:00 pm
Today seemed to be the first day this year without rain, though I haven’t kept any notes on it. It’s been incredibly wet, normal winter weather here in coastal British Columbia, and we just wear our rain gear and carry on. But a mild (8C, 46F) dry day is a treat with the sun out ever so briefly. We head out; first for a bit of browsing of the January sales in some shops until we feel too warm and stuffy indoors, then for a long seaside walk. The sun peeks out again to greet us before it disappears into the clouds again. Home again, pleasantly tired.