When reflecting on the outcomes of my 22 series, I mentioned my plan to print on the anaglypta wallpaper which I have so far utilised in various ways in my project.
I had no idea how the wallpaper would react to being soaked in water let alone how it would pick up the ink and therefore the image itself.
After completing the 22 etchings for each year of my life, I decided to reuse a few of my etching plates to test out this idea.
The images shown within this post demonstrate the success of this experiment, so much so that I have re-printed my entire series upon this paper. As mentioned previously, I was worried about my prints being too illustrative and wanted to either edit them or recreate them in a different way which distanced the work from this undesired illustrative element.
I soaked the wallpaper in the same way I would a piece of somerset paper. It was, however, more difficult to determine the right moment for printing as the consistency of the anaglypta meant it did not dry in the same way. It seemed that the water did not soak as much into the paper and instead sat on top. This may be due to some sort of coating added to the wallpaper. Just a few moments in the sun appeared to dry up this surface water and my printer’s instinct told me it was ready to go.
The outcomes are, I think, incredibly interesting. I was perhaps expecting that only the raised texture would pick up the image but in fact what happened was much more intriguing.
It appeared that the ink had reached the surface of the paper as well as the textured parts, although, the ink had not become absorbed at the base of the texture. This meant that thin white cracks appeared across the image, intensifying as the print dried.
This is exemplified in the images attached to this post, particularly in the close-up image. Despite my choice to use the anaglypta paper, I like the fact that this effect was created through the interaction of these specific materials. Not knowing how they were going to turn out and then that moment when you peel the paper off the etching plate…it’s all so exciting!
Not only do my prints appear more interesting and achieve a greater depth, they also reflect my subject matter in regards to my memories of times past. It is as though my recollections are cracked, fragmented and that I no longer have a clear memory of these times in my life. I believe this process has achieved a stronger significance to my concept than that of the drip technique utilised in my painting experiments.
