A day in the studio!

Hi all,

Me with new studio ambassador Cammie! She's just 2 months and too adorable, needless to say she stole a lot of my attention today...

Today I wanted to share with you my day at the studio!
On Thursdays I go to a very special place where I get to blossom through my printmaking.
About a year ago I met a woman here in Portugal who teaches printmaking, a skill and craft that I'd wanted to attempt for years!

After my first session I was hooked and since then I always look forward to my weekely session.

There are many aspects of these days that make them espesially enjoyable and belive it or not, one of them is the 1 hour bus journey to get there!
Lokated in Sintra the studio has stunning views and nature surrounding it on ever corner..
Here are a cuple of photos taken from the bus;

After jumping of my ride I then climbe up the steepest hill imaginable hidden from the road by trees and bushes. It's almost like going into another world.

Beautiful flowers are growing all over on the sides of the roads..

Up the hill and I'm at the studio! I didn't take any photos of the house itself as it's also the private home of the woman I am learning from. I'll tell you this though, it's spectacular, hhehe..

Today my main mission was to rint up a new plate that I have been working on for a festival this summer where I will show my work. It's a chamber music festival and my motif is the violin.

The plate I will be printing..

Today I also wanted to make some chine-colle so I brought with me some hand colored Japaneese paper I had prepared before arriving.

Hand colored papers dyed with Liquitex inks cut to fit my plate.

The first thing I always do after arriving is mixing up my ink. Today I worked with some pre-mixed as well as a few I mixed myself. The three blues on the photo are Ultramarine (powder), turquoise and deep blue.

I then put a layer of ink on the plate and rubbed it off with tarlatan until it looked like this;

I then dampened my Japanese paper and sprayed a thin layer of glue on one side.

Plate with Japanese paper ontop.

I put the paper ontop of the plate with the glued side up, then put my dampend normal paper ontop of them both and run it through the press.

.... The moment of thruth...

...Not too shabby!

I printed up a few versions with different papers and then Cammie wanted to play a bit!

What a pretty girl!

Over you can see some of my materials and tools; Colored japanese paper, one of the finished prints, my engraving tools and the zinc plate I printed from.

The rest of the day I spent printing up around 10 violins and a cpuple of Moon Dancers as well;

And then after a few hours it was time to take the beautiful busride back!

I hope you all had a wonderful and creative day people!

<3