Descriptive statement of Collatype boards

The A3 plywood board had 16 different items stuck to it but I found that only about three of them appealed to me: the filler, the bubble wrap and the screwed up water colour paper coated with PVA. I subsequently tried another board with filler drawn into it with a palette knife and with wire wool coated with PVA. The wire wool definitely had potential.

My tutor mentioned using carborundum powder and I researched this on the internet and bought some coarse grained and fine grained and experimented with this sprinkled onto PVA and mixed with PVA and applied with a knife. I did several test prints using carborundum and really enjoyed the subtlety of the effects I got, it has so much potential.

To summarise, the different surfaces I decided to use were:

1. Screwed up water colour coated with PVA
2. Wire wool coated with PVA
3. Filler drawn into with any sharp object like a nail
4. Carborundum, sprinkled onto PVA or mixed with it and applied with a knife

I also experimented with using stencils to block out carborundum leaving the texture of the plywood block exposed. Around the edges of the stencils there was a ghostly white line where the paper accommodated the slightly raised surface of the paper stencil.

The different textures from the above surfaces ranged from tiny dimples with carborundum to highly complexed ridged textures from wire wool. There were also subtle differences between filler drawn into and PVA/carborundum mix spread and drawn into. The filler had harder edges as it dried quicker. The screwed up watercolour paper gave the texture of damaged concrete.

I found the textures I created to be highly tactile and seductive and I wanted to go on experimenting with combinations and applications and stencils cut and torn. This method of printing has enormous potential and I don't feel I will exhaust it in this course.