Color Tetrapak Collagraph Print

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Color Tetra Pak Collagraph Print

I veered off the Mokulito (Wood Litho) printmaking trail to take a little hike with Tetra Pak prints this week. If you’re not familiar, Tetra Pak is the material used to package boxed soup, wine, almond milk, and the like.

The foil and plastic lining in Tetrapak containers wipes clear of ink, and the layer just under the foil – after you cut a shallow shape and peel it away – is rough enough to hold inks for printing intaglio style.

Inventive Art Supplies Book

Janine Vangool is the creator and publisher of Uppercase – a quarterly craft, illustration, and design journal. In addition to the magazine, Janine publishes books on designers and creatives, as well as media topics like Stitched Illustration, Printmaking, and Ceramics.

Her most recent book publication is called Art Supplies – Ingredients of Creativity, and it profiles about fifty artists focused on the origins, lore, and love of art-making ingredients, materials, and accessories. I’m honored to be included in this lovely publication.

Resourceful Art Supplies

During the Pandemic lockdown, like many artists, I scoured the house for atypical art supplies. In retrospect, testing unintended printmaking plates and transfer methods was a perfect distraction to ward off the anxiousness skulking around the globe.

I test printed drypoint engravings and monotype prints from plastic food containers – and collagraph prints from popsicle cartons.

I also tested hand-transfer methods for tiny drypoints for artists who don’t have presses. (I was one of you press-less artists for decades, and I remember that I *pined* for alternatives to a press.)

A few of my experiments are in the Upcycled section of this book. It’s beautifully printed, and the pages feel good in your hands. There’s a video flip-through of the book below. (You can order one here.)

Upcycled Art Supplies

Here are some of the posts from my experiments with printmaking using recycled household materials:

• Use Recycled Paper Cartons to make a cat collagraph or a drypoint print

• Make a Monotype Print with watercolor from aluminum foil, cardboard and cotton swabs.

• Create a drypoint engraving from a plastic tomato produce container, and paint it with watercolor.

• Drypoint etching of a tiny portrait printed from a recycled plastic cookie container without a press

• Video Tutorial for How to Make a Drypoint from household plastic without a press

• How to make a monotype print from a recycled plastic blueberry box without a press

Artist Test Pilots…

They say necessity is the mother of invention, so a shortage of conventional art supplies guided a torrent of printmaking experiments worldwide.

All those fun ideas were shared online so other artists could give them a twirl too. Yayyy for sharing, and Yayy again for the gentle reminder that as artists, we are born experimenters. None of us are born with artsy-know-how, but we *are* all born as naturally curious children.

Our challenge is to guide the grumpy-judges we procured as adults into a time-out closet, to extend permission, and territory and time for our curious, experimental, busy hands. Fire your critic for the day, and make something.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you in the next post,

Belinda

P.S. Artists using recycled packaging for printmaking are sharing lovely work on Instagram – like Karen Wicks, Sue Brown, Sarah Conner, and Sam Hodge.

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