Saturday, June 2, 2018

Faux Collagraph Printed Index Cards with Gel Press ®

Faux Collagraph Printing

Two blog posts ago I showed a few of my paper-collaged index cards. Some of them I took a step further. I call the process "Faux Collagraph Printmaking".

Collagraphy is a printmaking process in which materials are applied to a rigid substrate (such as paperboard or wood). The word is derived from the Greek word koll or kolla, meaning glue, and graph, meaning the activity of drawing.

So, for example, a textural, possibly three-dimensional collage is created onto a piece of cardboard. Then paint is applied directly to the collage and then pressed onto paper to make a print.

What I did was create a paper collage on index cards, adding machine-stitching to some of them for more texture. I prepared my Gel Press ® plate with acrylic paint and a brayer, added some of my handmade Mylar circle masks, then pressed the collaged index cards onto the 8" x 10" plate.

I was immediately hooked when I saw the unexpected and exciting results. Here is my very first "Faux Collagraph" index card.

faux chine-collĂ© gel press ® plate

Using the 8" x 10" Gel Press ® plate allows you to put several index cards down at a time depending on your configuration. Here are 2 more from that same pull.

absract index card challenge

#icad2016 challenge abstract index cards

I framed these into a triptych for my Mom's 75th birthday .... my biggest fan! :)