Recent printmaking

The last time I posted about printmaking on my blog was in February this year, so I feel it’s time for an update. I also recently gave a presentation about my work to members at Edinburgh Printmakers, so this gave me an opportunity to reflect on the progress I’ve made with various projects over this spring and summer.

Cyanotype ghost signs

Since last year I’ve been working on a series of cyanotype prints made from my own photographs of ‘ghost signs’ around Edinburgh. Once you start looking, there are a lot of these signs around, often high up on buildings above modern shops where you don’t normally look. Some are not entirely suitable for my project - for example, maybe they’re too faded to read, or too small, or surrounded by things I wouldn’t want to photograph. I’m not aiming for a comprehensive catalogue of the ghost signs of Edinburgh, but I hope to manage a selective sample of them. When I have 30 or more, I’m planning to make a small book from the series. I think the prints themselves would also look nice framed for an exhibition, if an opportunity ever came about.

I’ve made 12 new prints for this series in 2025. My total is now 14, and I have a few more recent photographs I’m yet to print, and a growing list of other signs around the city to photograph when I get chance. These are a few of my recent prints…

Gelli plate photo transfer printing

A while back I saw a photographer on YouTube experimenting with printing his work using a Gelli plate (you can watch it here on Matt Day’s channel). I’d not heard of this process before but I’m always interested in different ways to print photographs. Gelli plates are most often used to make mono prints, I think, and particularly used at home as they don’t require any expensive tools or materials. You can print a high contrast image using a laser printer (it has to be toner and not inkjet), put a thin layer of acrylic paint on the Gelli plate, apply the laser print face-down and flatten it, then when you peel off the laser print, if everything goes to plan, the black toner on the paper will resist the acrylic paint on your Gelli plate, while the white paper will pick up the paint, so you’re left with an impression of your image on the plate.

This one worked quite successfully. Most of the time, it doesn’t seem work at all. The paper will pick up too much of the paint, and you’re left with little to no impression on your plate, resulting in a very pale print. Anyway, if it does work - like above - you can then add a layer of acrylic medium (using a roller), put your printmaking paper face-down onto that, flatten it, weigh it down and let it dry. When you peel the printmaking paper off the plate, you have a print!

I was happy with how this one turned out. It’s obviously a very low-fi effect - there’s no fine detail or tonal range, but I still think it’s a fun experiment and you can make some interesting prints with this method. There are people doing much cleverer things than this - for example, painting in multiple layers on top of the first image. I’m happy with this black and white effect, at the moment.

Each print is unique, and not exactly repeatable, even if you use an identical laser print. It’s just too unpredictable to get something exactly the same every time. So, I’m signing these prints ‘MP’ for mono print.

A new Toyobo print

It’s been a while - too long, really - since I dedicated some time to making Toyobo prints. And you do need time to make them. It takes me a minimum of 2 days to make one edition, if everything goes to plan. One day in the darkroom, exposing and developing the plate, and another day making the prints. It’s slow, sometimes frustrating (the plates don’t always work out, even if you give them all your love and care), and expensive. But, of all the different processes I’ve been exploring, I think Toyobo prints offer the greatest clarity, detail, tonal range and depth. When they work, they’re beautiful prints. So, I’m determined to keep making them, as long as I can find the time, motivation and budget for it.

Recently, I found myself between jobs, with time on my hands. So I booked myself into the darkroom at Edinburgh Printmakers and made this plate.

I could see from the plate there were some imperfections, but I decided that’s all part of the fun of Toyobo printmaking. A few days later I booked into the studio to make a small edition of prints from this plate. As expected, the resulting print is gritty, but I think that works with this subject.

I thought this print would make a nice companion for my ‘Bingo (Portal)’ print, made last year. I’m particularly drawn to these apparently abandoned buildings that you sometimes find around the city. I’m interested in what they say about how our society has changed over time; what has been forgotten and left behind.

A new giclée edition for an online exhibition

Finally, I am currently taking part in an online exhibition organised by the Society of Scottish Artists titled Life With Water: 30 x 30 Online Edition. The open call invited artists to consider, respond to and explore their love for the sea and the life it sustains. I am someone who loves being by the sea - walking coastal paths, looking out over those expansive views, breathing the salty seaweed air and bird watching are some of my favourite things to do. But I’m also a land-living human, and there are times when the sea is an inhospitable place for people. The photograph I chose to print for this exhibition is one I took from a cabin window on a boat during a bumpy sea crossing, a few years ago. Watching the birds effortlessly glide over the turbulent horizon, while I watched from a dry cabin - hoping the boat was solidly built - reminded me that I’m a spectator to the wild ocean, not a participant in it.

This print, titled 'In the Midst', is available to buy through the exhibition page in an edition of 15, for £150 unframed. It’s printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm fine art matte paper.