Two more plates in progress

I have recently completed some initial proof prints from two new plates. The first is of the interior of Shufflebotham's Stores (now Cafephilia). The photograph and story featured in 'Exchange Stories' - a recent project that took place at the Moseley Exchange. Roy from the Moseley Society recalled his memories of the grocers store.

I am pleased with the finished plate and particularly like the sepia ink. I will need to add some spot colour, but as yet haven't decided on what that should be. I may wait until I have completed more images and decide what works with the other colours I have chosen as highlight.

The second new plate is based on the story from Moseley Park and Pool about the Cross brother and sister who fell through the ice whilst skating in January 1895. This plate needed a good deal of work as there were so many stages to etching the aquatint. I also scratched into the plate beforehand to recreate the ice. Unfortunately I wasn't aware the pressure was too heavy on the press and the more I printed the plate. the worse the image became as the aquatint became compressed.

 As a consequence, much of the detail has been irretrievably lost, and I have no choice but to start again! I was happy with the background and the ice, so I will try and recreate this. There were other errors that I can correct, such as the foot with no aquatint.

I finally got round to printing the lino cut of my Victorian Ice Skates that I did for the Smart Gallery exhibition in Skipton. I haven't yet decided how I will use this in my exhibition, but it would be nice to display the skates themselves alongside the etching.