Having made my first attempts with the printmaking process I revised my plans. I still wanted to use a large scale hanging section but needed a new idea for the artwork behind it, and a revised idea for the hanging section.

I decided to concentrate on the artwork that would appear behind the hanging piece to take advantage of the sessions in the printmaking studio

Would my idea of printing the spider’s webs onto tissue paper and then either sticking onto a sculpture of a head, or using the tissue prints in front of images of people work?

First I needed a better template to print from, stitching required again!

I found a new material, more transparent and easy to distress the edges. A slightly thicker cotton was also used to try to highlight the web lines. The material is destined for the large scale hanging section but looked a good option for the printing template.

I made the decision to ink the material directly and then roller some excess ink off onto tissue paper.

I used the tissue blotter later to cover a mask to check out if this idea was worth pursuing. The end result was quite scary. See ‘Using the tissue paper’ to see the end result (Click to view in a new window)

The new template works much better

Next – try printing onto tissue paper

An small sample of needlework with string as opposed to cotton thread was prepared as a test. The end result was not suitable for the project. The lines of the web were much bolder and thicker, I preferred the cotton thread

Interesting outcome. I reused some tissue paper that I thought was blank to protect the press. The impression already made on the used paper was imprinted on the new image.

Next : Videos of the printing process