First of all, since we haven’t posted in a while, we have to show off our newly completed workshop! The shop has been in a state of transformation since we opened in December, and during the projects we have been improvising and making due with what we had. In between each project our wonderful builders, Bill Wetherby and Matt Mraz, have been working hard to get each component of the shop finished and together.
Our new etching room is complete with a beautiful handmade aquatint box made by Matt, Bill, and Bob Rowe, a solar plate exposure unit, also handmade and designed by Sue and Matt, and a steel facing tank that Randy, Sue’s husband, kindly dug out from six feet of snow in their backyard!
Everything is also covered in a fresh coat of paint, which throughly brightened up the space and made viewing prints on the walls more enjoyable.
This project with Ken Buhler has been so exciting for us because we finally get use all of our fun printmaking goodies and…ETCH some COPPER PLATES!
Ken Buhler and his lovely girlfriend, Rebecca Chace, were welcomed last Sunday by Steamboat’s snowy spring. They took advantage of the snowy but warmer days and took some walks around Copper Ridge. Couldn’t resist posting this sweet pic. Love their winter gear! (I think they fit right in here..!)
Ken came to Oehme Graphics equipped with some drawings on vellum that he had been working on at home in Brooklyn, NY. This made it easy for us to jump right in the project and begin by developing solar plates from the drawings. We would proof the plates by wiping them in plain black ink. This way we could see how they printed and think about combinations of the plates, and how they would layer together to make workable pieces. Here is a picture of our proofing wall, with each print representing a different plate.
From there, Ken was able to make more plates using hardground and softground etching techniques and allowed Sue to perfect the strength of our acid, as well as getting used to all the nuances of our new working etching room!
One of Ken’s gorgeous first editionable print sets! Made with two solar plate etchings as well as a hard ground etched plate.
Ken has also been taking time to make watercolor monoprints, creating earthy and etherial drawings using his amazingly beautiful collection of stamps, stencils, and mark making:
“Ghost” vellums, after running through the press once or twice. As you can see, pigment is still left behind after printing–it is possible to get another image out of the vellum, which leaves a more “ghostly” and lighter image then the one before. Perfect for backgrounds and layering.
Below are a few of the completed monoprints!
With other shop news, Oehme Graphics was selected by Stewart & Stewart, a printmaking publisher in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to represent our prints in the Capital Art Fair in Washington, DC this weekend!
If you are in the DC area, please go check it out! Here is a link to the site:
http://www.capitalartprintfair.com/home.html
Check back soon! More of Ken’s project to follow soon…