1.FROM LABORATORY TO FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN.
2. PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis.
3. PRINTING FLAGS.
4. PRINTING PATCHES.
5. BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING.
So some background, myself and my colleague Clare Farrell have been working on a project #BODYPOLITIC for some time, to transform our bodies into a space for political/spiritual expression. We run workshops to get all the other humans to do the same, and we decorate or make our own pieces also, always using existing garments from clothing recyclers, an anti-capitalist project.
Here is a happy human who sewed one of her patches onto her top, we got really into making these patches with universal positive statements, this led into me woodcutting text and images, but always to go on the human form. We tend to quite a bit of sewing machine training, it’s really worth getting into it, fix anything, make anything you want. Second hand metal bodied domestic sewing machines are cheap.
Maybe we made too many patches ? before we started screen printing we had a few of these sheets made by sublimation print, later we made screen prints using our favourites,
We are really into using this progaff cloth tape, you can write on clothing really fast, and it is less prescribed than a patch . .
then if you sew around the edges it becomes permanent, you can write fast and dirty or get real precise.
Nice punk aesthetic.
this example is a prisoners uniform jacket that I remade to fit my slender form, all the writing is tape that I sewed around, it is a great way to make banners also, applique made easy. I get the ProGaff from GaffaTape.com, we always use this highest quality one.
We are also into making flags and other demonstration objects, this is an “Intersectional Anarchy flag” in progress, I used a 1930’s Singer hand crank to make this, sweet.
I had realised how desperate our plight on the earth was before Roger Hallam told us about his ultimate project, and out came a gutteral response.
I spent a weekend doing pencil drawings of animal skulls, then human, then I did this from the drawings, I do a lot of preparation before making a wood cut, and I mean a lot !!! . . . . I think later woodcuts are too detailed, I was thinking about Human and Anmimal Extinction a lot at this time, so this is bad death, Annihilation.
Clare had already made outfits for the “Stop Killing Londoners” project and we have always talked about how the Revolution/Rebellion should look totally fantastic. Putting activists in prison outfits made amazing photographs, and so on one level we are creating photographs - images that will go around the globe,
An enemy of the state, , , , going to prison is a serious business.
This is a picture from way later but it shows using letterpress letters to print on fabric which is how some of this began, with wood blocks of the “Extinction Symbol” and a skull.
These Letterpress letters are 48mm high, German originally, I also got the lowercase at the same time, it’s really good fun. They came from ebay, from a dealer.
It became apparent that letterpress was too unwieldy, so I copied it onto lino blocks from the letterpress. This is old household lino glued onto plywood, because it’s old its really hard which I like, print suppliers sell a grey lino but I find this rather too soft. If it’s like this, or solid blocks of wood, or a synthetic material glued onto wood its kinda all the same, so I call them all blocks. Very lush “Pfeil” woodcut tools from Jacksons Arts Supplies. I have been using lino mostly, but also sometimes use a japanese softcut vinyl from “Intaglio print maker”
And experimented, illustrated a great “Singer 319K” domestic machine, nice.
And made more . . . illustrated is a “mobile fold up workbench”, make art anywhere !!!
Bench Hook to hold lino block, not good enough really, and “Pfeil cutting tools”, Swiss, fucking sweet !!
“This Aint Rock N Roll” Loved the Letterpress letters that I got and it became the basis for the XR font. As you can see I am cutting the text logo they designed, it all goes back and forwards.
And more , red japanese transfer paper from Intaglio, possibly overrated.
Its’ pretty good fun, and therapeutic. This one is a scaled up one from an image that I made into a an drawing in “Adobe illustrator”, then Painted on a jacket in oils, then a very small lino cut, looking at it now, i think it may need some more work , to make it bolder, rather than more detailed.
This is preparation for “ Sad Skull”, I lit and photographed a medical skull, printed it at the correct size, transffered the proportions using transfer paper, then with the skull as reference and the first skull since I wanted some of its flavour. Then I worked with a black and a white Molotow paint marker on the lino.
These are things that I am working on now in December, the Saudi gazelle, extinct 2006 from hunting, we need more animals on people and on HiVis.
A woodcut produces and Strong Black and White image, cut with razor sharp tools, “This Aint Rock n Roll” love the simple strong imagery and have used it on XR work, now when I work I consider this futrue use, Circular Creativity
The “finished image from the previous work is above, its probably too complex, I sometimes use car body filler to fill bits and then recut, dirty impure printmaker.
I am currently making some blocks to print white onto dark colours, so they are all inverted. When we do workshops printing onto peoples’ existing clothing this will double what we can print on .
I’m including this because all this should be about experimentation, and these blogs are just describing 3 or 4 processes, when what we really want is everything . . EVERYTHING !!!!
The Symbol should be everywhere, so that everyone knows it, so that it keeps us aware.
I just made this object, I sharpened a cold chisel and then hammered it into the coin, then polished it and put matt black paint into the cuts.
“By the act of remaking this coin I declare myself to be in rebellion with the state, the state that does not protect its, people, the state and the alleged government have failed us by creating a system where the rich gather wealth and power, democracy is a sham , we demand true democracy so that the people can save the world from the psychotic elites who drive us to armageddon with their fossil fuelled greed”
SUPPLIES
www.jacksonsart.com woodcut supplies, also https://intaglioprintmaker.com/ and out of town https://www.lawrence.co.uk/category/printmaking
https://www.gaffatape.com/Fluorescent-Gaffer-Cloth-Tape-1/default.aspx