Printing with lace!

Today I popped into Ethel Anne Antiques in Hāwera in search of more old music books, as I’ve had so much fun with the ones I got a couple of weeks back. I bought some but, even more exciting, are the old lace doily.

I knew straight away they’d be interesting on the gel plate. Sure enough, they were. The heavy lace one isn’t much use, but the finer ones are amazing. I used mainly Golden Fluid Acrylics and Hahnemuhle Sumi-e paper to print on because it lifts the prints beautifully. I definitely prefer the softer colours for these over the brighter ones.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with these yet. I’ll probably use them as collage in mixed media works. I’m tempted to create some multi layer prints that are complete in their own right.

Here’s what I have done so far, including a couple of close up shots.