Before Christmas, I went to a printmaking workshop in Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow. The workshop was delivered by Cora Cummins, who had an exhibition showing in Visual at the same time http://www.visualcarlow.ie/exhibitions/info/the-black-rose-the-green-pound-and-the-blue-sky. For the workshop, Cora demonstrated chine collé, a technique of applying found or pre-created imagery to a print, and then provided the group with source materials and support around creating a number of prints on the day. It was such a lovely experience, a real break from the world and great to spend time just 'playing' with collage and print really.
Untitled, Chine colle print with engraving, Mary Cullen, 2013
I vaguely remember this technique from college, but hadn't used it since. It really opens up a whole world of ideas and possibilities. It appeals mostly for the moment to me as a way of combining photographic imagery with the textured or abstract surfaces I've made on light steel. Kilkenny based artist Maeve Coulter uses this process in some of her work http://www.maevecoulter.com/print/paper/.
I found this video online that shows the process used differently but very interesting all the same:
