Tag: experimenting

Blister Prints

Posted in Blog Post, Carmarthen School of Art, Foundation Art & Design Residencies, Saskia FletcherTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today I have been using my Gelli Plate and my blister packs to create some prints.

I occasionally use my Gelli Plate rather than traditional printmaking techniques because the process uses acrylic paint and it dries very quickly. If you’re not sure what a Gelli Plate is there are lots of video tutorials on Youtube that you can access to see how it works and all the different ways you can create some cool effects. Or you can look at this blog on Handprinted: https://handprinted.co.uk/blogs/blog/gelli-plates-1

Transferring acrylic paint onto the Gelli Plate

I have got all different sized blister packs from different my medications. They all have different shapes, sizes and arrangements in the layout of the blisters. I used a feew different methods to create images on the plate.

These are the first two prints. I used an ibuprofen packet. I painted the blisters white, pressed them into the Gelli Plate and then placed black paper over and pulled the prints. I really love the result. The marks are like tiny foot prints, or finger prints. It reminds me of some work I have done in the past using morse code. I took the second print because there was still paint left over on the plate.

The Gelli Plate is quite a versatile method of printing and you can create prints with multiple layers of paint. After the second print there was still some excess paint left on the plate. I allowed this to completely dry and then overlayed the dry white paint with a layer of blue acrylic. I then pulled a new print. This print has actually managed to pull more of the original white markings off than the second print.

Below are three more prints using the exact same process as above but for these I used a Naproxen packet.

After those prints there was still some paint marks left! So of course I went in for another print! However very little detail of the blister packs came out but it is still a nice print.

Below are some more experimental prints which I did using other medication packages

Putting myself in the frame

I wanted to add some context so have printed some photos of myself (unwell) onto regular printer paper and used the same Gelli Plate process to make some mixed media prints. The results are below.

I am going to continue doing lots more prints from the blister packs.

A few weeks ago (with a little help from my friends Daisy Fisher and Sam Meredith) I drew an outline of my body. I think am going to use the outline as a guide to create some large scale blister print pieces using the Gelli Plate.

This is my final post for my digital residency. I have really enjoyed sharing my work and my thoughts on the Jane Phillips Award blog. Thank you very very much to the Mission Galley for this opportunity. If anyone would like to get in touch with me personally you can contact me via Instagram @saskias.studio or @saskia.fletcher

Ibuprofen Pop

Posted in Blog Post, Carmarthen School of Art, Foundation Art & Design Residencies, Saskia FletcherTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have been collecting all the things surrounding my condition. The other day I absent mindedly stacked my Ibuprofen boxes together and really liked the aesthetic of the pattern and colour because it was so charateristic of Pop Art. So I decided to do a little further investigation and experimentation with them. I started by using the scanner laying them out to create a repeated pattern. I then took this further and started to manipulate the shape and form of the packaging in many different ways.

I’m not sure yet if I am going to do any further processing with the boxes but I enjoyed developing a simple idea into a future possibility. Next I am going to start exploring all the different types of blister packaging.

The Super Ordinary And Some Rust

Posted in Blog Post, Saskia FletcherTagged , , , , , ,

Firstly I would like to say thank you to Mission Gallery and the Jane Phillips Award for giving me the opportunity for this digital residency. I am an emerging artist and I am honoured to be here to share my work.

At this point in time I am just coming to the end of one body of work and I’m about to start focusing on something new, so this residency couldn’t come at a better time! I am going to be trying out lots of different techniques and ideas over the next few weeks and posting them here.

My most recent work has been to answer the question ‘What is Super Ordinary?’ Using this quote as a starting point- “How should we take account of, question and describe what happens everyday and recurs everyday; the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual?” Georges Perec, 1973

I came to a natural stopping point in my project when I exhibited some of my work in the Graduate Expressions Exhibition at the Oriel Henry Thomas Gallery at Carmarthen School of Art.

With Every Fibre Of My Being (2022)

Stainless Steel Sink, Stainless Steel Wire Wool, Ink, Acetate

Saskia Fletcher

But when does an artist truly finish a project? The answer is never! Each time I come to the end of a project it becomes part of me, and it’s always ticking away in the background, influencing my new work in some way or another. For me there is always more ideas floating around on the periphery, something to add, something else I want to say or simply something that I just never got around to doing.

So with that in mind this is one of those things… early on in the project I had saved some metal kitchen shelving but hadn’t actually used them for anything. Last week when I was sorting out my garden I found them rusting away in the corner. So I thought I would try out a rust transfer technique I had seen on LuAnn Kessi’s blog. It is a process I have been meaning to do for a long time. You can find the post by LuAnn here: luannkessi.blogspot.com

I used her recipe to create some rust prints on some scrap fabric.

Here are the photos of the process and the results:

  • Starting point – rusted kitchen shelves
  • Vinegar soaked fabric placed on the shelves
  • Stacked together – space saving!
  • Sealed in a bag – avec obligatory inspection by the cat
  • Airing out the fabric after 4 days
  • The result

I enjoyed this process and I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail that has been created on the fabric. I like the different tones and the patchy quality of the outcome. Not all of the details have been picked up, and to me, the imperfection is what makes it all the more interesting. The two prints I made took time (4 days worth of patience!) to create and of course sunshine (which can sometimes be hard to come by in West Wales!) What I like most is that I have collected and captured a moment in the objects history- which is a one off and can never be replicated much like a mono printing – my favourite process.

My Super Ordinary project has turned out to be much more than just creating art. It has also created a new way of thinking for me. Now that I have come to an end of this body of work I know that this project is going to stay with me. I would like to thank Olivia Clemence for setting me the task of defining the Super Ordinary (it was daunting at first!) but it has changed the way I see the world. I will be keeping in mind the Perec quote above as I move forward into a new subject area… I will continue to question everything.

You can find more of my work on my Instagram page @saskias.studio

Intentional Camera Movement

Posted in Blog Post, Grzegorz ZalewskiTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s a great privilage to be one of the digital residency recipients for the Jane Phillips Award.

During these 3 months I will try new techniques in photography and explore Swansea . My first project will explore a technique called ICM – a technique and an artistic way of expression. Something I have enjoyed exploring recently .

The Mystery of an image. It forces my imagination to work.

A painting with a natural light and I love this.

I am inspired by Claud Monet, french painter .

I have focused on textures and colours seen within the landscape, creating one of a kind impressions of a forest in a longer exposed time frame.

Time is key here, as time is the only thing that is constant. You can’t stretch or squeeze it, only the perspective can change. So this is my perspective of a time, represented in a ICM photography style.