Prints Charming (title credit: Vintage Cate)

The week I got home from Arrowmont, there was a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby on opened back frames. I took that as a divine signal that I should frame up some of my work from my week in the Printmaking Funhouse. Thanks to Liz at HL for all her diligence on these. Sorry my photography doesn't do them justice. Very tricky with the glass flashing back at me.

These chickens (dry point etching) now live at Grandam Carol's cabin aka Fort Winona. The accent papers were printed with woodblocks and then watercolored. Vintage matchbook from this stash.

Liz floated the irregular shaped piece of paper on the matte. You can't see it too well here, but the corners of the Japanese paper are slightly curled up, giving it room to breathe beneath the glass and adding subtle dimension.

I had never framed any of my daily tiles until now. These six journal my days at Arrowmont. They really make a statement with that wide matte.

You saw this watercolored dry point before. Now that I see it in the frame I think it's my favorite piece. That sliver of red matte really pulls out the paper plate litho print in the background.

This final print is modeling the Borcherding style of collage where the central image is "pushed" down into the background, integrating it more fully. I did this in two ways: by carrying the harlequin pattern onto the dry point at the bottom with Caran D'Ache and by cutting out the points of the chartreuse diamonds at the top with an exacto knife, physically laying them over the top to break the visual border.

It was like an extreme makeover: once my prints were framed they looked just like real art.