I spent a delightful Saturday at one of my happy places on this earth… Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum… for a workshop called Collage With Wood Type, led by artist Mel Kolstad.

It was eight years ago that I took my first class with Mel — and it was collage!

And another one two years ago — also collage & printing!

And another one two years ago — gel printing!

Even though we didn’t need to bring anything to the workshop, I had a bag full of stuff, including the gel prints I’d made at that previous workshop.

And I used some! There are two in the unfinished piece above. I’ve printed that dancing lady before, and I just love her. QUEEN! not John Mallards Wife. The more I looked at that prescription, the more I scratched my head…

I also used some gel prints in this piece — or two — the “sky” is mounted on one piece of mat board, the “grass” (or whatever) is on another. I think it will be all one piece in the end, and probably layered much more. I need to spread out & reacquaint myself with all the fodder I’ve collected over the years.

The illustration is from a broken children’s book — I only have part of it, but they’re all amazing and there’s even one showing a girl sewing. Yeah, that’ll be something someday.

I spent the morning, plus a little bit after lunch, printing.

I printed much, much more than that — a whole different lock-up, even.

I already pulled some type at home to do a little bit more. The thing about a workshop like this is you really have no idea about what’s going to inspire you. I did a bunch of random printing, then pulled out some fodder & picked a few things from what Mel brought, and nothing really started coming together until later… and then there wasn’t time to regroup/reprint. Thankfully, I’m able to do that at home (on a very small scale), and Mel also shared some tips for making prints at home even if you don’t have a press.

Things were a lot quieter yesterday, and OMG was it ever hot! Ali & the kids came over for a while — we hung out, tried to stay cool, had some pizza — and it was great to see them, since school started TODAY!!