Chuck Elliott & Ros Ford

We’ve been experimenting with the transfer of a simple digital drawing onto Folex film, initially as a monochrome bitmap, and from there onto the copper printing plate with an aquatint to capture the finer details, ahead of being printed by hand on Ros’ fabulous etching press.

There’s a lot to consider. We’re 4 plates into the testing process for density, clarity of line, and overall look and feel. I hope the attached images may convey some sense of the project as it stands today, ahead of the final editions being printed later in March. By transitioning from the clean lines of the digital to a hand inked etching, I’m hoping the work will gain a kind of ‘analogue glow’, some crackle and hiss, as if listening to Kraftwerk on a valve amp, which is to be recommended of course.

Later on in the Spring I’ll be working on a 2nd piece, which will either be a kind of strip test pigment print from my recent Klint series, or a haloed sun image, laser cut as a kind of golden toroid, and mounted onto handmade paper. I’m currently more in favour of this second idea, as that would pair up this Bloom piece with a new sun image, which seems apt to me as I look out over my frosted garden…