Photoetching with threadwork

These are from my photoetching workshop taken in early august at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. The first image shows the wall above my workspace where I was playing with layering the threadwork with the etching prints and with woodcuts that had been printed on silk organza. Some of the etching plates were made by exposing the plate with some threadwork lace on top of it, so the thread is both in the etching and on top as real thread. I also have one print with the threadwork stitched right to it, but I have to take a better picture before I can post it.


The second piece is one of the organza prints surrounded by threadwork. More experimenting to come.

Hello from Jenn

Hello everyone! I'm Jenn, Laura's student in the now completed "Stitched Narratives" class at DeCordova. I'm a woodcut and monoprint printmaker, but have been a knitter and fiber lover for a long time as well. I took the class as a way to join the two media in my work. Last week I had a break through when stitching directly on two small woodcut prints, joining a bird and an egg with a white thread nest. This week I played more with silk organza and how it interacts with a sample woodcut.



Thematically, I have been using the imagery from colonial headstones (skull with wings the most familiar to folks) for a while in the printmaking, but want to explore further what I can say about the lives the headstones represent. Stitching is something these women did, and I do, but I have a very different voice to use so what can I say that they couldn't?

I also like to tie in my own family history and stories, and occasionally veer off into the realm of science and microbes and DNA when I need a break from navel gazing.





You'll find more images of work on my flickr pages.

I look forward to sharing thoughts and ideas about work and art and playing with different media. Thanks Laura!