COLLAGRAPH :

A print made from a collage of various materials glued together on a cardboard plate .

This is the definition of a collagraph from The Complete Printmaker . I ’ ve made collagraph plates with : string , pepper , sand , glue , drywall mud , leaves , letterforms , foam , stickers , sawdust , bits of paper , matchbooks , toothpicks and many other things .

You ’ ve got to think about the height of something next to something else , and how that will affect the thick , damp rag paper . Too high and you ’ ll poke a hole through it .

You can lay a ground texture down ( cheesecloth , grit ) and paint onto it with glue . The glue will hold out the texture beneath , forming a linear image when printed .

Everything has to be sealed with non-absorbent polymer . This will allow for easy inking and assure the plate can be cleaned and reused .

A finished plate is carded up with ink . Excess ink is carded off . Then the plate is wiped down with tarlatan and newsprint . The wiping exposes high areas on the plate and leaves in the low areas of texture .

A dampened piece of heavy paper is laid face-down on the inked plate . Now run the plate and paper through the press .

Lift the paper and you ’ ll find out just how much ink you left on the plate , as it has now been transferred , under pressure , to the paper . �