Julie Dyer

Julie Dyer

Venue : Basement Studio 93 Pembroke Road BS8 3EB

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From my studio I produce etchings and aquatint prints. My prize possession is a secondhand Hunter Penrose Printing Press called Little John No.8.

I work with copper plates and create prints on beautiful printmaking paper through an alchemy of processes that always seem magical and remarkable.

Intaglio means to cut – incise. I am not attracted to intaglio printmaking because of the multiple prints achievable as editions but because of its quality mark-making, creative potential and the engaging physical processes needed to reach the desired image.

The copper plate endures a punishing and brutal journey to enable it to print an image. It is heated, waxed, smoked, incised with tools, bitten in acid and rolled through heavy rollers on the press. After the first print is pulled (from the press) the image will need several adjustments. The plate may then be scraped and burnished in parts and the whole process repeated, sometimes several times.

Usually the image will need tone so the plate is dusted with rosin in a special aquatint box then heated and bitten in acid again to produce an aquatint.

Finally, after the plate has been manipulated countless times and numerous proofs taken from the inked plate on the press, the desired print is reached. The end result is always mystifying. A magical process of transformation and creation.

Pure Alchemy.

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.juliedyerart.com