Disasters narrowly missed and retching on the bus

Well I start my new job today so wish me luck! I have to admit I haven't got off to the greatest of starts - as I was on the bus to Brighton yesterday for a merry printing session, I got a phone call asking where I was - I was supposed to start yesterday! I felt sick with awfulness (in fact, I actually retched). But checking back, I found that they had typed the wrong date on my letter. I hadn't noticed the day at all.

After changing buses, I discovered that everyone in the local area had seemingly decided not to wash for 3 weeks and then join me for the rest of my journey. Pleasant. Retching on the bus twice in a day - that must be a first.

The lovely, odour-free people at BIP cheered me up as usual. Remember my Manatee print? My first ever etching? Well I thought I'd add aquatint to it last week and I thought it was a disaster - the plate went rusty within seconds of coming out of the acid. But I cleaned it off with Brasso and it turned out really well...
In fact I'd like to make a story around these two.

Anyway I should be dressing in my smart yet casual clothes. Bye!

Illustration Friday - Climbing

Come up and see my etchings? Well, etching, to be precise- my very first one ever! I thought it fitted into the IF theme too as she is climbing aboard a cuddly Manatee.

This is just etching onto steel, which gives a mid tone to everything. This week I started a very simple tree design on zinc, which is whiter, and I am aquatinting it in a couple of tones and then want to do chine colle on it.

The design of this etching sums up how I feel about printing. I love it, but it's just too massive a subject to grasp! It's just fab. Even though my hand are sore and my lungs are raw, it's worth it.