The latest design---inspired by old brayers/brayer
“skeletons”. The world of printmaking is
littered with old dysfunctional brayers, or what's left of them;
and a great many that obviously didn't pass the
“Art-School-Test”. If only they could talk.....
I love the graceful calligraphic aspect of the brayer handle shapes at the top of the image ---that brayer handle (long missing its rubber roller) came with my Brand etching press last year, along with a few other roller cores awaiting refurbishing. Since it always seemed a bit fancy for a brayer (more decoration of a utilitarian item when it doesn't need to be, one of my favorite themes), it also reminds me of that article in Yankee magazine entitled “What's-It,” featuring a strange gadget or flea market find, and readers would write in with their guesses as to what the implement's function was. (an SGC visitor to my table mistakenly guessed
“cheese slicer” ----well, it is a bit large for that, don't you think? And why, then, would it be hanging out with lines of text, other brayers, and positive-negative shapes, such as one often gets in relief printing? Hmmmmm..... the mystery continues!...)
This is an all-around print, utilizing discharge printing as well as fabric inks, rather a tour-de-force for getting it onto the shirt!
I think the future incarnation of this T-shirt image will
be to incorporate my previous geared Kelton study
(really the Hunter-Penrose press image) on the front chest area of the
shirt----to make it even more printmaking-related and less artist's-reception-cheese-oriented.
Sometimes it takes time to work the bugs outta the prototypes...
