Theme Poetry

Last month I joined in Sara-Jane's Theme Poetry online workshop.

The session started with Sara-Jane giving us a list of things we might write about as a warm up exercise.  I chose 'up in the air'.

The View from Above

The coloured silk had lain
on the ground, beside
the wicker basket. It too
lying on its side. 

The noise of gas burners
forcing hot air into the silk
until it ballooned aloft
dragging the basket upright.
Pegged down, the basket convulsed
trying to escape the ground.

Climbing into the basket
trepidatiously, I wondered
what possessed me to think
that this was a good idea.

Ropes and pegs released
we lifted from the ground.
Husband and young son
becoming smaller until ant-like
they lacked visual form.

The currents took the basket
almost where they willed.
Occasional bursts of noisy power
interrupted the silent sailing
through the air.

The panorama stretched before us.
The rolling hills of Warwickshire
The patchwork fields and tiny trees.
Magnificent Oaks brought low
by height and distance.

A beautiful sunlit early evening
displaying mile upon mile upon mile
of pristine English countryside.

But all good things
come to an end
and time had run out.
It was time to land.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience
landing heavily in a locked field
brought down to earth with a bump!

But all these years later
nearly 20 years
the memory lingers of seeing earth
from God’s perspective. 

The theme for the session was 'In Minature'.  Sara-Jane did a presentation about 4 aspects of miniature or small things and introduced three poems to us.  She gave us a variety of ways we might write about small things.  One of which was to write from the point of view of the small thing.  Here's mine.

Trapped

It’s so dark
I cannot see my associates.

I’m flattened, squashed
amongst the obscured leaves.

It’s lighter now.
The cover has been opened.

Paper rustles as it’s turned
bringing the light nearer.

A discarded bookmark slides in
brushing against me.

The light is getting closer.
It’s almost time for me.

The reader sighs at words' end
as I, the final full stop

bring the adventure to a close.

 
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

 

Karen Wicks Too

We started day 2 by printing the collagraph plates we had made on day 1 and that Karen had varnished for us.

I also tried printing on fabric

I took a ghost print on paper after printing the fabric.  The plate had taken the impression of the weave of the fabric.

Between days 1 & 2, I made this plate using the packaging from some medicine.

During the afternoon we played with gelli plates seeing what impression our plates would make in the paint on the gelli plate and then taking monoprints.  Some worked better than others!

I think the best results were what the collagraph plates looked like at the finish with the mix of printing ink and acrylic paint.

I really had a lot of fun with Karen and learning this technique.  I don't know whether I will take it any further.  I think you have to be more careful and patient than I am willing to be.  My style is more slapdash.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Karen Wicks

I spent a fun two days with Karen Wicks (@iacartroom) and two other students learning about collagraph making and printing.  Karen started by giving us a card with various bits stuck on to it for us to print with.  She had varnished this.

We also did a little one of our own which we didn't varnish so we could see the difference.

We printed these to see

Then we made a test plate using a piece of tetrapak carton.  Print on the left.

Next we made a bigger plate using tetrapak

 

 

Inked up ready to print

After lunch we worked on mountboard to make our plates.  Karen kindly took them home to varnish.

I was going to write about both days in this post but we did so much on the second day that I will write another post.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice