International Print Exchange 2024: Birds & Blooms

Hi there!

In November 2024, I participated in the botanical & ornithological themed printmaking exchange organized by The Makers Studio who are based in Australia.

For my entry, I decided to depict a blue jay with trillium flowers, a bird that I see in the backyard often and the provincial flower of where my studio is located.

The technique I used for this limited edition print was linocut with Caligo professional relief ink on Hahnemühle archival paper. An inking technique I had been enjoying with my other botanical prints was to create an ink gradient effect with two or more inks.

Here I chose to mimic blue jay feathers with two different shades of blue. Once the prints were dry, I send my eleven prints from snowy Canada to sunshiny Australia. One was to be shown in an exhibition, one was to be kept in the archives and the other nine were sent to printmakers around the world.

A few months later, I received something very exciting in the mail! The prints from other participants! A big thank you to The Makers Studio for organizing everything and making this possible.

Left: ‘Avian’ collograph by Kathy Holmes from Myrtle Bank, Adelaide, South Australia.

Centre: ‘Summer Visitors, Some Are Not’ intaglio photopolymer etching with relief roll by Leah Bennetts from Pretty Beach, NSW, Australia.

Right: ‘Red Head’ hand coloured, waterless lithography by Helen Fitzhardinge from Spencer Park, Western Australia.

Left: ‘Curlew’ linocut by Bev Doig from Lower King, Western Australia.

Centre: ‘Regent Honeyeater’ reduction linoprint by Lisa Brack from Tallong, NSW, Australia.

Right: ‘Handstands In Kulin Country With Waa’ by Larissa MacFarlane from Seddon, Victoria, Australia.

Left: ‘Restful’ mixed technique by Tania Chou from Taiwan.

Centre: ‘More Than These’ screen print by Rylee Hammond from Wichita Falls, Texas, USA.

Right: ‘Lily’s Wren’ copper etching & aquatint by Janine Debenham from Berkeley Vale, NSW, Australia.

To see all the entries, please visit the makers studio’s website here: www.themakersstudio.org.au

Thanks for reading!

Larina