Tiny Garments can tell Big Stories with a Collograph- Part 1 Video

Teen Mom project funded by the Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant at the The Garage to begin shortly!  We will be working together to create collographs.

Fear, Faith, 2001
Collograph with acrylic, graphite, collage
44" x30"
©2011NanciHersh

A collograph is a printmaking process. This particular form of printmaking is accessible, rich in texture,  and image development as it enables you to work additively or subtractively. For our upcoming project with the teen moms we will be using donated, discarded and recycled infant and toddlersʼ clothing as the “plates” or print matrix. The clothing becomes the plates as they are painted with a gel medium that hardens the surface and allows it to be embossed or inked and printed on a table top etching press. 

These altered garments can be a perfect vehicle for sharing stories and giving voices to the experiences of responsibility and lost youth, and the joys and challenges of parenting, at any age.

Here is a short video of preparing the clothing so that they will be the collographic plates that will be embossed or inked up.