VACMA: Arwen Haselden - Printmaking development

Please give a brief description of how your project went, and how your award was used:

This project has been an amazing chance to explore printmaking without the restrictions of space and travel. The award has aided me in buying essential printmaking materials such as rollers and inks, as well as setting up my home studio space. My goal was to create a portfolio of printed work, exploring a range of techniques and materials. I feel that this has been thoroughly achieved! I’ve experimented with a variety of methods over the course of the project, including monoprint, collagraph, lino printing and screenprinting. I’ve also tried printmaking with basketry, recycled materials
and found objects.

Additionally, my work on this project inspired me to take a natural dyes screenprinting course in Bristol, where I got the chance to explore some great processes. I hope that developing more of my own natural printmaking inks in the future will allow my practice to become more environmentally
friendly.

I feel the pieces I’ve produced over the last few months will continue to be a big influence on my practice, and I’m excited to push myself further. I already have plans to develop several experiments further, particularly the basketry blocks, which created some great textured relief prints. All in all, this project has been very fulfilling.

How do you feel your creative practice has developed since your project started?

Previously, printmaking was often a technique only available to me when taking part in workshops, or projects with Soulisquoy.
Having the freedom to experiment with print in this project has been incredibly liberating. Trying different styles and methods has enabled me to form opinions about how I’d like my work to progress in the future. Overall, I feel my approach to printmaking has become a lot looser, and more relaxed.
This is also a result of becoming more comfortable with the techniques involved. Including printmaking in my practice seems much more achievable than before.

Did the award make a difference to the success of your project?

Having the assistance of this award has given me the opportunity to explore printmaking for my personal development. It has given me access to techniques and materials that weren’t previously available to me, and that has been incredibly inspiring for my personal practice. Overall I think it would have been very difficult for me to produce the work I have without the help of this award.

Please include with your report copies of any relevant publicity material and/or images, and list what you have included here:

I have selected a range of images from different points in my project to include with this report. Monoprints 1-4 are an exploration of pattern and texture. Screenprints 1-2 are experiments in printing with natural dyes on fabric, and explore shapes inspired by human anatomy. The Linocut 1 and Linocut Process images show a finished linocut piece with a close up of the block in the process of being cut. Collagraph 1-2 show some of my exploration into using basketry processes to create a relief print.