Our shop had some very good energy in it the past few days and we were all a little sad and a lot tired when Nicole headed back to Murray. It was one of the most intense and productive printing sessions in a long while. Starting on Sunday afternoon and finishing the printathon on Monday evening, resulting in an edition of 35, with a small hand full of printers proofs for Wende, Dani, Daniel, Pako, Brian, and Donna. Rolling Knob press is especially please to have one of Nicole's prints in its collection.

Declining Constraint is a four plate, six color intaglio print, filled with personal symbols, rich textures, and subtle references to Nicole's life, her losses, and obviously her passions. She discussed the developments in her work to many students and many different classes, including drawing, foundations, and ceramics.

Nicole presented two very impressive portfolios, one of her prints and another of her current and former students. Our students and the printmaking faculty were especially impressed to see the work that students were doing at Murray State. They were ambitious, large, and beautifully drawn and printed.

Here Nicole places one of the four plates on the press bed, the RED! plate. Wende was the master of that plate for most of the printing sessions. Nicole leaves the paper engaged so that the multiple plates register, and her template is a thin tympan with a plate-sized hole cut out to fit each subsequent plate into. There were only three registration issues, all caused by me (rats!)

Daniel had a session with the RED! plate as well when Wende and Dani got promoted to other plates. All had very rewarding experiences with the entire process. We're going to try to bring Nicole back next year for a special book making workshop, and Donna's paper making class this summer will be geared up for creating some very special papers for that experience.

See some of the past few posts for additional images from the past few days.

Thanks, Nicole.