1. SECOND DAY PRINTING – DRY POINT
The secondday of our schoolsprojectfeltmuchmore
comfortable nowthatwe had metthe students
properly.Onthisdaywe were teachingthemhow to
make dry pointetchingprints.Thisprocessrequires
slightlymore attentionandpatience than
monoprintingsoitmeantwe hadto provide extra
helptothe studentswhoneededit.
Once Riverhad explainedthe processtothe students,we all
startedpreparingourplates.The studentsall hadimagesto
workfrom that theirtutorhad askedthemtobring for
homework.If anyof the studentsforgottheirimage orwere
unsure aboutthe one theychosen,we couldofferour
postcardsor any otherhelpful imageswe boughtwithus.At
first,I thinkthe studentswere notsosure aboutthe process,as
it requiredmore time howeveronce theygotintoit,theywere
showingmore excitement,experimentingwithcolourand
layering.
I had a go myself atthe process,to demonstrate tothe pupils
howit can be done.I thinkthismade themfeel more
comfortable andthere waslesspressure.SomethingIlearnt
fromthe trainingdaywasthat althoughwe are teachingthem,
we shouldn’tmake themfeelinferiorandinsteadwe should
make themfeel relaxedaroundus.Ithinkthisa good example
of doingthis.
As helpers,we hadtomake sure that eachof us wasdoing
somethinguseful all the time.We didthisbyallottingone or
twopeople todifferenttasks,forexampletwopeoplewould
be in charge of the press,twoin charge of hangingthe prints
and twohelpingthe studentstoblotthe paper.We would
change around sothat we all had experience of eachjob.
Meanwhile we wouldgoaroundandtalkto the students,
askingif theyneededhelp.
Some of the student’sdrypointprintsreadytobe dried
betweenthe sheetsof wood.
Whenthe day was finished,we askedthe studentsfor
feedbackonthe dry pointprocess.Althoughtheyenjoyedit,
theyall agreedthat theypreferredmonoprinting.Ithinkfor
our final day,we planto combine bothprocessessoitwill be
interestingtosee if theylike thatanybetter.
