Print maker Michelle Brownridge welcomed an eager and creative group of aspiring printers on Feb. 13 at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) for a print workshop that would feature the creation of just-in-time Valentine Day cards.
Brownridge, the owner of Articulate Ink Press in Regina, said she was very pleased with the turnout in Estevan with 22 participants signing in for the evening’s work and entertainment.
A graduate of the University of Regina with a bachelor of fine arts degree in print media, Brownridge said her other artistic love is photography, so entering the print media world allowed her to work with photo images as well as ink-related media.
“You get to produce more than one original image. The process is tactile in nature and print lets you explore and that’s not always there in this digital world,” Brownridge said.
“Besides,” she said with a laugh, “I love the smell of ink.”
Since printing was the start of a communication revolution a few hundred years ago, bringing forth an age of mass information for the masses, Brownridge said this type of work, including commercial printing, will be with us for some time yet. She said she sees it within most industries that “there is still the need for printed materials.
“Print is still a vital communication tool as well as an art form and it will be with us in one form or another, probably with different initiatives down the line, just as there will probably be printed newspapers in your industry, well down the line too,” she said.
Brownridge’s workshop in Estevan as well as earlier ones in Weyburn and Swift Current were sponsored by Moose Jaw Pride who have provided the funds for the tour. “We had 14 participants in Weyburn and seven in Swift Current, so I’m very pleased to see this strong turnout in Estevan, it’s just a thing that existed before and it’s fun, and they have been able to fund me fairly and it’s an important part of the equation,” she noted.
The workshop’s participants took turns producing their own cards using black or red ink and deploying Brownridge’s mobile printing press which was a repurposed old-time wringer-washer tub and rollers. The forms were created, with wording having to be produced backwards (so they would come out positive in the printing process). The original images were produced using simple pencils on card to impress a deep enough image that would accept ink. In this backward process, she told the participants, “what you draw will be on white, what you don’t, will be in colour.”
With that in mind, the would-be print makers got to work, crafting images as well as words of love and appreciation suitable for a home made, printed, Valentine card.
