I got froggy yesterday and made several printing plates from recycled styrofoam. It is one of my favorite ways to make an image, especially if you want a folk art look. I happen to be reading the new release from Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD, “Untie the Strong Woman”, which is about the sacred mother archetype. It’s a fabulous book! It inspired me to draw this Our Lady Guadalupe with a pen onto the styrofoam. I then “inked” the plate by smoothing gesso across it with a credit card, leaving a thin layer. I had already prepped a found plaque with white gesso and simply pressed the plate on top with medium pressure. Voila! I discovered as I was adding some pencil details that I could scratch through the white gesso down to the original photo on the plaque, thus creating a sgraffito look that I think enhances the folk art quality. The last step was a thin layer of beeswax to protect and deepen the layers. Save that styrofoam from the market!
Crickyn 