Demo: Sarah Humby and Jayne Soakell - Tetra Pak Printmaking
Sarah and Jayne began by explaining what Tetra Pak was and how it could be used for printmaking, It’s used for a lot of packaging for liquids such as soups, oat and soya milk. Once the contents have been removed and the packaging cut and flattened, the material can be used as an inexpensive base for various types of printmaking:
relief printmaking (eg linocut), grooves and textures are cut into the surface, ink is rolled on and then a print is taken using dry paper. The ink stays on the uncut areas; the grooves and cut out texture stay the colour of the paper beneath.
intaglio printmaking (eg etching), grooves and textures are cut into the surface, ink is spread onto the surface, wiped off and rubbed into the grooves using skrim and then a print is taken using damp paper and heavier pressure. The grooves and texture are the colour of the ink.
The links go to Jackson’s YouTube Channel. There are lots of Tetra Pak demos on YouTube.
Because the material is so inexpensive, it is possible to experiment with many other printmaking techniques, such as collagraph and mono print. The downside is that the print run (the number of prints produced) is limited. Sarah and Jayne used a small craft printer to produce their prints from the tetrapak (pasta makers can, apparently, also be used…)
Sarah and Jayne showed a lot of examples and demonstrated both types of printmaking. It was very entertaining!
The Tetrapak workshop will be on Saturday, 26th April. Those who attended their Monoprint Workshop will remember that Sarah and Jayne set up craft presses for members to use and supplied all the materials needed for a very enjoyable workshop.
