Collagraph

My first grade class viewed several works of art that focused on cityscapes. We also talked about printmaking and looked at several different ways to make prints. I had some rubber stamps and some foam stamps as well as a linoleum block. I gave them a large pile of scrap construction paper and some corrugated paper for texture. They cut and glued paper in the shapes of buildings. We used Elmer's glue because glue sticks are not permanent enough and tend to come off when ink is applied.

When the girls had completed their city-scape collages, we allowed them to dry. I did not add a varnish to each plate, but if you have time, adding a layer of waterbased varnish to the surface will make for a more rich print, as the ink will not soak into the paper. Next class I inked one collage to show them how they would be printed. They loved seeing how the image was flipped after it was printed. They also liked seeing what happened to the textured area.

Paper Collograph

Third graders viewed different types of butterflies and learned to properly identify their body parts before beginning this project. They then created a plate for a collograph by drawing a butterfly and separating its parts, by cutting them. Each part was glued in layers to the paper "plate". The plate was then inked and transferred to a colored piece of printing paper.