Ginkgo Balls and Other Prints

This week brought the first ginkgo leaves on the trees here in Dogpatch.  Like last year, I picked a few off the trees, along with some other greenery samples found between the cracks on the sidewalk and on neighboring trees, and brought my bounty into the studio to make some monoprints. 

My technique is pretty straight-forward.  I arrange the leaves on an inked-up plate made of plexiglass and run it through my etching press. 

The first pass creates a great graphic image, a relief in perfect silhouette of what I placed on the plate.  

But its gets really exciting, and in my opinion more interesting, when I remove the greenery from the plate and run it through the press again:

Absolute magic.  This process reveals the intricacies and hidden beauty in the ordinary.  Every little vein, every contour, captured in this print. 

I did the same thing with some new leaves of grass: 

Right? 

Here is a detail of the stalks. 

I tried another "ginkgo ball", this time with more leaves.

Awesome. 

I pulled this leaf from a tree.  Such a simple, perfect shape. 

Gorgeous.  Looks like a fossil! 

If it works for one it works for four! 

And here is a detail.  Unreal.  

The last plate I pulled was from all the leftovers:  the inked-up leaves that were removed from the plate after it went through the press the first time.  I took those and arranged them ink side up on a clean plate:

The result: 

Too much fun.  A very productive day with the etching press.  The soundtrack of the day was provided by the Decemberist's album, "The Hazards of Love," and the new M. Ward album "Hold Time."