From the Acadian Forest

This collagraph was created in 2019. The edition number is 3/4.

To listen to Ann Manuel speak of her series SANCTUARY, please click here. 

Collagraphy is a versatile printing process in which a textured plate is inked and put through a press. Different textures hold varying amounts of ink and print different tones. Anything with a low relief texture can be stuck down and used: wallpaper, leaves, fabrics, tapes and threads etc. The collagraph plate is then varnished and can be printed intaglio or relief. 

Intaglio is a collective name for the process of printing from an image incised into a plate. In the intaglio process, the entire plate is covered with colour (usually ink) and then wiped clean however the ink remains in the incisions. The plate is then pressed against paper with great pressure and the image is printed where ever the incisions have trapped the ink.

Relief is a collective name for a group of processes in which the image is formed on the paper by inking an original image on the plate (or matrix) where the negative spaces in the image are carved into the matrix. In other words, the areas to show white on the printed paper are incised out of the plate. (A regular ink-stamp is an example.) This contrasts to the Intaglio process in which the ink image is printed from the incisions themselves.