Chesse

The theme for the art society this month was ‘Contrast’. I decided to go with monoprinting, black and white and return to the idea of the chess board for my motifs.

I made a series of stencils and foam stamps and dug out my drawings of the Lewis chessmen. I also culled a few more quotes from The Game and Playe of the Chesse  (a book printed by Caxton – you can find the transcript on the web)

I started with black and white. 

 Then added red,and then green as a complementary contrast.

 But soon other colours joined in.

 I eventually ended up with a set of about 30 prints so decided to make a book out of them. I was limited by the fact that the prints were all on pieces of thin paper only half a centimetre larger than the gelli late and I didn’t want to cut into the images. After some experimentation I decided to stick them back to back and add a piece of florists wire at one edge that I could use to wrap the stitching round. 

 Now for the next months theme (and more Magellan.)