For our printmaking lesson with Martin Carrolchick,  the class made and printed collaborative silkscreens using screen printing techniques onto pages of A3. Then  we made individual books out of our prints. We used a combination of chance and design. Mindful of the original pattern, we cut the pages of A3 into pieces with a guillotine and then folded the pages into a concertina using a bone fold. This has to be done accurately so that all the pages are the same size. It is important to plan the number of pages and to distribute the patterns equally over the page, and that the book sits well on the surface on which it is put. If the pages are to be joined, a tab is made at the end which is attached with glue to the next sequence. The tab can be glued to either the back or the front of the next page. It can be patterned or plain, but it must fit with the run of pages. Another variation is that the pages can be cut or windows can be made in them in order to see through to other pages.

We then glued plain pages at the beginning and end of the book in order to attach a cover to the book. We printed a small silk screen print on the front. Overall the exercise was a first attempt at the process – a test run. The printing was rushed and not thought out. In hindsight, we didn’t do enough overprinting and the colours were too limited. The folds are not sharp enough and the composition needs more work. The pattern on the front of the book is smudged because I used too much ink. Nevertheless I feel that I have learnt a lot through making mistakes.