I’m back from Amsterdam, and ready to start writing about my month-long residency at AGALAB, formerly Atelier Grafische Amsterdam.

I was fortunate enough this year to receive a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England. My proposal was to fund the research and transition of my practice from traditional processes, to more sustainable, and lower toxicity methods and materials.

Part of the grant funded a residency to work with Geowash-K, a vegetable cleaning agent currently being used as an alternative to traditional VOCs and solvents at AGALAB. I had been there before, in 2019, and it was transformative. My intaglio practice now includes acrylic grounds and alternatives to traditional mordants, and I work much more with colour, and alternative substrates.

This second visit would be a chance for me to try this product as an alternative to traditional solvents in stone lithography. Unlike in intaglio, where solvents are usually used after processing to remove inks and grounds, solvents form an intrinsic part of processing and printing the image on the stone, so I was interested to learn whether this product would truly be a viable option. Results are mixed.

I am going to split this into four future posts, documenting my research, progress, or lack thereof, and tentative next steps. Stay tuned.