I had hand written my notes and dairy for Monster Print and another title in July while I was at Singapore Arts Street 2009. I had somehow lost my whole folder of document including my notes and dairy for my blog L. Had been trying very hard to find it but I can’t. I try hard to recall what I wrote but … … Guess I can’t drag it anymore but to write again.
Why Monster Print? I remember Ms Chng Seok Tin told me before that a lot of people have no idea what is printmaking. It is also not been appreciated by many. Actually, personally, I love printmaking. I like the challenge I face each phrase – like any art, we got to first conceptualize, then the effect we want to achieve. Once you decide on the 2 points, you got to choose the material you want to use to create the plate. The fun and challenge thing about printmaking is that you will not be able to fully know the end outcome or print you’ll get or achieve. When the plate is completed, you got to decide on the paper (different paper gives you different effect, please also note that I’ve cut short the process, there’re so much more one need to know about each stage of printmaking then what I had written). Ok, back to Why Monster Print, I thought the best way to capture attention is introduce printmaking to public by means of the creation of the plate and to let the public try out the plate. There was a lot of experiment to be done, a lot of thinking and planning require as this plate will be create by people who had no idea what is printmaking, it was sure a challenge! Thank god, Ms Chng is a very experience printmaker and a very patient one too J
We need to create a plate that is easy to do. But we had no idea how and what to use to create it. After some discussion with Ms Chng, we decide to started with plastercine, it was easy to create to create, we just need to roll and flatten the plastercine and start to create the artwork. The print turn out lovely but the only problem is that the plate will not last as plastercine will not be harden / dry. It’ll always remain soft, therefore after a few print, it’ll be flatten. We went on and try a few other materials before we decide on air-dry clay.
We tried a few brand of clay and roll them on different backing, but without success. We first roll and glue it directly on cardboard and wood, but both crack and warp. Some brand of clay turns chalky which can’t produce nice print others was not smooth. When we finally decide on the brand, we quickly order but soon realize that it was out of stock!!! We then got to accept our 2nd option.
Next, we got to solve the warping problem. We found an expert on air-dry clay and her advised was to dry both side (top & bottom) as evenly as possible. In order to achieve that, we soon realize that we need to change diaper for our plate. YES, diaper. Why do I called it diaper? Cos the newspaper we put at both bottom and top got wet after a while and for the plate to dry faster, we got to keep changing them, just like baby diaper 
Now, we’re ready to teach and guide the public! We got children from 10 years old and elderly that is 80years old to create the plate. We took 3 days to create all the plates, very tiring but fulfilling J. They love it and even ask for more! The changing of diapers for all the plates was tiring and we got to change it twice each day. We had to be very careful while changing in case we crack or break the plate.
To put all plate together and touching up was no easy job either but all was worthwhile. It proof to be a success when we finally put up on the event J.
I sure hope there will be more such project as we really engage and introduce the arts to the community not just exhibiting.
Juan
July 2009