How to Etch a Plate for Printmaking

Today's 'How to' comes from Bridget Farmer. She's has published a wonderful long and detailed blog post about preparing and etching a copper plate for printmaking on her blog and offered it as an Etsy Ireland blog contribution. So make yourself a cuppa of something, relax and let us lure you away from here...to Bridget's blog.

Enjoy learning about the different steps and intricate work that is involved in etching!

Hooray for Prudence!

Six wonderfully talented team members are featured in the May/June issue of Prudence magazine in a feature called 'Which Craft'.

The article showcases the creativity and vibrancy of Fiona from PatchworkDelights and Suzanne from LittleWhiteDog:


Bridget from BridBird and Ger & Bonzie from Bonzie:


and finally Bee from BeeliciousCrafts and Monika from BagNoir.


You'll have to go and buy a copy if you want to read it all! Congratulations to you all and wonderful to see the Crafty Ireland Etsy team in action and in print.

May all your sales explode exponentially through the roof!

Etsy front page success for team members

European week on Etsy is in full swing and it's a delight to see a few of the team are making the front page of Etsy. Several success stories today as you can see in the screen grabs below:
Included in this front page collection are IrisOconnor, WeeCuteTreasures, BridgetFarmerPrints and Placed.

The second success story of the day is this front page collection which includes BridBird (Bridget Farmer, you are on fire!!), Crafts2Cherish, PatchworkDelights and BagNoir.

Impressive stuff, and fab to see the European side of Etsy shining brightly!

Publicity and promo for some team members

Stephanie from Pandacubcafe has featured a load of the Crafty Ireland team on her blog! Yay! She has done a Shop Local in Dublin and also a round up of her Belfast finds, all found via our blog.




What a great start to the Paddy's Day festivities. You can find Stephanie at her Etsy shop too, so go say hi and have a peek at her gorgeous jewellery & accessories.

And Bridget from Bridget Farmer Books is the featured artisan in the UK edition of Etsy's This Handmande Life!


Go and check it out and congratulations Bridget. Pictured below is her Crow Story Hand made artist book.

Have a great St Patrick's Day everyone!

Introducing Bridget Farmer

Fitzroy Birds, Dry Point Etching

Hi I'm Bridget and I'm currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I grew up in Belfast but I've been away in Scotland and Australia for the past ten years so it's lovely to be part of the Irish etsy team now that I'm back!

I have three shops on etsy. One is my bridbird shop in which I sell digital prints of kitchen themed pen and ink drawings. 

Four Spice Jars, Digital Print

I started making these images because my mum, who owns a lovely restaurant in Holywood, Co. Down, decided she wanted to write a cook book and asked me to do the illustrations. She's now on to her second cook book in which both these images were included.

Coffee Pot, Digital Print

My other two shops are what I call my 'more serious work' they are BridgetFarmerPrints andBridgetFarmerBooks. While I was in Australia I discovered printmaking. Real printmaking, with a big printing press, an acid bath for etching your plates and really thick messy ink! I loved it!

You see, I had studied Jewellery and Silversmithing for my degree in Edinburgh, but just never felt it was what I was meant to do, so when I found printmaking it was a wonderful realisation. I had been waiting to find this medium all along!

Me happy to have found printmaking, at the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne. Photo by Carla Gottgens 

I've always liked birds, they seem to be a recurring theme in my work. Especially while I was in Australia because there were so many strange and exotic looking birds there. I drank them in, thirsty for information about them all. I spent a lot of time sketching them and drawing stuffed specimens at Melbourne museum. I always like to work from life, rather than from photos, I feel this give more life and movement to the results. Printmaking became my way of exploring the birdlife in Australia. 

Now that I'm home I have a renewed interest in Irish birds. I'm mainly focusing on them now. I've just bought lots of bird food and feeders and I sit eating my breakfast in the mornings, looking out the window at all the tits, black birds, robin and yesterday I figured out what I thought was just a female sparrow was in fact a dunnock, I'm very excited about this as I'm sure you can understand!!?!

Sketchbook page of pencil drawings of Seagulls

'Australian Crows' Hard Ground Etching

I have gradually learnt more printmaking techniques, using the facilities at the print workshop in Australia and now in Belfast and from a lot of help from other users. I've always found etsy a very friendly place, full of people who are willing to help others and the print workshops are just the same. If you are interested in printmaking and know of a print workshop in your area you should definitely go and have a look!

Pied Currawong, Sugar Lift Etching

Although I say I've learnt many printmaking techniques I still feel quite a novice and there is so much more to learn. The processes are all quite lengthy so I find it difficult to experiment as much as I should. I'm quite interested in looking further into non toxic printmaking. My dream is to one day build an eco house out of straw bales. How could I possibly have a green eco house, but then have a studio full of noxious substances?! So I need to research that.

'State Library Seagulls', Artist Book of 8 Dry Point Etchings, Coptic Bound with Lino Cut Cover.

Another passion of mine is making books. My books range from photocopied and stapled zines to precious hand bound artist books containing original etchings. I've only just opened myBridgetFarmerBooks shop so I don't have very much in it at present, but I'm very excited about it and looking forward to filling its shelves. These books will contain mainly images in the form of my drawings and etchings, I'm not so much of a writer, although I'd be very interested in collaborating if any writers are interested!

'Crow Story' Artist Book, 8 Collagraph and Dry Point Etchings, Blind Embossed Cover.

Just to prove that occasionally I do branch out into other subject matter here is a book of digital prints of drawings I made of goats. I do love goats, and as the title say, who doesn't? 

'Who Doesn't Love Goats?' Artist Book, Digital Prints of Drawings of Goats.

You can see more of my drawings and some of the processes involved in printmaking on my blog www.bridgetfarmer.blogspot.com and more of my etchings on my websitewww.bridgetfarmer.com. I'm now getting a bit embarrassed by my repetition of my name here, so I shall say farewell for now and thanks for reading.