Silver Printing Progress

 Here are a couple of detail images of the work in progress on my print table.  I wanted this piece to be about the human experience of mining for silver and I researched the Montana state historical archives to find journals and documents from the early silver mining years in the state.  I found letters exchanged between a Chinese grocery store owner in Helena and his wife in China, the Vigilante pact signed in Virginia City, letters from a young woman in Bannack to her family back in Ohio, an early newspaper called Little Rockies Miner, and accounting records from a mine company.  All of these were available to use - no copyrights, and I used them to create Thermofax screens specifically for this piece.

I did the block printing first with silver paint on a pale gray collage, followed by Thermofax screen printing of the text using white to very lightly tinted gray fabric ink.