Madrid, New Mexico~ A Stop Along the Turquoise Trail

My Mom & Grandmother have been visiting each summer for a few days for the past 3 summers that I have been working in Santa Fe. I am the self appointed "tour guide" & try to show them a little something different each time they visit. There is so much to see & do! Wednesday we drove out along the Turquoise Trail to Madrid. It's a tiny little town, rich in mining history~ turquoise, lead, silver & coal. (If you're interested, there's some really great history here: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-madrid.html~ it even tells of a several hauntings!) After the coal bust it essentially became a ghost town... but it's since been revitalized into a funky little artist enclave & popular tourist stop along the Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway.

I love old buildings, things that are funky, and checking out other artist's work, so poking in all the little shops & galleries was right up my alley.

We didn't eat here, but we all got a kick out of this sign. I mean, really, isn't it the coolest? While poking around, I also found this really simple, yet beautiful turquoise necklace. 

My birthday is coming up this month (already?!? It seems I just had one!) and my sweet Gramma saw how much I loved it & she decided it would be my early birthday present. Awe... thanks, Grams! It is by local Jewelry Maker & turquoise miner Rianna Newman~ you can read about her & her work here:

http://theroamingtumbleweed.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/the-gem-of-madrid-riana-newman/ 

Our last stop before heading back, was to photograph this little church a bit farther down the road, near Golden, NM~

I've photographed it before, in 2008... actually using it as a template for a Printmaking class I took this spring. I'll often photograph things/places repeatedly... there's always a slightly different angle, weather or season that can change the whole feel of a photograph. It's a great side trip if you're ever in the area!

You Never Know Until You Try...

Looooooong and late hours have been spent in the print studio... I've been up working far past my bedtime and I have simply been too tired to blog! It is just a tad frustrating, too... when desired results are far from being achieved. Long story short, for our final prints, all our images had to be altered in some fashion so as not too look too photographic... so I found myself spending MANY hours working & reworking plates. Here's the first print from an earlier post~

In order to "save" part of the image, a hard ground substance is carefully applied to the copper plate & allowed to dry~

Then, I went through the whole aquatint process again and added the moon with applications of ground & aquatint in between etchings~

At first, I thought it turned out pretty cool... and was rather happy with it. But, it didn't get the most rave reviews during critiques... even though I didn't see anyone else really pushing the boundaries of alteration. My instructor felt it would be better without the moon, and just a solid black sky. So, I reworked the plate again, & got this~

You can't really tell, but in the print there was still a faint outline of where the moon was... and I didn't like it. I tried making a brand new plate at this point, but the etching acid was weak, and the entire plate was scrapped. Boo Hoo! So, I went back to the original plate & reworked (burnish, scrape, sand, hardground, re-etch.) By this time the acid was REALLY weak. Normally you get a decent etch in 25 minutes... I left the plate in the acid for 4 hours after reworking it! After all that work... this is what I came up with~

All that effort... and this print won't even go in the final portfolio! But, it's true... you never know until you try.