Background Textures.

 I've just constructed 4 cardboard background texture plates for a new collagraph project that I'd like to try. Each plate has texture using a different medium and each has an area with less texture than the edges, as that is where I plant to add images, either stamps or much smaller collagraph plates. All the plates have been sealed with shellac on the back and the front for ease of cleaning.

 This above is a close up of the top left plate, which is made using a texture gel containing blended fibres by Liquitex. There were lots of sharp pointy bits after this had dried, so I have sanded quite a lot of the plate.

              This is the top right plate made by spreading moulding paste through a stencil.

 This is moulding paste again shown in the lower left plate, but with a rubber stamp of foliage pressed into it before it dried. The impression is vaguely of foliage, but it's also of bubbles and other impressions made by lifting the stamp off the wet plate.

 This one, which is the lower right is made with crackling paste. I covered the plate in a very thin coating at first, but the texture was a bit too subtle. However I left that area in the middle  and added a heavier coat around the edges of the plate. The plate crackled nicely when it dried for the second time, although it did warp a bit, but nothing that a night under a heavy book press won't cure!

Another area of the crackle plate, which looks like an aerial view of a city to me, with lakes or open spaces dotted about.