Original Framed Dry Point on Tetra Pak Print by Margaux Kent (series of 10). Ink on paper mounted on board, made from scraps rescued from the trash. Learn More
Description
Today we share with you a new kind of adventure. I have been – for the last 97 days – learning the technique of dry point printing through observing the world around me, focusing on the day-to-day life of a flower, a goose couple, and of course, Pearl. Each year I set out on an adventure to learn a new process which helps me share Peg and Awl treasures whilst simultaneously offering me ever-desired new ways of seeing and storytelling.
This collection – Little Windows – is made of trash and scrap from engraving to framing, and each little work is unique. I am hand-printing editions of 10 of each piece.
PS: In addition to using trash as my sub straight, I’ve printed on scrap paper from journals we make at Peg and Awl. Walter made frames out of scrap FSC certified oak from furniture and other treasures we make here. I used the rest of the wood scrap to heat up our sauna on Temperature Terrace, stop 6 on the map. The framer, too, rejoiced in using their scrap museum glass and board for the framing.
Tetra Pak Printing
Tetra Pak is a Swedish company that specializes in their iconic and sustainable paper-based cartons, used for milks, broths, and my favourite — rose water!
It is also a magical carton, in which, after enjoying and washing the contents, can be cut apart and used as a plate for print making using the dry point method.
With a sharp tool, engraving into the silver side of the plate is relatively simple. After engraving, the ink is spread onto the plate then wiped off, so ink remains in the engraved lines and wherever else darkness is desired. After wetting and blotting the paper, a sandwich of felt, scrap paper, inked plate, wet paper, top felt, is made ready for the press. After rolling the sandwich through the press, the etching comes to life! Each of these prints was made in this way with much trial and error and discovery! The frames were made in from scrap FSC certified Oak, scrap museum glass and matt board, making this a solidly ecologically sound treasure.
Little Windows
“It is surprising that many of the commonest and most interesting everyday phenomena, though they lie right before the eyes of every (hu)man, are never seen by the great majority of people. Most persons are walking through wonderland with their eyes shut.”
— Liberty Hyde Bailey
There are so many ways to see and so many little windows through which to observe the wonderland that surrounds us, but all our necks are bent and our eyes — those magical little windows — are straining to see the world up close and without moving, through the glassy, all-promising (and so consuming) little windows of our phones.
I’ve been keeping journals in which I obsessively make marks to document daily, for most of my life. Often, I am mesmerized by the complexity of the world underfoot, other times I wallow in my smallness. This work, Little Windows, began on 23 February 2025, with the 100 Day Project when I ventured down the path of printmaking. It also began when we moved to The Five Acre Wood in December of 2018 - 200 years after the house was built, and one year before the pandemic. When the human world was shut down, we were fortunate enough to have this other world to observe. It started with digging a garden and moving rocks that are abundant in our soil.
Most of the 100s of prints I’ve since made, represent the wonder of the land. They include plants and animals, objects spit up by the land and house, and of course, Pearl, our dog. I often try to see the world through her little windows, but when I crouch down, I don’t move as fast. She alerts me to the Heron eating the Snake, to a Rabbit’s burrow, to a Chipmunk’s den, and too, to every single biker and walker along Samuel Road — much to their surprise. As for the plants and flowers and trees and seeds, I am learning about them through my own adventures as an Ungardener.
My prints, through observation, bring out the certainty of the land. They are all stops on a map – of The Five Acre Wood.
I hope in sharing observations of everyday life, like Pearl through hers, you can walk through the world a little slower and see some of the astonishments that surround us!