anchor printmaking (reflection and explanation)

I was assigned the element Silver, which is abbreviated to Ag on the periodic table. It's atomic number is 47. 

Upon research, I learned that Silver was used across multiple civilizations through thousands of years, up to today. It has been used for silverware, jewelry, and even on the ships of explorers (I'll get to that later). Silver is a reactive element, and is considered to be a 'malleable transition element'. 

I got the idea to make my design for silver an anchor because of how the ancient Phoenicians used it. When they first arrived to Spain by ship, they found so much silver that they needed to replace the lead in their anchors with silver. 

Making the three prints you see below took graitious trial and error. First, I needed to create the design on tracing paper. I actually went through two designs. My first design was a vertical anchor, but I decided against it. Anyway, with my final design, I transferred it to tracing paper, and after that I needed to transfer the design to the foam plate, which would allow me to print my design. It was a difficult process, but I think I did well transferring the design to the plate. 

I would make a cooler design if I could do this again. I would keep the anchor, but maybe do something cooler with it? Maybe with a pirate ship! 

I loved working with my classmates, sharing the paint, and coming up with ideas to make each others designs look cool. We helped each other make a fade in the print, get more paint out of the bottles, etc. This was my favorite art project in the semester!