Description: This is a lino print made from the original lino block used for the Coil album Gold is the Metal (With the Broadest Shoulders). The original lino was cut by Sleazy in 1987, presumably to a design suggested by John Balance, and layout sketches survive exploring the various design options around the four-way symmetry of the assembled lines. This lino block was used to create at least one print for the album cover, and then it (the Lino block) lay unused in storage for the next 25 years in London, later Weston, then later still Wales, after which I became the owner following a fund-raising eBay sale by Thighpaulsandra.The prints are my own creation; the finished designs are my colour combinations and textures, inspired by the original album cover. No copyright is being infringed: the majority of the artistic creation here is mine. There is no edition number: each creation is unique…maybe you could think of them all as being '1/1'. I have not signed, numbered or titled any of the prints on the front, but will leave some discrete info, dates and explanatory squiggles on the back. None are being sold framed, though I recommend that if you buy one it should be framed to make the best of the print. Your framer may advise a mat or to frame flat against the glass depending on the thickness of the ink. I will ship by the print by wrapping it first in protective thin paper and use good, strong cardboard album / vinyl LP mailers to send anywhere in the world, tracked and insured at actual postage cost only. The mailers and packing materials are arriving, with a few gold tissue paper elements still to arrive. The prints are ready to go in the next week or so and more are being made / drying as I write. I will offer them here before making them more widely available. Postage internationally is £15 tracked, I'll refund you if the actual price is less. I'm happy to answer any Qs about the print, the process, the background and the logistics. (More chat:) Back in 2012 I created a set of 25 prints to celebrate the silver anniversary of the release of Gold is the Metal (With the Broadest Shoulders). These prints were made using the original lino block created by Peter Christopherson in 1987, formed by superimposing three layers of ink from the block on a dark background: white, silver and various metallic shades of ink (copper, bronze &c). Each layer had a slightly different quality, tone or depth, giving each finished print a subtly different character within a broadly similar set of 25.These were then put on sale for £25 and all of them disappeared within a few hours. Several people promptly sent me photos of their now-framed prints and how they were positioned in their home galleries. I remember sending one to Thighpaulsandra as a courtesy after he sanctioned the idea of a silver anniversary print edition, but apparently his either never arrived or was thrown out unopened, looking as it did like an unsolicited LP record. I asked buyers to suggest a title for the new print edition, my favourite of these would then become the 'official' name for the print series. Some of these suggested titles from were: Dark Gains, Silver Foil Men, Cold is the Metal and LSD 25 (I wrote them all down) but the winner was Silver is the Metal With the Slinkiest Hips. Wonderful! At the same time, I began another, longer term project: a future edition of the print to celebrate 50 years of the same album (it is good to have long-term goals!) I have been creating one or two per year using layers of gold, pale and metallic paints, inks and gold leaf. Originally, I intended to do these on the summer solstices between 2012 and 2037 but this soon proved impossible to keep up with - I managed the first four I think. Fifty prints of the golden edition would be created in total. Twelve years later I am approximately half way there, although I think as my technique improves I will use the better, later prints once we near the year 2037 and drop the earlier experimental creations. The price will be, naturally, £50. Making the prints was a messy, intense and curious experience, following so closely in the footsteps of Sleazy's initial creation during a key period in the band's history, just as they were finding their alchemical feet. In reality, the lino block is tiny compared to the 12 inch square album - just 15cm on each side of the design. Sleazy has used the larger lino space to mix red and green inks with his small ink roller, and it looks like he used a sponge to create layers of texture before making a single print for the album cover. An untouched photograph of that original print shows the various tiny clothes fibres and dog hairs that only become apparent when wet paint is in play (these were airbrushed out of the finished album cover). Later, the pale square text box was added and some versions of the cover were embellished with gold leaf. The finished print itself was reversed in the darkroom (or somewhere) so that the four-fold symmetry of the original lino cut design is orientated the same way as the album sleeve. Somewhere, there exists that original first print, 15 x 15cm but reversed in a way that would look somewhat unfamiliar to most fans of the album. With the then-recent addition of Otto Avery to the band, Coil had become four-sided; perhaps the emblem explores this development as well as the longer tradition of the archetype.I continued making various experiments and test prints with the block, adding gold leaf to some (including plain and variegated gold leaves) and exploring different papers, colour combinations and layering techniques. My approach to lino prints is not the common one, where usually an intricate carved design would be given a thick but single colour of ink before being pressed onto white paper, the traditional lino print's texture coming from the artfully combined cuts and lines rather than from the layers of colours, as with mine. Lacking a true printer's skill and experience, I enjoyed taking a semi-random approach to creating a finished print that visually worked for me, usually rejecting more than half along the way. A gold leaf flourish would sometimes greatly improve an average result. Mixing the colours too much would sometimes give a dull muddy outcome, not the psychedelic frenzy I imagined but one familiar to plasticine users down the generations. Over the years, a few people have asked if the print would ever be available in any form before 2037, having missed out the first time round. I kinda quite enjoyed saying that there wouldn't be anything til 2037, but I now have a small collection of 'hits' I'm pleased with and this month I have been making more with the last of my black paper supplies. I'm offering some of these here in case anyone is interested.
Price: 41.14 GBP
Location: Birmingham
End Time: 2025-02-03T16:40:43.000Z
Shipping Cost: 18.61 GBP
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