Gee’s Bend Quilters, Mary Lee Bendolph and Louisiana Bendolph, making prints in the Paulson Fontaine Press (formerly Paulson Bott Press) Studio in Berkeley, CA, 2005. The Bendolphs descend from generations of accomplished quilt makers in Gee’s Bend, Alabama. The pair spent two weeks at the press, bringing with them some “pieces” they had already sewn at home. By working with clothes from Berkeley area thrift stores, The Bendolphs were able to incorporate the spirit of the Bay Area into their new works. Using a technique called softground, each quilt was laid on a copper plate coated with beeswax to produce an impression of the quilt. Next, the soft ground was etched in acid, transferring the impression of the quilt piece to the copper plate and recording all the seams, textures, and nuances of each different fabric. Mary Lee hand-worked the copper plates using the spitbite method, wielding a brush to paint a mixture of nitric acid, gum arabic, and water directly on the plate to create a watercolor effect. Once all of the plates had been made they were printed together to produce the final image.
