CFPR STAFF CAREER STORIES 0.2
Harrie Fuller
TECHNICAL
SPECIALIST
IN 19TH CENTURY PHOTOMECHANICAL PRINTMAKING METHODS
Harrie Fuller started at the CFPR in December 2020 as a trainee print technician apprentice having completed her BA in Fine Art at UWE Bristol two years earlier. As the first print apprentice in UWE. Harrie is now employed as a technical specialist in 19th century photomechanical printmaking methods, working with EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) Manufacturing Fellow, Dr Susanne Klein.
Although printmaking was part of Harrie’s degree, the nature of the traineeship meant that she did not need in-depth knowledge at application stage and could learn once in the post. She was able to access the equipment and specialist knowledge she needed and found people in the CFPR very generous with their time.
The apprenticeship scheme provided her with formal training and assessment. Every six weeks she had online meetings with the apprentice training coordinator covering health and safety, technical information about the print industry and standards to uphold in the workplace. Her training at UWE included advice from technical experts in Screen printing, Lithography. traditional and digital print, laser cutting and manufacturing skills. Harrie learned about wet plate collodion and other alternative photographic methods with Paul Elter in Canada, and covered 19th century techniques, including platinum printing and photogravure with Dr Peter Moseley.
The apprenticeship has expanded Harrie’s problem solving skills and given her access to other processes, for example, historic print processes such as Woodburytype, and theories of colour, halftoning and ink making. The post has enabled her to develop her physical making skills, as well as her research and analytical skills and given her the opportunity to write up results in journal articles. Harrie is now a confident public speaker, delivering presentations at conferences and she was awarded the prize for best speaker at the annual British Liquid Crystal Society Conference in 2022. She has also
supported one CFPR PhD student, providing instruction in printmaking techniques and working together to make prints for analysis.
Harrie recently collaborated with the German company Kerzen Hamacher to design and prototype new packaging for candles, responding to their brief to update their existing 1950s letterpress packaging without appearing too modern. The final design has been prototyped and goes into production in the summer of 2023.
Along with Dr Susanne Klein, Harrie worked with the National Portrait Gallery analysing the registration of negatives for the exhibition Yevonde: Life and Colour (2023). The negatives were made in the 1930s using the innovative Vivex colour process and much of the knowledge surrounding them has been lost.
Woodburytypes Harrie made were included in the exhibition TRANSMEDIAL: Expanding Technologies in Contemporary Printmaking organised by the Print Council of Australia in 2021
Harrie’s own prints have been featured in Pressing Matters magazine (issue 21, January 2023), and will be shown at Woolwich Print Fair, London in Autumn 2023.
