Today at college I attempted to re create a piece seen further down the blog. The medium print that I printed the green lino over the top of. This time I wanted the same effect as last time, just without the green on top, so effectively taking the print one step back. I printed my first proof on Fabriano, using ripped pieces of tissue for chine-colle, layering them on top of one and other to see what effect was created. My prints from today are in the drying boards at college and I don't have pictures of them yet but will post them up as soon as I get them.
After proofing the etching I traced the shapes I wanted to chine-colle from the plate, cut them out, numbered them and took a picture of them again, which really speeded things up when the plate was inked and I was ready to place on the pieces. When the plate was inked I used a very black piece of scrim to begin the wiping and push the ink in to the grooves of the plate, then a cleaner piece to polish it, then a page from the yellow pages and finally, tissue paper. I also finished off by wiping the edges clean with an old piece of T shirt material. When the plate was at the stage I wanted it I cleaned each space of the image with cotton wool buds.
The photo above shows one of the spaces on the plate (centre left) when it has been cleaned with a plain cotton wool bud. I then cleaned the spaces again to make sure they were really clean compared to the rest of the plate with cotton wool buds and white spirit. The picture bellow shows a space on the plate after the white spirit. Can you see the difference?
It took a lot of patience and a lot of cotton wool buds but I got there in the end!
As well as using the numbered pieces of chine-colle and the photograph, I also picked up a cheap tweezers set from The Works for 99p! This turned out to be 99p well spent as they made placing the small pieces of chine-colle a lot easier, rather than getting my hands all sticky and messing around. They also meant I could place the pieces a lot more accurately without effecting the ink already on the plate.
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| This picture shows some of the different tools I used today including the tweezers set, latex gloves, scrim, white spirit and cotton wool buds. |
I used PVA glue (although should be using archival glue but have yet to get some) on one side of the chine-colle pieces and then spritzed them with water on the other side to dampen them. There are lots of things lying around the house that can be so helpful in Print Making. The spritz bottle I use is just one of an old hair product I had.
For any of you looking for a new book out there, this is my new Print Making Bible! Its called Hybrid Prints by Megan Fishpool.
Its from a series of books called Printmaking Handbook. It has great tips for mixing print techniques to achieve unusual results and is great for helping you come up with new ideas. The book has lots of coloured photographs and illustrations and is highly informative. I would recommend this book to any Printmaker. You can find it on Amazon by following the link bellow.
Hi there
ReplyDeleteI just managed to get hold of "Non Toxic Printmaking" by Mark Graver and I highly recommend it. It's got stuff in there, on resists for and etching aluminium - too which is really helpful.
Aine Scannell