Luaun Wood has arrived

Just thought I would post a photo of the Luaun wood as I scanned it in regard to making a jpeg of it, to attach to an email I sent IMclains re a question I had for them.



I also did some other recent stuff in my print studio such as



this collagraph plate combination as a background. I made the plates using golden soft gel and hard ground acrylic. One was with bunched up tinfoil and the other with bunched up tissue.
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This "splodgey" looking brown one, is made using co-polymer matt emulsion, which has been diluted with water and then I tilted the plate and let that dry. I did the same thing later and scrunched that about with a brush or cloth. I would have liked to put it in the oven and then later when it was dry and cooled down put it into the fridge overnight BUT I am a bit worried about the fumes it might create as I am nowadays outrageously sensitive to such things in terms of how it affects my breathing and chest. So we will see. Maybe I will do it.

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This is one I made a while back to possibly include in an edition I had to make for Florida Printmakers.

I have just torn away the area where it looks 'whiter' than the rest of the plate and then sealed that with acrylic hard ground resist.


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This was one of the prints I was working on for the submission to Krakow but it wasnt sufficiently resolved on time to send. Which reminds me I have not heard a peep from them though its highly unlikely that they would select my work.

Anyway this collagraph plate goes with another plate which is an etched steel plate and I had already worked on the animal shape on the left but had repositioned it incorrectly (much to my own amazement) fortunately I was able to remove and re locate it. What a turkey!!
I also did a small amount of work in other areas with some carborundum.

It's about 50 x 70 cm (ish)

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This next plate is just the wood veneer stuck to abase plate then sealed with acrylic hard ground. I had found a score right across the lower half of the plate so have added some tinfoil and then sealed that with A.R.E. hard ground.




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I Got Wood Grain going around my brain……..!!

As the fascination so to speak has sort of worn off with my new website
I ordered some ‘new toys’ ................... well I decided to order a piece of Lauan wood from IMclains. I had seen it in their catalogue and it mentioned that the woodgrain showed up upon proofing so I though mmhh……………

I had previously ordered my aquatint screen from them and they are always so nice andhelpful when I've contacted them re technical quandaries that I thought I’d pop along to see what was in their clearance sale and then got distracted looking at thewoods again. Gawd how I just love wood……………. I am really nuts about it - well in a visual sense. This image by Stacey Frank



shows the kind of idea I am getting at, in terms of why I want to be able to obtain a proof of woodgrain from a sheet of wood.

I came across it, a while ago when I looked up "wood grain" or "wood grain proof" in my ongoing quest to find the means to arrive/ at obtain proofs of wood grain.

I want to be able to build on these in printmaking terms, using I don’t know……………… say collagraph or etched figurative elements for example or even say inkjet chine colle. Perhaps I might also try out using ‘trace monotype’ perhaps that would enable me , to get results along the lines of the “Traces in the Wood” series I did by scanning tinted wood and then superimposing trace monotype onto these using Photoshop.

……………….. I don’t think that it would be easy but it’d be so satisfying!!

Getting back to the woodgrain quest I have tried taking a proof from the ordinary plywood that you get from the local wood suppliers. I don’t know what kind of wood it is – possibly pine?
I attempted rolling it up with intaglio ink with extender in, but these were not even worth photographing but perhaps I will if I can find them. Then I tried proofing them on to a lighter weight (thinner) paper. None of them were satisfactory though.

Someone I came across in the course of my explorations is an artist called Bryan Nash Gill, who takes tree stumps and with great dedication and labor creates relief prints onto fine Japanese paper rubbing them by hand.



Just love these.........mmmhhh!!!



I kept researching on the web and in printmakers forums and someone suggested using a wire brush on these. I started doing this once I eventually found my brass brush (originally meant for suede shoes).
That wasn’t making too much of a difference so when I spoke to my printmaking colleague at the Fife Dunfermline Printmakers Workshop, BMK – he suggested that perhaps a steel brush might be more effective– which he brought in to the print workshop, a few days later.

I decided it’d be best to do the steel brushing of the wood, over a course of weeks as it is slow, hard work. BMK did a few wirebrush sessions of the plate too – which as always was much appreciated.

In the meantime I also tried using a heat gun (suggested by CWB (my partner) ………. along the lines of what one uses for stripping paint off doors, for example.

The idea for this, was that it would ‘burn’ away the soft wood leaving the harder wood grooves. At first I thought “aha…… this is good …..this is going to do the business !!! Gradually though I realized that it was burning the wood away evenly (as the nozzle wasn’t sufficiently small) which meant that there would not be sufficient ‘differentiation’ in terms of how/where the heat was projecting onto the wood. Oh well …………….I kept going with the wire brush. A few weeks later we rolled up the ink and took a proof BUT one just got a proof of mainly wire brushed wood. I mean the lines of the steel wire dragged over the surface of the wood …….aarrgh !!!

At some point, I had written to IMclains and ‘Alex’ one of the staff there, recommended trying Birch plywood. I did and again it didn’t work even with some sanding and gentle wire brushing. It almost seemed the more I tried the more elusive it became.

Though I may seem quite calm writing my thoughts here….I wasn’t at the time. at the print workshop ….....I just just felt disappointed and frustrated.

The thing that had rekindled this longstanding love affair with wood was the video I had previously encountered and subsequently posted on the FDPW blog showing Karen Kuncs' wood block technique workshop.The video was filmed by Sara Ringler.
http://fdpw.blogspot.com/2008/11/test-post-3.html

I emailed Karen, as a matter of fact to ask her which wood she used and if she’d ‘prepped’ it by sanding/ sealing etc etc....... also what kind of inks she used etc.

She very kindly replied the following day and said she used birch plywood and relief ink with extender and that she also added a little tack reducer. Karen also mentioned that she didn't as a rule sand the plates although she sometimes did a small amount of wire brushing with certain of the plates. I think that was it. Needless to say I ordered some tack reducer from Intaglio Printmakers suppliers in London.

I was delighted to find a fellow printmaker on Inkeraction who seemed to have done a print with a woodgrain proof and silkscreen. Kimiko Miyoshi




Interestingly when I looked up “printmaking, woodgrain” this evening on Google, I came across a new person who I believe is called Ryan Greaves.


He seems to have done a couple of steel brushed wood grain proofs. So I will be emailing him. Maybe I need a particular kind of brush or even brushes…………?

Marga Schnell is another artist who I came across with a strongly pronounced woodgrain print so I contacted her – what an interesting woman – she responded very generously although wasn’t able to offer anything new to my pot of knowledge re woodgrain etc.



Stacy Frank did reply when I queried her about how she had done her woodgrain proofs. She said she had used wood veneers. The one I purchased from EBay – the largest one I could find was kind of thin and flimsy which is what these things are and to make matters worse `I spilt a cup of tea on it. So it was additionally ‘buckled’ to boot !!!



None the less I thought I would attempt to glue it to a cardboard base and give it a coat of sealant and then try to do a proof in intaglio and relief. These turned out reasonably OK but I then realized there were score marks right through it!! Not mine ……I hasten to add – these must have been there when I purchased it But I hadn’t noticed. So that was the end of that. Here are the proofs.





The other problem that was noticeable was the brayer or roller marks when applying the surface roll. Not so much on that plate which was about 30 x 30 cm but certainly with pieces that are about e.g., 34 x 48 cm size.

Last Saturday I went to the local shopping centre to collect something `I ordered from Argos. On the way back to the car park on my motorized mobility scooter (!!) I couldn’t resist going into the "One Pound Shop" to see if I could find anything that I could utilize in a printmaking context. I found some laminated wood flooring which had an impressed wood grain. Made of some kind of plastic material…......long strips. I purchased a pack and made a plate from half the pack (of four strips). Heres the main plate that I made:



Did a small test plate as well with the left over bits. I intaglio inked it, and rolled through my etching press. It looked promising.

Tuesday of this week - I made a relief proof of it using the book press at the print workshop and that looked fine. We tried it (me and BMK) on two different weight papers both fairly thin.






Today I inked it up intaglio and then BMK surface rolled it in the same colour but without the extender added and it was put into the book press with padding added to help with the pressing/ contact of the dampened paper to the incision and the surface of the plate.




Finally getting something that looks acceptable.

My piece of Lauan wood arrived today from IMc Clains so I will be trying that out next Tuesday. From what I could find out on the web it would seem to be a hardwood that is milled from the rain forests of Malaysia and Indonesia. It’s currently being on a list of woods that may have been sourced through ‘ecological abuse’ I can’t help but wonder how IMclains have sourced this wood so I will have to mention this to them when I email them to let them know that I have received the package.
See article

http://www.gda.state.mn.us/resource.html?Id=1408


WHAT A flipping SAGA !!!

Last Stages of my drypoint submission for Serbia

I did the proof on Thursday morning of the figurative element onto the proof, from the copper plates that I had proofed on Tuesday. Neither of which was satisfactory.

I could see that there was a problem with the 'plate tone' on the older of the copper plates that I had drypointed. I then started thinking about maybe incorporating a surface roll, onto the final print.
Once we had mixed the colours and organized the surface roll set up, we proceeded to generate a proof and it took ages and ages to do. That 'easy wipe ink' that we used on Tuesday really had been significantly speedier!!



As I wrote in the first post concerning this 'drypoint debacle',( on my main blog ) the line scratched into the copper, had been too inconsistent pressure wise and that surface of the larger plate no matter how much wiping just wasn't going to 'give up the ghost'. Then there were problems with the surface roll which essentially just redistributed what it picked up from the surface of the plate - which is why it looks so blurry in the colour version. Just wasn't a roller with a sufficiently large circumference or is it diameter. So all round........ despite heaps of hard work and application - I came away from the workshop on Thursday feeling disheartened and shattered.
Later in the day - I thought that I might chop the print down to an open bleed print format, cut out the proof I had done of the fig. element and place it on top of that just to see how it looked. I then thought that I might surface roll the drypointed perspex figure and that would give me a white on blue although I wasn't sure never having done a drypoint relief or surface roll as it were..........that didn't work!!



I then did it on the computer just to see how it would look. For this submission though the brief (regulations) stated that they were seeking a fairly pure approach to drypoint. That's what they wanted. So I knew I couldn't include an inkjet, chine colle. Or even a relief print on lightweight paper.

In the end I did a proof of the fig. element onto 2 layers of chine colled lightweight paper and on Sunday when it I removed it from the blotters/drying stack - I collaged it to the surface with acid free pva.
At the last minute when I was showing it to C. who was in the studio working on my new 'gallery wall' he said that maybe I should consider running it through the press to flatten it. I removed the label I had attached to it's reverse and did so - and it did improve it.
I took a photo of it but it looks a lot worse than it does in the flesh. I also sent the knight bird drypoint that I did fairly recently.



I took it to the post office this morning and it cost a fortune to post it. I really mean that. Because of it's area size i.e., 44 x 57 cm, it fell outside the 'printed matter' category and into parcel genre so was £27 for an 800 gram package. Normally the packets I sent prints in to biennials and suchlike internationally cost an average of about say £12.00.
By then I just wanted it sent off and though it was very expensive because I had invested so much of my efforts time etc etc. I just sent it. The sad thing though, is that I don't think it will get selected maybe the smaller one ..........we will see. Maybe the unusual nature of the image will appeal to them or even the colouring. The knight bird image - a lot of people on Flickr seem to have liked, so as I say we will see.

Drypoint - Word Web and Spider Woman

LEFT: Here are the various test plates I carried out in relation to making my large drypoint with the handwritten word web and the spider like female form. This was inspired by the performance artist Lisa Bufano.


LEFT: Test of part of the large print image, done on copper and a proof.


Something I put together recently known as a "silk aquatint" I have yet to tidy up the back of the plate. I painted on a layer of Lascaux acrylic hard ground and then while it was still wet, applied the piece of pure silk. I then pulled it so it was 'taut' but not so tight as if I were stretching a canvas. When dry, I painted on another layer of the same. Later I painted the same stuff on the surface -- never quite looks like it ought to as in the examples one sees in the printmaking manual/book. Perhaps I should have gone over these marks once again.

Below you can see a scan of the proof from this little test plate ( its the darker one of the two) - I love the rich tone. On the same scan you see the test proof done from a section, of a large silk aquatint plate I made - which has been somewhat over wiped. This plate was created using the same process and materials.

What I found to be really convenient, was that I didn't have to wait my usual 'few days' for some polyurethane varnish (sometimes called Yacht varnish).

I may start using this as a sealant for collagraphs - OK, it's a lot more expensive although having said that I have not done even a quick cost analysis.

BUT even more important I think, is the non toxic aspect as in the smell and fumes. Although not as horrendous to me as white spirits or turpentine - it still smells unpleasant and I can feel it affecting my breathing and it can be headache inducing too (i.e., the polyurethane).

Next the figure drypointed onto a soft floppy perspex like material. I drew the image on one side with permenant marker and then scratched into that, on the reverse, with my drypoint tool. What a pleasure that was after the laborious effort of the copper and the aluminium!! Once the image was drypointed - I then removed the permanent marker with lighter fuel and it came off incredibly easily. I wanted to be able to see the ink going into the grooves and also how the wiping was going. That's a great advantage in relation, to using a transparent material.

The last scan is of the proof taken from the drypoint of the handwriting of the word web on aluminium. Oh ............ plate tone.!!! I have a 'tablet of whiting or something like that somewhere which I seem to remember one rubs onto ones clean hands and it helps to wipe away plate tone but despite a search couldn't find it. It will turn up soon hopefully. Magnesium Carbonate block --- just looked it up and thats what it's called. Bit of a mouthful!!

Proofs of the Equine Gestation Miniprint (2)

Here are the final sordid details of my effort to make one of three pieces to submit to the the British Miniprint competition.

Proofs of the Equine Gestation Miniprint

Here are scans of the proofs from when I was trying to get this horse fetus image on the pre rocked mezzo tinted plate sorted out. Thing is I had all these ideas in my head and then when I actually did it – ultimately it wasn’t so satisfactory. !!


I began with a pre rocked mezzotint plate which I bought from Intaglio Printmakers (London). I think they are made in Japan – impression from the packaging.

My idea was that I would paint an area of the plate with Lascaux acrylic resist etch (hard ground) let it dry overnight – so that it was good and hard.

Then scribe my design into it.

If you have seen the sketches (as such) that I had done in Photoshop then you will know that I had plans to make a line around the body of the mother horse and then like a focus cross line.

So I scanned the proofs afterwards and it’s a little while back now since I did them October/ November – so I cant quite remember the proof order but have put them roughly in order.

Towards the end I did some with chine colle using some paper I had purchased from Falkiners fine
paper in London. It’s so expensive now, and to my horror they sent me sheets that were half the size of what was listed on their website. So I complained about it and eventually after quite a few emails and almost getting rude – I was sent the “missing” paper. I have not been back to the website but I can fairly well put a wager on it that they have now changed that listing. I need to find an alternative place to get this kind of paper in the future – so if any of you know of any UK suppliers or even European based, then I would appreciate info. on that.

My friend in Norway Elisabeth mentioned that she had coloured Chinese calligraphy
roll paper, which I use for printing relief onto. I must try it out. I think she used watery acrylic. I have used a piece of a watercolour picture on a print and that did not ‘run’ or ‘bleed'.










As usual click on images for larger view and to read my comments/notes.

Equine Fetal Image - Development for Mezzo Plate