Lammas prints

Yesterday was Lammas, or Lughnasadh if you prefer. It's mostly an agrarian holyday, but I was brought up a pastoralist (Welsh hill farming isn't really so concerned about the grain harvests) so the only aspect that really speaks to me is the sunlight. I started carving the block as the sunlight faded, and was printing these over midnight.



Linocut on smooth white drawing paper, and on blue rough-weave handmade paper.

Cartouche network

I did this as a substrate for mixed-media pieces - specifically, I wanted one to put on the cover of my laptop. It's done from katsura onto some rather nice Indian paper (this piece has cornflower petals - I also did plain white, grey, and medium grey-blue, and haven't decided which I'll use yet) without dampening it.

Originally, I was intending the network to be much more vine-like, but I'm not unhappy with the way it turned out.

Vinyl print 1

This is a triple experiment, really. I used a sheet of Japanese carving vinyl rather than the wood or lino previous pieces were done on - it's extremely nice to work with, except that I occasionally find myself carving too deeply and going right through. Not by accident, it's a lot like the softwood panels I used for others, but without a grain.

Secondly, I used pre-moistened paper (not soggy, just moist - I used a plant mister) to see what effect that has. The answer is basically that it doesn't, apart from making the paper a bit more tractable and less inclined to curl.

The third experiment was in using a proper (if cheap) baren, rather than rubbing it with the back of a spoon as before. It's physically easier and less painful to use, and has a nicer tactile quality - though when the guides say to rub with the grain of the baren covering, not against it, they really mean that.

Second woodcut

For this one, I decided to try cutting out areas to leave a raised line, instead of gouging out the lines of the design as before. It's harder work, but a lot of fun, and I can see it gives more opportunity to use the wood's nature.

Printmaking - woodblock experiment 1

Lessons learned from this one - firstly, that printing from wood really isn't the same as printing from lino. Having a solid block rather than a flexible piece of lino to work on is good, but it also leaves me open to edge effects. I also need to use quite a bit more ink than I think I do.

Second, if I'm going to leave a gutter and a non-printing area at the edge, I need to make the gutter quite a bit larger. The square frame above was intended that way, but didn't work out.

Relief printing with linocut - first attempt

I've been playing a little with relief printing, and I'm enjoying it immensely so far. This is my first piece. It's actually the second impression I took off the first block I made, but since it's my favourite of the edition (of three) this is what I chose to upload.



The paper is Velin Arches, and the ink is water-based lamp black from the Graphic Chemical & Ink Co.