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.

Ow, again

No, I haven't stuck myself again - this one is muscle strain from a few hours with the carving tools. I'm working on the largest, most complex block so far - katsura, designed to print onto A4 paper.

But still, I'm most of the way through the final pass. It takes more or less four, after the design's been drawn on - first I cut out the gutter around the edge, and neaten up the outside edge of the printing area. Then I scoop out the white areas with the komasuki (U-shaped gouge - 5mm and 3mm depending on the size of the area) and/or the kentonmi (registration chisel - a standard straight-edged flat chisel. This is very much not what it's intended for) and after that go around again with the komasuki to deepen the holes and neaten up the edges a little. The final pass is with the sankakuto (ninety-degree V-shaped gouge - an amazingly useful combination of chisel and scoop) to neaten up the edges properly and eliminate as many random splinters and inappropriate angles as possible. It's also particularly good for steepening the cutouts, which is good for this one because I want clear white areas without cut marks this time.

I have only a rough idea what the final product is going to look like at this stage - well, obviously I know where all the lines are supposed to go on the macro-scale, but on the millimetre scale it could do almost anything, and that's one of the things I particularly like about printmaking. It almost completely sidelines my natural fussy-perfectionist tendency, and leaves the print with an unpredictable vitality.

Sources

Quick post to note down where I've been getting things from - mostly, Atlantis Art in Whitechapel, and Intaglio Printmaker in Southwark. The latter is a bit of a trek to get to, especially in a London summer, but it's worth it. For those of you (most of you) outside London, both places do mail order of course.

On my first trip to Intaglio, I picked up a set of cheap Japanese carving tools (hangito, kentonmi, sankakuto, and two komasuki); some water-based ink for relief printing (oil-based is a bit more traditional, but I hate working with oil-based materials unless I have to); some battleship lino and a couple of pieces of katsura (gorgeous sexy Japanese softwood, carves wonderfully); a small roller; and a few large sheets of Velin Arches paper. This made a perfectly adequate set of equipment for kitchen-table printing, though I had to use the back of a large spoon as a baren. (A proper baren, and some of their carving vinyl, were top of the list on my return visit.)

Prices: a piece of lino six inches square is £1.70, and the vinyl is £2.05 for a piece 200mm x 300mm. (That's what I did this on.)
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The katsura (10mm deep) is £4.81 for the same 200mm x 300mm, or £1.35 for six inches by four - that's what this is on.

I'm currently lusting after more paper, but I want to use up more of what I've got first. I also have some gorgeous-textured handmade Indian paper, in various colours, that I want to try printing onto - I just need to finish carving the block I started the other day. When my finger recovers a bit.

Two Birds

I did these with another vinyl block, and discovered a couple of interesting things. The first is that - since the vinyl blocks are only 3.2mm deep, it's almost impossible to avoid getting ink on the higher ridges outside the "official" design - it gives me interestingly unpredictable bits outside the edges. And if I try to eliminate them all, I end up going right through the block.

The second is the response of this particular paper - Atlantis heritage woodfree paper, 315 gsm, quite smooth and hard-surfaced - to soaking. The first image was done with dry paper, the second moderately-soaked - what I did was stack half a dozen pieces of paper up on a waterproof surface, giving each a thorough squirting with the plant mister before dropping the next on, and wiping off the surface water before dropping each one on the plate.

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.