Playing around in the studio...and later in PS Premiere. I need another Maria!
Monday I should finish block number two and the other two blocks are now complete and patiently awaiting their turn. One of my favorite movie lines of all times: "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." (from Pixar's Finding Nemo, line masterfully delivered by Ellen Degeneres)
Go ahead, say that 3 times in a row fast!
There are various issues when printing relief prints with a press and a hundred ways to solve them.
One of the most prevalent is paper slipping, especially at the edges of the block, which results in a "double" edge print or simply a blurred edge usually on the trailing edge.
With smaller blocks, I have a three prong method of solving this problem. I use runners, a thin felt, rubber blanket or matboard tympan, and I lay the block at a slight angle to the roller. With larger blocks that fill the press bed, such as the Fantastic Garden blocks, I needed a better method.
Runners and a Chase
Block "locked" side to side and end to end
Most printing problems can be solved by placing two runners perpendicular to the press roller, along the edges of the press. These runners should be about the same height of the block being printed and serve two purposes:
1. They support the roller and avoid bed warp
2. They keep the roller from bouncing on and off the block
Shelf support keeps end piece flush to end of block, strip with peg keeps the runners flush to sides of block
For the Fantastic Garden, I took a page off the letterpress manual (well, not literally) and built a chase of sorts. A letterpress chase is a shallow box, slightly lower in height than the block, that completely encloses the block to be printed. Pieces of wood called furniture are placed in the chase around the letter-form (the block to be printed) and the furniture locks the form so that it does not move while printing.
Since I am inking by hand, I did not need to completely "lock" the block tightly but I did need a way to prevent the roller from slipping off the edge of the block and causing the dreaded double edge. The Fantastic Garden prints are bleed prints so any slippage of the paper had to be prevented. As you will see in the video, I simply cut a few pieces of wood to fit the perimeter of the block and secured them with pegs and shelf supports.
Blankets, Felts, Blotters?
In order to even out the pressure over the darks and lines of the block, for relief work, a thin blanket, blotter and matboard or a rubber blanket are used. A thick etching blanket is not necessary and may in fact push the paper to the carved valleys, where it may pick up unwanted ink. Thick blankets are used sometimes when embossing is desired.
For the Fantastic Garden blocks, I am faced with deeply carved blocks, next to shallow delicate carvings, next to dark areas next to line work. Quite a challenge to please everyone!
The choice for the Fantastic Garden blocks, after some testing, was a thin felt blanket backed with a rubber blankets. I used a blotter to protect the felt from picking up ink. A few proofs on any block usually give the best tympan for that particular print. The thin felt accommodates for various heights, the rubber blanket keeps the tympan "hard" enough so no embossing or dipping will occur. The blotter just keeps things clean!
There is MUCH to do now and will be so for the next few weeks. I just finished clearing out the studio to make room for clean and efficient printing of 400+ woodcut prints. Clean press, blankets of various thicknesses and compositions ready, newsprint prepared, ink and knives hanging in my magnetic holders awaiting eagerly... I even bought new clothes-pins so that I could hang them all to dry without stopping much more than to wolf down my next Power-Bar.
Prep
But first, a few details yet to attend to. Blocks have to be inspected for potential printing problems, backgrounds carved a bit deeper in some cases, lines enlarged. Tough to tell who is going to give me grief during the printing process but mostly a matter of cleaning up the backgrounds. Then I have to finish building a "chase" of sorts to keep the roller from hopping off the block. This time I am going to actually joint a full chase to fit the blocks, front-back-side-side. Since the paper is the same size as the block, I predict nothing but smooth printing without hops and slips. Okay!
After the chase is built, the puzzle pieces are glued down to their respective matboard backings. I use a foam roller to spread a mixture of white and wood glue evenly over the matboard and then just set in place the large skeleton block and all its puzzle pieces carefully, quickly!
Subs
This year we only had a single block Missing In Action. The process of replacing the block requires a tracing of the "hole", transfer to wood, cut the new block, tweak as necessary, design and carve. Simple, but takes about a day to do it. That is my task for today so I best get to it. Sadly our first rescued feral cat passed last Friday so I immediately thought of a memorial for our Cricket (1998-2013), now frolicking in our garden forever free of earthly burdens.
Pictures of the cutting of a "sub" block:
Tracing of the missing block, I just slip the paper under the block and draw the outline
After cutting out my tracing, I placed on a block of cherry ply and draw the outline. The thickness gauge made certain that the blocks were same width.
After clamping the block to my cutting bench, I saber saw the shape.
