A new dance! The paper "jig"

Here's the gist of the problem: the paper is roughly 22 x 30 inches, the blocks are roughly 22 x 30 inches. Printing will require very careful placing of the paper on a rather large inked block, both nearly the same size.
Not wanting to put too much pressure on the printing team or end up with too many mis-printed precious sheets, I decided to build a paper placement jig. This contraption allows one person to handle a larger sheet of paper, place it with confidence on a little shelf perfectly aligned over the block, then lower the paper in perfect position.
The jig can then be retired to run the block through the press, and replaced to position the next sheet of paper.

Basically the paper-placement jig is a simple “kento” (Japanese registration guide) shaped foamboard construction.

Take foamboard strips and glue them together in a corner shaped “L”, checked with a square. I used two strips for the entire length of the contraption, about 22 inches long side and maybe 8 inches short leg.

I next cut enough smaller strips of foamboard to build up the paper-shelf supports in the corner and some distance along the long side.

I built it to the height of the block plus one layer because the block will be inked when the jig is placed next to the block and the paper shelf needs to be above the block.

Next I glue a paper support “shelf” on the corner and a papr support shelf somewhere along the long side of the jig. I made these out of a contrasting blue matt-board to aid in visibility.

The corner shelf is below the square in the picture above, already secured with the paper guide made of foamboard on top. The long-side shelf shows the (blue) shelf before the paper guide goes in place.

Secure with another piece of foamboard, the paper guide, aligned to the exact place you want the paper to be. I offset the long side about a quarter inch because my paper is that much larger than the block (when centered, of course). You can see the pencil marks on the blue shelf above indicating where the paper guide will be.

Next picture is the completed guide placed against the block:

Next picture is paper placement, pretty self explanatory. Just place guide against the block, and place corner of paper against corner guide.

Hold paper in place with two fingers, guide with the thumb or however it works for you; the guide is very lightweight so it has to be held in place while placing the paper or it will shift away from the block.

Lower the long side of paper against the long-side guide, let the paper drop gently. Secure to the block with a caress of the hand and remove the paper guide before running the block through the press.

After a few tries and the invaluable "husband test" I glued a strip of rug-hug to the bottom of the paper-placement-jig so that now it does not slip at all when placing the paper. I hope the print-team is reading this, there will be a quiz before we begin!



North East in USA and South West in Canada, it's all relative

Occurs to me that I have been placing everyone according to my own geographical-centrism. I suppose we all have ourselves and where we live as "the" point of reference for the rest of the world, otherwise we would get hopelessly lost as we travel. But be assured I mean no ego-centrism when I refer to Canada as North and Brazil as South, it's just that I'm smack in the middle...always in the middle, it's all relative!

Wow, that was deep...
Anyhow, here are the latest two arrivals.

AEleen Frisch from Wallingford Connecticut, USA sends this little window into her world. The block is actually resting on a borrowed newspaper but it's all good.

And Randie Feil, from Victoria British Columbia in Canada sends this contribution. Randie did write a smart little ditty on paper about the crows and I will be updating all those as I type them:

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I am very happy to report that I have now heard several "wait for meeeee!" from almost all the participants and looks like all but two at most will be making the extended extended deadline of February 29th.

That is a big relief because I have very few blocks to replace and, depending on where they are located, I can just carve a few lines to coincide with the outline.

As I reported a few days back, my paper sampler is here and I'm still deciding between the contenders:

-Daniel Smith Lenox

-Canson Warm White

-Stonehenge Warm White

All are equally yummy with the Stonehenge and Canson having two deckled edges and the Lenox (or is it Lennox?) having four cut edges. Time to ring up the suppliers and see what they have on hand. Plenty of time yet but I want to make sure there is leeway for backorders and also would like to lock in a price before all the carriers decide to double their shipping rates in tandem with the price of fuel.

Yikes, good thing I ride a bike!

As you were, carry on...

The beauty and mystery of printmaking paper

Okay, not that much mystery but I thought I'd make the title interesting.

I started to mull over paper choices this past week and have been doing some research online and off about what to use.
Puzzle #1, the Web was printed on Graphic Chemical Heavyweight paper which is 250 gsm, fairly smooth but with some tooth (rhymes!) and very white. Block and left print shown below.

Puzzle #2 The Great Baren Cairn, was printed on Stonehenge Cream because the design was more "organic" and because I like the way Stonehenge paper is more forgiving when printing.

Printing a conglomerate of pieces, as my good friend and helper Barbara Mason can attest, is a tedious problem. Some blocks have invariably and mysteriously shrunk, some are delicately carved and placed directly next to one that is not. Some require more ink than others but alas! all must be printed together.

In any case, I found Rising Stonehenge to have the right amount of tooth, softness, smoothness and ink "thirst" to be able to accommodate all the various blocks. In addition, it is fairly inexpensive and readily available.

Fast forward three years to Puzzle #3, the City of the World. Participant count nearly doubled at 114 and in order to make the pieces a a reasonable size, I expanded the design to five blocks. Each block will print on one 22 x 30 inch sheet of paper so each participant will receive a massive print spread over five full sheets. Quick multiplication...that's 570 sheets of paper plus some additional for sloppy printing, exhibitions, the Museum of Modern Art...(kidding, kidding).

Also fast forward in prices, Stonehenge is now a bit more expensive so I spent last week researching alternatives. I don't want to print on "cheap" student paper so I'm sticking to the 250 gsm weight as one guideline.
Another guideline was to go back to a whiter white but not pure white so somewhere along the warm white or natural designation. We don't want our City to be too cold.

My final candidates:
-Rising Stonehenge Natural @ $1.75 per sheet when bought in 100 packs
-Rising Stonehenge Warm White, same
-Graphic Heavyweight @ $1.54 per sheet when buying 500 or more
-Daniel Smith Lenox Warm White @ $1.45 per sheet when bought in 100 packs

I just bought some full sheets and when they get here I'm confident one of them will grab me and say "pick me! pick me!". Also I'm planning to call on the phone the various vendors and hunt for a good price on about 650 sheets.

Anyhow, just thought I would share some of the behind the scenes fun that I'm having while waiting for the last few stragglers. I'm finishing the photo taking this week and I will be all caught up on recording the arrivals.

More to come!