A little print for a Barenforum.org exchange

Exchanging Prints

One of the wonderful things about being a printmaker is that there is a long tradition of exchanging prints with other artists. My collection of prints from fellow artists is now in the thousands! For the pleasure of getting someone else's artwork, we send some of our own. Beautiful.

Barenforum.org is a woodblock/woodcut printmaking loosely organized bunch of folk who have exchanged prints over the years. This particular exchange calls for a 10 x 7.5 inch print, no theme, 27 participants. Let's get to work.

Angry Skies

My inspiration this year is in the mundane. I walk nearly every day up, down and around a local park with pup in tow (or viceversa). This winter has been particularly blustery and many days the skies seem to show a lot of pent up energy, waiting to unload. Cold wind buffets my face as I snap a few bad reference pictures. Then on to the studio to capture the feeling.

The picture captions tell the rest of the tale so far.

Reference photo

Carving the main block

Key block (main block) is done!

A proof on working paper

Proof "Angry Skies"

Transfer key block to color blocks with mylar

Color blocks ready to be carved

Vegetation block in rainbow roll (split roll)
mustard yellow to dark reddish

Registration jig so paper always in the same place

Pulling  a print on good paper

The split (rainbow) roll close up

Day's work, 65 prints roughly, tomorrow another color!

Stay in touch!

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Transferring key block to color blocks

As promised, I made a little video on easy transferring of key block to color blocks.
Determining the number of color blocks is the hard part, I tend to just think through it and usually end up with more blocks than I need. I guess that's better than being short a block.

Everything needed to transfer key block, foamboard registration jig,
transparent sheet, blank blocks, ink, printing instrument

For loose designs such as the Fantastic Garden doodle rewards, the color blocks are easy to transfer and carve. If I want more precision, I usually use a variation of the traditional Japanese method: transfer key block to tracing paper, glue tracing paper onto color blocks with registration marks included.

But for Western relief color prints and a simple design, I save my precious hanshita (backed tracing) paper and transfer the design right from one block to another. For this, I use a registration board made with foamboard that fits the height of the block perfectly. This allows me to place the corner of the printing block against the registration board, place the paper against the registration guides and print away.

Nice transfers onto several color blocks and some proofs

I will use the registration board for the actual print and in order to adapt it to transfer the key block to the color blocks, I simply add a sheet of any non-stretchable, see-through, and non-absorbent material. This can be Mylar, any transparent plastic sheet such as overhead transparency, glassine (although I like to see completely through), or any similar material.

The sheet needs to be slightly larger than the block but not so large that it becomes unwieldy to handle. I tack the edge of the sheet onto the foamboard registration board and flip aside to allow me to ink the block. Here is the procedure:

1. Pin or tape the transparent transfer sheet to the registration board and flip aside
2. Ink the block
3. Register the corner of the block on the registration board
4. Flip the sheet onto the block
5. Print the transparent sheet as any other sheet, with hand or press pressure
6. Flip the sheet aside and remove key block
7. Place blank block in the registration board
8. Flip sheet onto the blank block
9. Print the sheet onto the block using hand or press pressure
10. Repeat for each color block needed

The whole procedure in video, enjoy!

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

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!