paper and printing
Thanks Georgie George, that's a very good question. Paper for lino cuts, many options, many different effects. My knowledge of paper comes only from doing (playing) rather than theory, and I haven't been doing much these last few months so there may be other useful perspectives (this is my footnoted caveats!), that said, I think there are 3 main features that characterise the paper you use:
- thickness (or weight)
- texture
- absorbancy
The other two main things which I have found interplay with paper features to efffect the print are the ink (wetness and stickiness - themselves a function of thickness of ink plus time exposed to air, as gets stickier with time) and the printing process itself.
I find that a very thin paper (eg recycled copy paper) is fine for doing test runs as it's very smooth texture picks up a good print, but the thinness and lack of absorbancy means that it often wrinkles in the area surrounding the ink. Which sucks, but is ok for a test. Reducing the amount of ink on the plate helps, but does not neccessarily result in 100% vwrinkle free prints.
A rough textured paper feels and looks great, but can be much harder to get a good print on. The reasons for this are pretty obvious - some bits stick up more and get the ink while the low patches miss out and look pale and the overall print can be patchy. But you know this altready! Obviously using a press, or a very firm hand printing method will help overcome some of this and give a good effect on rougher paper. Do you print by hand? Do you use a barron? Otherwise the back of a wooden spoon can be good for getting decent pressure on thick paper, while palm of hand and flat finger is good for thinner paper, and very tactile and exciting to boot.
I find a reasonable wight drawing cartridge fine, as some of the smoother water colour papers. Some papers seem more abosrbent than others - maybe types of fibre / fibre length etc.
Some people in my class used diffferent rice papers to print on and then mounted in the middle of other paper - this looked great and seemed to print really well (not very textured, but visually textured if that makes sense).
Anyway, that's my first thoughts. Tell me if you have any other handy hints or specific problems. And - what is this homemade press you speak of?? Very exciting...
3 Comments:
homemade press (according to the helpful people at the neill street art supplies shop in fitzroy melbourne, where I was lucky enough to visit on my summer holidays) is quite simply:
2 bits of chipboard/board of equivalent weight, only about 10mm thick
4 glamps
You insert your print (paper/lino) between the 2 pieces of board, with also your blanket for added weight (i am assuming blanket goes inside the boards?)
Then use your G clamps to tighten each corner to keep adding weight.
I haven't actually given this a go, but am working on a triptych for an upcoming international women's day exhibit and practising some draft runs first, so will assess it.
Thank yoU!
oh and also the reason for patchiness (which is my problem) is quality of ink. I bought some better quality black ink for monoprinting and keep using my regular gluggy lino inks for relief printing (by the 3rd colour all the patchiness is gone). The guy at the shop recommended better ink and better print/pressing to avoid ripping the paper and avoid patchiness. Which I guess we all knew!
Cool - the press sounds a bit like a flower press but more heavy duty. Hmm, might have to add that to my 'to make' list. And yes inks make a big difference don't they? I'm not sure what range you have in Tas (you're in Tas right?) but the cheap water based block printing ones are a bit awful. I found speedball brand not bad for a water based ink - but a lot more expensive. I've had oil based inks print nicely if I get a nice thin cover on your plate, but can be a much more painful in clean up if you're lazy (and I am). But you can use cheap vegie oil to clean up, and then hot soapy water, to avoid using turps, which is good.
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