Greetings all! I hope your week has been kind to you. Mine has seemed long, but it hasn't been too shabby. I've been busy working on a few new designs, as well as taking a look at some old ones, doing a little inventory (I'm just about out of lino!), and reviewing some proofs and final prints I've already pulled.
This past weekend I finally got to do a complete run of my daffodil prints. I have been working on these blocks for awhile now, and pulled new proofs on Friday night. After reviewing them, and making a few additional corrections, I felt like they were ready. So, come Saturday afternoon, I got started.
The first step is tearing the paper, which isn't the most exciting thing in the world. It would be quicker to get a paper cutter, but I prefer tearing for three reasons. 1) Traditionally, that's how block printmakers have prepared their paper, and I'm a little sentimental. 2) I like the appearance of the torn edges. While I almost always end up performing a "trimming" tear after the prints have dried, I prefer to tear the sheets from the beginning, in case I accidentally print too near an edge. 3) I'll admit, I rather like the sensation of tearing the paper. I'm very tactile.
After I've torn the paper, I prep the blocks, the ink, and the table. I currently make all my prints either by hand with a baren, or by using a small hand operated lever press. When I make test proofs, I try both methods to see which works best, and in this instance, the results were pretty comparable. That being the case, I decided to use the lever press. I'm only doing small runs with these blocks, with twenty final prints for each design. That isn't a huge run, but generally I print extra in case of errors, so after printing both blocks, I ended up pressing 60 prints that night. I'm glad to have the lever press for that, because hand-printing 60 of these with a baren would have taken a whole lot longer!
After I finished the second run I needed to clean up the mess I had made. Which, lets be honest, no one wants to hear about. Because it's cleaning. Unfortunately, there isn't anything else to do with the prints until they dry, which means it's time to wait. Also, it means there isn't a whole lot of room in the apartment; I don't have a drying rack, so all of my counter space, and/or any other flat surface gets covered in prints anytime I do any sort of run.
The ink I'm using is probably dry in about 2-3 hours... But why risk it. Best to check up on things the next day... So when Sunday came round, and the prints were dry, I could get back to work. It starts with more reviewing; some prints don't turn out well for a number of reasons (mostly my errors), which is why I always print extra.
After selecting which images to save, and which to disregard, it's time to trim them down. I like to have about a 1/2 inch margin surrounding my images. After all the tears are made, I can begin to edition the final prints. Editioning is simply recording the print's number and total number of prints in the run, the title of the work, as well as signing the work. This is traditionally done in pencil, and being a bit of a traditionalist, I do it in pencil as well.
The above picture shows the final product! It looks pretty good if you ask me, but I am admittedly a bit biased.
If you like these prints and want to throw a little support my way, or if you have any questions for me I would love to hear from you in the comments. I'm also on twitter as @CaptGam, and regularly tweet about the random art project that is my life. Thanks again for reading about my misadventures in printmaking.
Unless otherwise noted, all work by Wade Ellett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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