Stuff We Like to Print With # 3

The third in an increasingly erratic series. Today, our trusty burnisher.


People print their relief prints using all kinds of methods. In essence all you need to do is tranfer the ink onto the block, and then off again on to the paper. Simple. In practice its not always so easy. Just pressing the block onto the paper usually results in a patchy mess, some areas overinked and others not inked at all. For those with lots of money and plenty of room the best way round this is to buy a printing press. For the rest of us the answer is hand-burnishing, selectively applying pressure to the back of the paper to press it evenly onto the block and encourage the ink to stick to it. Traditionally this is done with a japanese tool known as a 'baren', some good examples of which can be seen here. Other people (including us on occasions) use the rounded back of a spoon to get the same effect. Clare Leighton, for example, recommended in her 1932 book Wood Engravings and Woodcuts that wood engravers ought to burnish their prints with an ordinary teaspoon in order to get the maximum subtlety of tones from their inking.

The picture above shows our favourite and most used burnisher, an old empty tin of mints. You can see from the state its in how much use it has had, and the way in which the silver covering rubs off is actually part of the appeal. The light coating this leaves on the back of the paper makes it easier to see which areas of the design have and haven't been rubbed, allowing us to judge when to stop and when to carry on. The size and shape of the tin have also proved ideal for our small girlish hands! Its history is shrouded in myth and legend, though rumour has it that it was discovered resting in a vending machine somewhere in Ely while two young printmakers were gadding about in their earlier days...

Currently listening to: Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat

Periodic Table of Printmaking Part 2

As you can see from the pictures, my Selenium print is now finished. Hooray!


This one shows all the stages in the process of printing it layer by layer. The final image was made up of two blocks and three colours. The first block just provided the bright orange background and the lettering, with a space left for the camera. This was carved from a second block, firstly to give the light grey underprinting, and then, after a bit more cutting, the final layer of dark grey to pick out all the details on the camera.

Neodymium will be completed imminently. Watch this space!


See more here on Flickr, and also here on gfoots webpage.

Currently listening to: Half Man Half Biscuit ACD

The Periodic Table of Printmaking

The sun has been shining on Norwich almost continuously since our last post, and we have been out in the garden enjoying it - planting potatoes, radishes, tomatoes, chillis, herbs and much more!

We have been working hard on our ideas for the Periodic Table printmaking project - I am doing Neodymium and Jon chose Selenium. We are both doing woodcuts, and started cutting the blocks today! Neodymium is used used to colour enamels and glass, so I based my design on Art Nouveau enamel jewellry and glass designs - the final colour scheme hasn't quite been decided yet, but I'm looking forward to using my new gold printing ink in some way, shape or form! Selenium was used in the honeycomb-style lightmeters of old cameras, hence the vintage camera in Jon's print.


Hopefully they should be printed by the end of the week - the other completed prints are appearing on this web page as they are finished.

Currently listening to: Camera Obscura

Springtime

Spring is well and truly sprung in Norwich now, it was so warm last Wednesday that we had our lunch out in the garden to enjoy the sunshine (before the conker tree comes into full leaf and blocks it out). The first of the purple sprouting brocolli is ready to eat, the lawn's been reseeded and last year's compost looks like being a fine vintage! All this has inspired a suitably Spring-y print, a woodcut of two daffodils (see below). It started out as being four flower heads, but got reduced down to 2 as that seemed to work better, even if it makes it look like they've had a fight and are no longer talking to eachother! Japanese plywood is great to work with, easy to cut but still strong enough to hold sharp lines and fine details. Our tools are a bit of a mixed bag at them moment. The fine lines are done with a dedicated woodcut tool that looks like its escaped from a backstreet surgeon's bag c.1750, while the clearing work is done with some super-cheap chisels from the bargain bin of Norwich's premier alladin's cave of hardware, Thornes. Still, they seem to work nicely together!


Current listening: Adam Green, Jacket Full of Danger

Bookplates

Its been quite a while since we last posted here, partly because the main project we were working on (an engraving for a bookplate) had to be kept secret until this weekend as it was a surprise wedding present! And partly because its spring and we've been out frolicking.

The design for the bookplate was engraved on 'new' formula resingrave which is meant to be less prone to chipping than the old one, though we weren't sure it was that noticeable a difference... The lettering was a new challenge and required lots of painstaking drawing of guidelines and double-checking in a mirror to make sure nothing had gone too awry.

The picture at the top is a view of the cathedral across the rooftops of Ely, and those of you who know it might spot that the tower and the lantern have been squashed together to make them fit in the space! This was the biggest edition we've ever tackled in one go, 50 copies in total, all on Zerkall paper.




















We're currently planning our contributions to the Periodic Table of Elements printmaking project, which aims to recreate the entire periodic table using a unique 6x6in print to represent each element. Loads of printmakers are involved and it'll be intriguing to see how it develops! We've been allocated selenium (Jon) and Neodymium (Sarah) and, armed with a few scraps of information courtesy of Google, we're already thrashing out some design ideas. As usual, watch this space!

Currently listening to: Gruff Rhys, Candylion, after seeing his wonderfully mad live show at the Arts Centre last week.

Reeds and Waves

Another weekend, another tiny woodblock engraved. This time a slightly less fiddly design than the Edgefield print, loosely based on many bracing walks by the sea in various parts of Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall. Its nowhere in particular, but there are elements of Cromer, Wells, St Ives, Penzance and even Plymouth in there somewhere! Again only 5 x 3cm. Will need to invest in a good magnifier if this keeps up...


Also finished is Fen Reeds, inspired by our post Christmas walk on Wicken Fen (or at least near Wicken Fen, what with us forgetting our NT cards and not being able to get in to the posh bit).


Our main website is due an overhaul to add all the new prints and generally tart things up a little, so do keep your eyes peeled for that over the coming weeks!

Currently listening to: The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

A smaller block

Spent the weekend finishing off a tiny engraving on an offcut of unidentified end-grain wood, possibly maple, part of the mixed bag we bought a few weeks ago. It felt strange to be engraving on wood at first, after weeks of plastic and resingrave, but it was nice not to have to worry about the surface chipping or lifting away!


The engraving was based on a sketch of fields around Edgefield, near Holt in north Norfolk, from a long walk we had last summer on the Holt-Mannington trail. The simple patterns of hedges and plough furrows suited the small area of the block (about 5 x 3 cm). Printing was a bit hit and miss at first and we tried lots of different methods: laying the block on the paper (with padding underneath) and pressing down with weights, laying the paper on the block and burnishing by hand, and a combination of the two, although this generally meant the block would shift and blur the print as we flipped them. We spent large parts of Sunday night looking longingly at presses on the internet!


While I was engraving on Saturday afternoon Sarah took it upon herself to create a neater way for me to store my tools, which since I've bought them have lived variously in a roll of bubble wrap, in an old Stilton and Port tin, and scattered across the dining table. Now they have their very own little roll, courtesy of some old curtain fabric from Freecycle, and Sarah's 1950s sewing machine (a hefty lump of splendid engineering).