Olansa Cuttings

One step forward, five back

Posted in Printmaking by David on Friday the 23rd February, 2007

Last week I finally decided to cut a wood block. OK, a small piece of shina. The design was based on a close-up photo of a beetle that somehow ended up on the net curtains of my office last summer. I sketched out a design and left a thick border to about 6″x8″.

Cutting shina was quite a change after playing ‘hunt the knife mark’ with lino. I could see (more or less) how the design was coming along. To make life a little harder I decided to cut all the outlines with a knife rather than gouges. This lasted until the shaded part of the abdomen when I caved in and used a small v-gouge to finish off.

First attempt on sketching paperSo far, so good. Things went to pieces a little come the printing. I used some fairly heavy, toothed drawing paper for proofing, plus some Lawrence ‘GB’ oil-based washable ink, burnishing using a spoon on some prints and a Speedball baren on others. Humbug. The ink had a couple of hard bits which you can see on the first proof. That wasn’t what bothered me, however. The grain showed everywhere and I couldn’t seem to get any solid blacks even using the spoon.

Time to ask the astounding Baren Forum people for advice… They recommended all sorts of things including burnishing out from the centre, trying thinner Japanese paper, dampening the paper, and so on. The local art store and stationers were out of blotting paper so I’m stuck with dry paper prints until the delivery gets here. Japanese paper I had.

Proof on Japanese paperThis evening I tried a few more proofs on the Japanese paper (no idea what type — the label fell off!) and had a little more luck. Most of the black solids were just that, except the lousy border! I don’t know. It’s probably my slapdash inking and burnishing, but it’s worse than ever — every little tool-mark caught the ink and printed fuzzily, and the border was patchy as hell.

I’d like to put this through a cylinder press (will shina take the strain?) just to see what might be possible. That’ll have to wait for another day. In the meantime I’ll try another block and start all over again. While keeping on eye on course listings or trying to find some one-on-one coaching from a real printmaker!

Until next time…

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5 Responses to 'One step forward, five back'

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  1. Diane said, on February 23rd, 2007 at 13:05

    I am charmed by your insect. You’ve got wonderful lines in the wings and the legs. Well done!

  2. David said, on February 23rd, 2007 at 13:34

    Thank you Diane! Prob’ly be a moth next…

  3. Annie B said, on February 23rd, 2007 at 14:40

    It’s looking good, David. I like the strength of tone in the second one. Something I’ve discovered in printing by hand is that every block prints differently. It usually takes me five or six impressions before I get to know the block and understand where to apply lots of pressure (for example, your borders) and where to ease off (the cleared areas). The beauty of hand printing is that you can “feel” the block underneath and be very specific about your pressure. Nice image.

  4. shawn said, on July 14th, 2007 at 18:54

    If you use japanese rice paper it’ll hold up to whatever you can give it. A cylinder press won’t hurt it at all. It’s some of the best and strongest paper you can use. Also, try finding some vinyl flooring to carve from. NO grain. But get some without any texture so that you can work on a totally smooth surface at almost any size.

  5. zeladoniac said, on January 1st, 2008 at 16:54

    Nice beetle! I really like the organic border.

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