Raised text using etching...........more tests

Initially I tried to get the raised text effect using aluminium, zinc and steel but none of them worked.  I was using copper sulphate as the mordant.

sharpie marker on zinc etched in copper sulphate

I did proofs of the plates,  only yesterday - I had not bothered to do them after I finished etching the plates  because I could see that if I rolled ink across them I would get the background area as well as the handwriting.  Which of course wasn't what I wanted.  As can be gleaned from reading the previous post I wanted to be able to offset the text to acetate to then work on (a la monotype) and to be able create figurative imagery by additive or subtractive means.

Just thought I would see how they looked.  I quite like the larger of these which is done on steel.  I wrote the handwriting on the plates using a sharpie marker - to act as a resist.  I used the same ink mix on these - its funny how different the colour looks?!

Polymer Stamp Making Machine

I have been finally having success with my imagebox polymer stamp making machine.  When I first had delivery of it about 2 or 3 years ago.  I went through the process of making a stamp and it was a 'flop'.  So I thought OMG its not that easy and I was working on other printmaking projects and thought bah....I will have another attempt another time.
Fast forward to now where I find myself in a situation where I need plates of raised handwritten text to offset to acetate and then work up further to create monoprints

                   *    initial tests of A7 polymer stamps - offset on acetate - monotyped


So I had a go at the weekend taking great care to get dense black and white negatives and made sure I adhered strictly to the instructions.  AND it worked.
Last night I tried another one trial plate and it worked well - probably even better than the first one. I did make the writing bigger and fatter and I found I got the best negative for my stamp making procedure through doing the handwriting on the computer screen itself using a Photoshop virtual pencil.  Not the greatest 'ergonomic' experience as such but you kind of get used to it after a while. .


Here's a photo of my first test * - which looks awful in one sense but for me its a successful out come and I am able to proceed with my idea without having to spend hours and hours of back breaking neck aching carving of a lino plate - which I started last week.  I will finish that sometime but who knows when.  I was finding that my hands were truly aching after I cut away the lino of about 20 words and with 6 plates to create - life's too short and my hands are too precious!!

First A4 Polymer Stamp attempt

I had of course initially endeavoured to get the raised text by etching using aluminium then steel then zinc but time after time it just wasn't happening.  I was using the salt etch mordant i.e., copper sulphate which some might think would be a 'cinch' but you must be kidding it was like trying to get blood from a stone.

I wrote the above as a 'draft' post about 6 weeks ago.  Those polymer stamps I made using the Imagebox machine were A7 size - which is pretty small. 

 Second A4 Polymer Stamp attempt

Since that time I have been attempting to make an A4 polymer stamp and its been a lot of disappointment and frustration.  I have four A4 failed polymer stamps to show for it.  

I am hoping that the next one will be the one that comes out well.

I suppose at least they have improved.  The only thing that's missing from them is they don't have a floor.  The raised text is there but the poor little letters don't have a ground to cling on to.  Some of them even tried to escape down the sink plughole when I was washing out the 'gunge' from the polymer stamps.

Pretty boring post but that's an aspect of printmaking sometimes - trying to make something work !!


UPDATE


My A4 polymer stamp has worked - I used 1  minute for the first exposure phase which creates the 'floor' of the polymer stamp.
Then I flipped it over and let it settle down (the polymer sachet) for another minute,
Then as Sally ( at Photocentric) suggested - I did the next phase, i.e., the image exposure for 14 minutes.
This stamp has a floor which is excellent because that way the handwriting has something to grip onto.


I am so so so PLEASED !!!!........I got there in the end. HOORAY !!

Junior Printmaker number 1 (2012)

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This young lady 'Birta Clara’ looks a bit sleepy or tired - I can't remember what the situation actually was although I do remember that it had taken me a while to ink up her plate with her although her mother was also helping in the task.  

Birta stayed in our house during the summer along with her sister 'Erna Carry' and their mum Birna my old buddy from the time when I was doing my masters degree, in Barcelona.    We had a lovely time and the girls were very good house guests and spent hours just playing with one another in their own little world.  They would either be upstairs in their bedroom or in the back garden - the weather was lovely during the summer and some days we sat out in the sunshine and one day even filled up the old garden plastic pond with water for them to splash around in.  Jo Arksey another friend from the 'Barcelona days',  came over to lunch with us that day too.

They would often ask if it was OK for them to go into the studio to do some drawing.  Then they would work industriously for a few hours just quietly getting on with it themselves.  I would pop in now and again and talk to them about their artwork.

Birta is still at the stage where she just draws whatever she likes and creates a world filled with all sorts of creatures and locations that link to her dreams and schemes.  Her older sister, another beauty, made drawings about her friends and their clothes and parties and fun things she liked like houses and roller-skating.  It is regrettable that she was very self critical of her own artwork and was quick to rubbish it and that in part was why she didn’t end up making a print using the ready made drypoint card as she wasn’t happy with her preliminary drawing.

They enjoyed being with our pussy cats too especially Toby as he used to be there most of the time.  Those were the final days that he was still in good health.  Even after all this time - I still miss him - dear sweet fellow.

Summer Visitors 2011

Good times at Fife Dunfermline Printmakers workshop were had during the summer when my dear friend Birna(4th from left)  came to stay for a few weeks with her delightful daughters Erna Carri (2nd from left) and Birta Clara (2nd from left).  That "gombeen" in the centre, wearing green is me .  On the extreme right is Bill the fabulous erstwhile technician and on the extreme left is the wonderful Sheila.  Birna was a previous member of FDPW and it is through her that I became aware of the  place that is now an important part of my life.

Strong Waters

Oh its a Hectic Life !!!!
and of course all self imposed - if only I had been this 'hard working' earlier on in my art life!!!!!!!!  
But back then I had 'all the time in the world' or so it seemed!!!  I tend nowadays, what with my various health difficulties, to  try to get as much done as I can while I am able to ( i.e., feeling sufficiently well enough to do so -albeit at a paced momentum ). 

Having said that my back(spine) is not as dreadful as it was before my 'laminectomy'.  This being the term used to describe the surgical procedure carried out  on me, two years ago now.  This was performed by an excellent neurosurgeon (can not call her name to mind)  at a hospital in Edinburgh whose name I also cannot dredge up from my brain.


Anyhu (as "Mister Byrnes" of the Simpsons would say)  I had an email just now from Nele Zirnite.


She is a member of the Etching Guild based in  Riga, Latvia, which is linked to  the Latvian Artists’ Association.  Having researched Nele further - I think she may well be the founder/director of the Etching Guild.

 Her work is amazing - it is right up my street - I think we may well like a lot of the same things visually. 
Anyway so I am honored to have my work selected,  to be in this exhibition, that she is involved in organizing.  The show is called "Strong Waters".  Although it may have a title which is somehow linked to the Titanic anniversary,  as in its the 100 years aniversary of the year it sank.    Such a coincidence that giant cruiser sinking off the coast of italy in the past few days - very different outcome given that a very high percentage of its 4000 odd passengers survived.  I cant begin to imagine the heartbreak of those,  whose loved ones have perished - it must be unbearable.
  Getting back to the works selected for this upcoming exhibition in Riga - I created the piece "Deep" especially for this show as well as another called "Last Words" so I was pleased it had a good outcome.  .  Oh but ............I had so much trouble getting that print to work out !!!.   


Mind you "Deep" had it's difficulties as well..........I did four versions of it.  Aye Carumba !!!
The first was in red and yellow.  The next two were done in  two different blues.  The final one which I executed in a more spontaneous and speedy manner was done on black Somerset paper.  I thought to myself "At last I have the ideal situation in which using this paper is completely the perfect thing".  It had been hanging about in my planchest for centuries!!
Here is the "Deep"

Given  that I was not at all happy with the photos I took of these prints.  Taken under a flouruscent strip light - I couldnt get the daylight conditions weatherwise.  


Its even more amazing that they got chosen - hopefully as a response to the imagery itself - well thats what I like to think anyway.   For the net I actually made that form,  by sewing it together with thin cotton wool string.  Then I inked it up and  and off-set it through the etching press.  The figurative image is from a drawing I did which I scanned and fiddled with in Photoshop, printed onto Japanese lightweight paper and then chine-colled it using a tricky procedure of 'half pasting' it as it went through the press.  Thereafter I lifted up,  the upper part of the figure, which then had the imprint of the net on it and had not been rice pasted.  Later on when it was flattened and dry I pasted it down and put it through the press again.  It is really nice this print  'in the flesh' , as it were.    It is about 54 x 74 cm.

Here is the other print "Last Words" 

Again a dreadful photo.  This was done using isopropyl alcohol onto water based relief printing ink.  The main figurative element is collagraph with other parts being inkjet chine colle.  The upper right being part of the background having been distorted and polarized to give that 'black hole' effect, oval.

Its pretty cold here in the studio now so I will have to wrap this up now.  I have at last posted on here having fallen out of the habit over this past year.  Lets see how we go - I have lots of other projects I have participated in,  to post about, in order that I catch up with myself.  I am afraid I ended up in the situation I used to always say was the reason that I didn't have a blog i.e. being too busy making art to be spending time writing about it.