Intaglio printmaker5/28/2023 The silky delicacy of many washi papers belie their incredible strength, especially when dampened. Smooth surfaced papers by Zerkall and delicate washi papers such as Kozo and Kitakata will pick up the finest of detail. If printing is done by hand then lighter weight papers are ideal. Printing can be done by hand or by press and you will want to consider the paper surface and how it makes contact with the ink, so a smoother surfaced paper, such as Fabriano Rosaspina, is ideal for relief printing. The print is taken from the ink on the block’s surface with the cut-away areas remaining unprinted. Relief printing includes linocut, woodcut, wood engraving, letterpress and collagraph. It should be said though that many papers will print effectively across all print techniques and printmaking papers can work wonderfully with other artistic mediums. If we outline the most common printmaking techniques we can see what stresses the paper is put through and what properties we might look for. Some printmaking papers contain no size at all and are referred to as ‘waterleaf’. Size is added to the pulp before forming the sheet, this ‘internal’ sizing renders the paper soft and absorbent in varying degrees depending on how much is added. Printmaking paper contains a lower amount of size than a watercolour paper, enabling the ink to penetrate the surface. How the paper receives the ink is an important factor. Alpha cellulose papers of high quality are manufactured for and trusted by printmakers around the world and less expensive papers such as cartridge work well, particularly for proofing. Western papers with a high cotton content and Eastern papers formed with long plant fibres are perfectly suited to the rigours of printmaking. It might be picked up by the corners, left to soak in a water bath, squeezed through an etching press, vigorously rubbed with a baren or covered with multiple layers of silkscreen ink. The paper you select is likely to undergo ample handling and treatment. Generally speaking papers recommended for printmaking benefit from being strong and dimensionally stable, meaning they hold their size and shape well. Artists will commonly sign and edition the print in the margin and collectors will appreciate the choice of paper and whether a deckle edge remains or has been trimmed. They differentiate the hand printed piece from a reproduction. Margins around the image and the edges of the paper traditionally remain on show. Not only will the image vary but the overall feel of the print as an object will change with the weight and texture of the paper. The paper that you choose will become integral to your work and if you experiment by printing the same plate on a selection of papers you will see how each makes a unique contribution to the finished result. In theory you can print on any type of paper so long as ink will adhere to it. He collaborated with James Whatman, inventor of the wove mould, to develop a machine that could smooth and polish the surface of fine paper creating ‘hot pressed’ sheets. When printer John Baskerville wanted to redesign his metal type in a refined and elegant manner he demanded a paper that was smooth and even, and purpose-made for letterpress. It was just such fine white paper that Gutenberg printed on using his intense black inks, with sensational results. Coated with gelatine size it resembled valuable vellum for the writing of manuscripts, left unsized it was ideal for printing copperplate engravings. Early European paper became very refined and resilient with the utilisation of old linen garments as opposed to unspun plant fibres. Islamic calligraphers wrote with bamboo quills on plant fibre paper smoothed over with chalk and wheat starch. The relative economy of paper compared to vellum meant that libraries of the Islamic world were vast. That results in a nice, clean print.Block printing was practiced in China 1400 years ago using paper, a multifunctional product manufactured into hats, clothes, stiffened for armour, and thinned for windows, screens, books, maps and money. When printing something like this on a press, the cylinder and the press bed provide so much pressure, the paper contacts the plate to collect the ink just once. Lines would print in a staccato style – over and over, next to each other, rather than in the exact same place. So, rubbing the back over and over with a good baren would make contact with the line work on the plate in slightly different regions of the paper, repeatedly. Since there is so much detail, and hundreds of linear elements to transfer from the plate to paper, I think hand-printing this might be a beast. If this experiment were made with a simpler design – no cross hatching, and less cat hair, etc. Printing Lots of Detail on an Intaglio Plate After inking the plate, I wiped it intaglio style (gently) with Akua wiping fabric.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |