Week Two - Acid!

10th October
Preparing the image for transfer to lino - unlike photo etching you don't need to have a negative image. What is black on the photocopy will be black on the lino and not be etched. 

Using a photograph I've taken of wire cutters, manipulated on photoshop for enhancement of contrast, printed as grey scale, photocopied for photocopy litho transfer to lino. 

B&W photo used for transfer

This method works with acid etch of zinc plates, as the oil based ink is acid resist. I'm not sure it will work with lino so I'm doing some test plates. 

Soak the photocopy image for a couple of minutes. Place on worktop and dab oil based ink, mixed with plate oil on with a sponge. Experience has told me you don't need to dab very much - just so a surface of ink shows, and so that the sponge marks are retained. The black of the photocopy ink absorbs the oil ink mixture, the white paper has a film of water on it and therefore repels the ink. So, what is black on the photocopy picks up the ink, ready for transfer, using the press, onto my lino sheet.

I did this 3 times to get my test plates.

Caustic Soda - (made at home, in the garden, next to the garden hose in case it all went horribly wrong and I had to be hosed down. I donned protective clothing, mask, goggles, rubber gloves - no chances taken. I also didn't want to do it in the studio as I wasn't sure what the results would be and how I might effect my fellow students!)
Recipe: Jam jar filled one third with water
2 teaspoons wallpaper glue flakes. Stir with wooden implement (chopsticks in my case) and leave to thicken for 5 mins.
2 teaspoons of caustic soda crystals. Stir. Leave to heat up.
Paint onto lino with brush.

Litho transfer to lino

first 20 mins of acid

acid painted on in one go

Two images used the oil based ink as acid resist. The third image I painted and sponged over the image with stop out. First image was painted with acid mix leaving on for 20 minute increments up to one hour. Second and third image acid was left on for 20 mins.

lino where image was painted using stop out

three plates acid washed off

Results: the ink didn't resist the acid at all. The stop out hardly resisted the acid either - so clearly need a stronger stop out and possibly weaker acid. The lino in all cases seemed bitten through far too much. However, I will still be printing them to see what the effects are.

Week One - Back Story

Steve Edwards Blackfriars - West

I was invited  to the exhibition "Image of the City" at the Hightgate gallery of Printroom London, (www.printroomlondon.com) , where Steve Edwards (www.steveedwardsart.com) gave a short talk about the method he used for his lino prints - essentially an acid etch for lino, using caustic soda, together with traditional cut lino plates. Intrigued by the intedeterminancy that this acid method produces, I set out to try it myself.

For the moment I will continue to look at the image of  tools, their reference to DIY and craft, and how their image relates directly to process. I've been reading Richard Sennett;The Craftsman, and Peter Dormer; The Culture of Craft, both lamenting the loss and value of true skill and craftsmanship. The idea that by mastering technical skills artwork develops  - the physical and manual co-exist - is what interests my printmaking practice. It would be very difficult to talk about printmaking without talking about process, so this may well be the subject of my work.

Ian Davenport Citric Etching

I also want to look at digital manipulation and its use in the traditional etching process. More of that later, but I visited Alan Cristea's gallery, where Ian Davenport has his etchings. Again, it is the transferring of one process to another, to another, to finally realise his image. He paints first,      photographs the painting, divides it into colours (presumably on photoshop) and transfers these colour separated images onto separate etching plates. (Every 3rd colour is on the same plate). Several plates are used to form one image.




I'm interested in having one image separated into colours, using aquatint and printing on top of each other so the colours merge but the image is moved away from its original photograph. 

So, investigating process, tools with which to initiate the process, digital manipulation. The image of the object may indeed become superfluous, or become a memory - the work may record the absence of the tool.