Work diary: 22 August 2012

Etching: Girl sleeping (2)

Update

This was the first inked plate, and the proof is the next image, which seemed much darker than I had imagined.

However I will continue to work on the etchng plate and complete a print from it, by adding some linework, - putting another ground on and re-etching. Having tried to burnish the line where the edge of the film was I have realised the importance of not using too small a piece of film, and also thinking about the size of the plate!

I will trim (yes not me, but someone more skilled) on the guillotine a strip off and rework. That will be part of my third week's work.

Just quickly, I would like to say that I did print a proof that I did by myself. There is nothing more embarrassing than inking up a plate in front of an audience of people who have done hundreds, probably thousands, with unfamiliar materials and press. Well I am making excuses, but yes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. So I am confident that I will be proofing my own etchings later on this week… and I am looking forward to it.

If I can, I may see if I can do a couple more small plates, but draw them by hand. In this village there are so many lovely fish-shaped drainage pipes.. perhaps they don’t sound that interesting until you see them, then they spew out the water when it rains, away from the building, and have been weathered into all sorts of shades and textures. So maybe a couple of those little ones for prints… maybe if I have time!

Update

Ok so maybe I was being optimistic there, time is running out and I seem to be juggling prints all over the place, spending time developing them, and being influenced all the time by what is going on around me, the atmosphere, the culture, the work and the people. And of course that precision and accuracy that underpins it all. It constantly amazes me how much care and effort is taken to achieve an absolutely perfect print, nothing less than perfect is acceptable before I even see it!  

They have just finished printing the first colour on the sleeping girl litho. I also asked them to print some of the texture seperately which they did. This involved me cutting a mask that somehow got wrapped around the ink rollers. They are so kind, they don't 'blame' me for asking them to do something that is pushing the machine beyond its normal process, and in the end I have also some lovely pieces printed on hand-made Indian silk paper which I will collage with onto the part prints that they have done for me.