Thanks Laura and Ben once again, great to see the fantastic shots of Laura working and hear the thinking process that happening behind the test print as it progresses. One thing that really stood out (thinking back you've been doing it all along) is that you are inking up on the press. I've always been told to ink away from the press and then bring your block to the "clean" area of the press for printing. Gloves on for inking in the messy area, transfer the plate to the press, gloves off, sort/register the clean paper on the clean press and then print. I must admit I have not been following these steps in the past few years although I haven't got to the stage of inking on the press yet (gloves are such a pain and easy to do without if you are watching what you are doing).
I have to confess I do say that with students in a class where everyone is hand printing - we have an inking up area and then they go back to their desk and registration devices with the inked up print to take the impression. So much of my ownpractice is about inking and a lot of the time there are more layers of ink on the print than there are layers of cutting. I think I fell into this way of working because it feels quicker and easier (also with big prints, the press is the only large enough flat space available that I can ink on). I try to wear gloves to clean up, but never for working (or gardening) and it shows! :)
Thanks Laura and Ben once again, great to see the fantastic shots of Laura working and hear the thinking process that happening behind the test print as it progresses. One thing that really stood out (thinking back you've been doing it all along) is that you are inking up on the press. I've always been told to ink away from the press and then bring your block to the "clean" area of the press for printing. Gloves on for inking in the messy area, transfer the plate to the press, gloves off, sort/register the clean paper on the clean press and then print. I must admit I have not been following these steps in the past few years although I haven't got to the stage of inking on the press yet (gloves are such a pain and easy to do without if you are watching what you are doing).
I have to confess I do say that with students in a class where everyone is hand printing - we have an inking up area and then they go back to their desk and registration devices with the inked up print to take the impression. So much of my ownpractice is about inking and a lot of the time there are more layers of ink on the print than there are layers of cutting. I think I fell into this way of working because it feels quicker and easier (also with big prints, the press is the only large enough flat space available that I can ink on). I try to wear gloves to clean up, but never for working (or gardening) and it shows! :)
Thank you Laura, these videos have made all the difference to my approach to my printmaker, truly grateful.
I mean printmaking not printmaker, doh!