365 Day 173

racing the clock to my midnight posting deadline

I JUST finished a marathon printing session testing out papers and different hardnesses of rubber rollers for inking. This is the block I will be printing for my submission to the all ages student show at Art & Ideas.

FIRST I had to move Twink to the bedroom and close him in there so he wouldn't "help" me.


(wow -- I apologize for how yellow the lighting is in these photos...kinda hard to look at)













Yeah, this photo pretty much shows you the kind of wacky mood he was in.













Juana and I went to Utrecht in Royal Oak on Tuesday and I selected several lovely handmade papers and -- with Anita's guidance -- a few more plain papers probably better suited to printing.













I got all of my supplies ready to go -- clean printing!


And I made a note of all of the names and colors of the papers in case I really liked one or two and wanted to get more of it.

I know some of the papers aren't really meant for this but I wanted to see how they would look.







This was the first plain paper. I just did the first pass of inking and rubbing the back of the paper. I like how you can see the image through the paper as you work it.











I am lifting up the bottom half to check to see where I need to re-ink and rub more.












Now the top half.



















Not too bad for a first try.
















Most of these papers are Unryu in different colors. It is pretty thin and has fibers in it...I love this paper and use it in collage a lot, but I don't really think this particular block is a good match for any of these.

You can see in this photo how saturated the paper gets with the ink -- it is very thin and lightweight.













This was actually the last plain paper...a slightly heavier weight...well, heavier than Unryu or Mulberry. Canson Rives Lt Wgt White. This was the best print...the ink is wet and there is glare from the overhead lighting.









I wanted to try this paper to see if you'd be able to see the floral pattern through the ink. The paper itself is slightly not totally flat -- I don't have the correct words/terms to describe it -- but it doesn't smooth out totally, so it is kind of hard to get the block to print flat and smooth. I want to re-visit this when it is dry.












This is "green mist" Unryu paper. Too thin and fiber-y. I was rubbing off too much paper...rubbing down through to the block with hardly any pressure.


















Same paper in mauve.


















This paper is really pretty. Lokita gold brush on tiger yellow. There is a gold ink or something running over the top of it. I am not sure the ink will look right when it is dry.

Again, the ink is wet in this photo and there is glare from the overhead lighting, but you can also see the gold in Asian-like pattern in the paper.












All of the prints drying.










I am very excited to participate in the all ages student show at Art & Ideas. As a kid I was never in a dance class, never played an instrument or was never in a play or anything where family and friends would come to watch. Now that I am 57 (going on about 14) this is really cool to me. My sister Sue said she would come. Yay.

(NOTE: I see that Blogger lists this entry at 11:31 pm...that is actually when I started adding photos and writing it. I clicked "publish" at like 11:58...LOL)