Wednesday, August 28, 2013

MIDNIGHT AT ATELIER NdA



The clock on the wall is showing quarter past twelve: that's midnight, not noon. When I next look up it will probably say 3:30 or 4am but that's the kind of time it usually is when I'm up there in my mansarde. I cannot shake off the habit of working late. There must be something about mornings which puts me off but I haven't got time to analyse why and does it matter anyway? Getting the work done is the main thing, never mind what time of day or night. 

Since I'm blogging so infrequently I thought I would show you some of what I'm doing which, as I've mentioned before, is illustrating the long poem by Blaise Cendrars Trans-Siberian Prosody and Little Jeanne from France translated by Dick Jones which will be published by The Old Stile Press . I'm creating about 48 images, and cutting as many blocks, to be eventually hand-printed by Nicolas McDowall. The photo above shows the sink for damping paper etc. and the table where I work out ideas. Before cutting the final blocks out of vynil tiles, I work out the design and colours for each image by cutting trial blocks out of cardboard and proofing them on my etching press.



I've had this press a very long time and it has served me well - I printed most of the images for my artist's books on it. For those who are not familiar with this simple machine, an etching press resembles a mangle: the old-fashioned kind that was used for wringing clothes. Except that the baby photographed above consists of heavy solid steel rollers, between which a steel bed is driven back and forth by a geared wheel. Pressure is adjusted by turning the top screws on either side of the frame. Special blankets are laid between the top roller and the paper and plate to be printed. The difference between an etching press and a litho press or a relief press is that it's designed primarily to print intaglio: a design that is engraved or etched below the flat surface of a plate - traditionally metal, but can also be any material which will fit under the etching press roller. Printing intaglio consists of pushing ink into the lines, grooves and textures that have deeply scarred the surface of the plate and then wiping the surface clean. Damp paper is laid over the plate and when it's passed under the roller, heavy pressure pushes the paper into the grooves of the plate, lifting out the ink, creating the intaglio image (always embossed on the back of the paper). 

More recent presses are adaptable to both intaglio and relief because the top roller can be lifted off the bed, allowing blocks of any thickness to be printed. Unfortunately my old press doesn't have this flexibility and, since the blocks I'm cutting for this book will be printed in relief (off the flat surface of the block) they must be a lot thicker than a normal intaglio plate. Therefore any proofing I do doesn't show the same detail or texture as it will eventually have on Nicolas' excellent relief press. 

My working process goes like this: the text is of primary importance, it gives me the rhythm and content of each page. I've made a full-size (30cms x 28cms/ 12" x 11") dummy in which I do rough drawings and/or collages in black only. From these, I cut the first trial blocks out of thin cardboard, proof them, then start cutting the final vynil blocks, perhaps two or three blocks for each design since they will be printed in colour: each colour requires a separate block. Below is the working dummy open at pages 8-9. 


Below is one of the finished vynil blocks for page 9: its strongly textured (with gesso) surface doesn't show in the photo. The green and red areas inside the main figure are actually holes through which you're seeing the table behind. The holes are so that the relief press rollers won't deposit ink in those areas. 

   
Below: roughs for pages 14-15 




Printmaking demands equal and extreme amounts of messiness and cleanliness in constant alternation. Above, my inking table and rollers are about to be cleaned. This procedure has to be repeated many times during the day because ink (I use only oil-based) mustn't be allowed to dry on slabs or rollers. The smell of white spirit (turps) is pervasive so ventilation is essential. That shark-like shape on the top right in the picture below is the edge of an open Velux skylight window - my studio is a converted loft. 






A colour proof of page 7, using three blocks. The text is only pasted on and not printed as it will be in the final book. 

VoilĂ , that's it for tonight. The time is now five past 2 am.


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22 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

Did you realise that your initials only require the addition of an a to become nothing in Spanish or Latin? Very existential. I'll get back to you on this post. I shall be putting myself into the hands of an osteopath shortly (see my re-comment to your comment at Tone Deaf) and this requires more time than I have at the moment.

Dominic Rivron said...

Interesting process. That page 7 looks wonderful!

I helped a friend cart one of those machines up three flights of stairs not so long ago. They always seem to end up on top floors.

Tom said...

A wonderful look into a fascinating workplace. I found the details of the working procedures most interesting. Thank you for letting us in.

Ellena said...

Oh how I would like to be your 'Gofor'. So much to learn, to do, to help with. I would charge nada.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Roderick, yes, nada has definitely been part of NdA since the beginning of time. Years ago I even stayed at a retreat in Arizona called Nada Ranch in order to find myself. Didn't find her but had an unexpected good time.
Have commented, and apologised, at Tone Deaf. Hope osteopath did good.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Dominic, I had three friends help to carry the thing up the stairs to my top floor flat when I moved in, and down the stairs from the top floor flat I moved out of. This manoeuvre was repeated several times over all the years since I bought the press, way back in the 60s.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Tom, it's a small studio with a low ceiling but suits me since I'm only 4'11" short. Taller persons have to stoop if they venture up there.
Glad my working process interested you.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Ellena, many thanks for the offer! It would be great to have an assistant and fun to teach you printmaking but unfortunately I lack the space. Maybe one day I could expand to bigger premises?

Dick said...

Wonderful, wonderful, Natalie! A fascinating glimpse into process and now I'm even more keenly anticipating product!

Roderick Robinson said...

I might have toyed with Blaise Cendrars earlier had the recommendation come from someone other than Henry Miller. Miller's references were ecstatic, almost on a par with the way he praised himself, but for me HM was debased coinage. There is more to life than copulation, and repeated copulation is not the answer. What I could never understand is the way other writers held him in such awe.

I see the translation you are illustrating (Perhaps an inadequate word to describe your contribution.) is modern-idiomatic: eg, "couldn't get enough of". This sits uneasily with "leagues" as an archaic form of measurement but I can live with it and despite this glitch I like the palindromic nature of the last two lines of the first verse. Of course I shouldn't be discussing the verse but I must; I'm fascinated by the way you've responded to it. I hadn't realised until now how such work lays bare the artist's mind in a way that a standalone painting - lacking a real-world reference - cannot. A bit like glancing at the musical notebooks of, say, LvB.

You'd hardly know it but I set out to wind laurels round your brow on behalf of your description of the press. Such passages are rare in blogging. Most people prefer to provide emotional blah-bah rather than nuts-and-bolts accounts of the way things work. Often, I suspect, because they just don't know. I am old enough to have smelt the various cubicles of the hot metal process, especially associated with newspapers. A wholly olfactory trade. Of course one can hardly compare your fine end-products with a hurriedly arrived at, still soggy, proof of a broad-sheet newspaper's front page. But both share the magic moment when the reverse becomes the obverse for the first time.

I am impressed with way you have laid out your studio, making best use of space, assembling like with like, sliding ineluctably into form-follows-function satisfaction. My eye roves pleasurably because, even though it isn't my field, I suspect there are ergonomic lessons to be learned throughout. Ergonomics is an important aspect of logistics and logistics was my speciality during the final years (preceded by cycling, civil engineering, general technology, institutional catering, instrumentation practice and theory, and much else). In fact my rackety professional life is well represented by the shambles of my studio (shown on Tone Deaf's home page) and no doubt your greater sense of organisation is implicit in the photos you have just posted.



marja-leena said...

Natalie, your work looks stunning! Much luck with all of it. Such an exciting collaboration!

You've given a wonderfully straightforward explanation of the printing processes, something I've not always succeeded with, for the benefit of those unfamiliar with it. How I envy your home studio and press, especially now that the studio I've worked in over 30 years is being shut down and we have no access. It's a shock for many long-time members.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Dick, je te remercie, mon ami. You'll have to be patient because the finished product is still a long way off. But when it does eventually emerge the combined efforts of you, me and the Old Stile Press will, I have no doubt, be something uniquely marvellous.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Roderick, do read Cendrars, he's definitely worthy of serious attention. Writers are not necessarily to be trusted in their likes or dislikes of other writers. I agree with you about Henry Miller and the same goes for Anais Nin - I thought their writing was dishonest, tricky, windbaggy, puffed up.

But never mind all those others. Thank you for your appreciation, especially in view of your technical background. In another life I could have been an engineer - I read instruction manuals with pleasure and will not give up until I've worked out how something works. I also insist on clarity and simplicity when explaining things.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Marja-Leena, I'm happy that I have your approval of the work in progress. I enjoy the adventure of arriving at a final image (or block) almost more than the end result.
It's very sad that the studio you've been working in is closing down. I know how stimulating and helpful it can be to share a printmaking space, especially if it's well-equipped.But there are also advantages to working on your own at home, at least from my perspective. Have you thought of buying a press? If so, email me and I can suggest some useful models.

marja-leena said...

Natalie, I wish I had the space for a press and all the other needs of a printmaking studio but thanks for the offer. Ah well, I do a lot of work digitally these days though my printer is small. I hope to do some mixed media work using bits of proofs, a bit of a learning procss there but good for me. I will mostly miss the stimulation of working alongside my artist friends.

Dave Bonta said...

Spectacular work, Natalie! I enjoyed getting a first-hand look at your process this summer.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Thanks Dave - it was great to see you actually standing in my studio. I hope you'll be back by the time I've finished this work and we can celebrate.

Hattie said...

I love learning about this. It seems so complicated, but the machinery is fascinating.

Adam said...

Wow and again wow! My mind is boggled by the skill, creativity, experience, energy and such like that go into this impressive process and project.

Much luck and may your gods go with you in this!

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Hattie, if you were in my studio, I could show you how to make a collagraph plate, ink it and print it within a couple of hours and you'd go home with a work you'd be proud to hang on your wall.

Adam,thanks very much. What I said to Hattie goes for you too. One of your acrylic paintings could be turned into a block and printed beautifully, and wouldn't require much more energy than you expended in painting it!

Rain Trueax said...

Those illustrations look wonderful and i love the studio, its energy

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Thanks,Rain. Maybe you'll come and visit my studio one day?