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.
Voilà, that's it for tonight.
The time is now five past 2 am.
MORE
22 comments:
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.
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.
A wonderful look into a fascinating workplace. I found the details of the working procedures most interesting. Thank you for letting us in.
Oh how I would like to be your 'Gofor'. So much to learn, to do, to help with. I would charge nada.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Wonderful, wonderful, Natalie! A fascinating glimpse into process and now I'm even more keenly anticipating product!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Spectacular work, Natalie! I enjoyed getting a first-hand look at your process this summer.
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.
I love learning about this. It seems so complicated, but the machinery is fascinating.
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!
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!
Those illustrations look wonderful and i love the studio, its energy
Thanks,Rain. Maybe you'll come and visit my studio one day?
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