Baker’s Dozen For January

So far so good, I managed to make a print and a book this month for A Bakers Dozen.

I’ve been experimenting further with copper sulphate etching, trying to make marks that I could repeat in future work. Part way through making this plate I realised that I hadn’t yet used any solvent based gloops so I decided to make this an environmentally friendly etching. The resists were done using a combination of tape masks and Graphic Chemical’s water soluble relief printing ink.

I only had time for a quick proof print at Hot Bed Press so I finished printing it at home, experimenting with different inks and press pressures.

The plate inked up in prussian blue.

The first proof in sepia (printed at Hot Bed Press - so the pressures are set right on this one)

Prussian Blue

Burnt sienna, ultramarine and ochre

Playing with new Christmas present inks (process cyan, process magenta and process yellow) just to see what happens. I like brightness of these colours. It’s something I’m going to explore further.

 Adding burnt sienna to process colours.

There are bits I like in most of them, so now I need a new plate to push it further.

I’ve also been mono printing for January's books (I'm using a fishbonefold one of Hedi Kyle’s structures). To get some kind of unity between the three prints I used a set of circle textures for making marks in the paint.

The first book had plain paper on the inside folds and a circle pattern for the cover. I also made a mistake in the ratio of the page lengths when marking out.

For the second two I adjusted the page lengths

 I printed grids and lines on the other side of the paper so that the openings also had a texture to them

 The covers for these two are printed to reflect the grids and lines of the openings. This structure wants to spring open so all the books are held closed with a belly band.