Week 6: Refining Process
After having printed the cube and my other block, my boss prompted me to make a thinner, more complex plate. So far, I’ve only known how to make geometric shapes. It clicked within me that to make line images in AutoCAD, one would need to use polylines and splines. I used them a bit in my initial attempt at making a block. For this new one, I used splines.
The resulting plate was much more thin than I expected. I was worried the raised edges wouldn’t be high enough, but it ended up alright. The printing surface was a bit compromised- some of the blue tape on the glass printing plate was a bit ripped and I couldn’t find replacement tape. Also, the nozzle of the printer seemed a bit blocked up — it was slow to take up the filament. Because of that, the sheet printed looked a bit too thin, so I tried to scrape it off. I managed to scrape off some of what had been made, but this affected the bottom of the block. The nozzle started to work, and the block was printed.
I wanted to print the bottom of the block first as a double registration. I knew I wanted to use the grain that the bottom had. I realized that I wanted to make a block specially designed to be double registered, and writing this, I’ve realized how easy it could be. As I extrude the polyline, I could “intrude” the back of the block, leaving a hollow area that matches the above area.
The colors I wanted were blue and pink, but there was no pink readily available and I wanted to print relatively fast, so I went with red. I knew the blue was a darker value than the red, so I put the blue as the background color and the red as the top. I was worried the red would get lost in the blue, but I like the layer affect that occured.
With each run through the press, the block began to be pressed down. As it was pressed down more, the hatching that supported the inside structure of the block started to become visible. They’re seen in the grid that’s faint on some of the later prints. The top layer maintained throughout. This could be avoided by a lower setting of the press’ barrel pressure (the plate would be less squished by the machine). My boss even suggested that a baren could be used. A baren is used to smooth out a paper on top of the block, it’s much lighter than a press.
I experimented with soaked and unsoaked paper. I prefer the unsoaked paper, but that’s just me.
I ran the plate through twice after inking. I like how the print looks using the plate that went through the press already.
From here, I want to make a more complete, intricate illustrations for the next block. I might begin next week by printing a block with one side having an extruded image, the other side “intruded”.
