Whilst I await any feedback on my Pecha Kucha and before I start the next project I wanted to spend some time in the studio exploring a couple of techniques thatI hope will enable me to create printing plates that would express the looseness of the inky drawings I achieved last week.
The first set of experimental plates I made were using carborundum. This is a techinque where silicon carbide is attached to a surface …when dry it hold printing ink during the intaglio process. Using my usual thick glue wouldnt enable me to get the fluidity I achieved with the ink. Instead I used airbrush medium, it has the consitency of ink(..milk) but is very sticky once dry. I used the brushes I had made to brush it onto plastic (that will not hold ink) and then sprinked it with silicone carbide.
The second experiment I did was with some photopolymer plates. Firstly I painted the ink directly on the plate and exposed the plate to the sun. When washed out the ares that the ink was in washed away leaving a texture. When printingrelief this will leave gaps where the ink was. In order to print intaglio the plate needs exposing first…it ‘cooks’ from the bottom up, and then the ink stage..this will give me a plate like an etching. I did this with a few small plates with different exposure times.
I remembered I had some duralar paper which is transparent but can take ink without beading. I painted thin washes on one piece and lined on another. I doubled the sheets up and exposed a plate to them.
I will print them all tomorrow…..