Another lino print I did last year from an original drawing I did inspired from a photo I found of looking up into the bare branches of a tree.
This print seemed to need something more so in the top photo I have used a piece of printed japanese paper to do a "Chine collé . I did a post on Chine collé in my other blog: marympayne.blogspot.com Here is a re-print for the art blog.
"Here in Nice, I have been following a printmaking course for some
years, where despite the few hours afforded us each week at the
municipal art school, I have learned how to do basic printmaking. From
time to time I would like to report on what printmaking is all about. I will start off with an interesting technique called:
"Chine-colle´".
Chine-collé means literally "China pasted" and translates from the French as "pasted tissue paper". The original tissue papers came to Europe from the China, Japan and India .
It is one of the techniques
of printmaking which marries two processes together and can be
impressive if done well. Almost any zinc or copper plate (plaque) that
has already been engraved with acid (eau forte) or dry point techniques
can be used as well as carved linoleum or wood blocks.
The way I have learned to use the technique is to provide
a background color or pattern behind the image that is different from
the original backing sheet ( Rives or Arches paper).
To achieve the results you see in my photos below:
1. I first ink the plate in black, in this case both of these are zinc
plates which were first etched with the "sugar lift" method and an acid
bath.
2. Next, a finer piece of paper (be it newspaper, japanese paper, or
specially colorfast tissue paper) is trimmed to size and then dampened
with a spray bottle and placed between 2 pieces of newspaper to
blot. Some papers expand more than others when they are dampened so it
means testing to get the trimming accurate.
3.
After 5 minutes of resting, a wheat (or rice) paste is brushed on the
dampened backing sheet. You must be sure that the design goes on the
reverse side face up or your print will not succeed as you wished. ( I
have ruined several prints already by putting them on backwards...
oy!).
4. The plate is then run through the printing press. It
is the pressure of the press that transfers the ink to the thin paper
which will then adhere to the thicker printing paper.
To make the special paste
the gluten must be separated from the rest of the substance of wheat
flour. When heated, the gluten forms a ball in your hand which can be
lifted away. This leaves the starch which is heated with distilled
water and then passed through a sieve to form the paste. This
ancient method of paste making is the most revered by artists and
bookbinders although modern glues are now used by some printmakers.
With
printmaking each step must be executed accurately or the total is
spoiled. This isn't so in painting. Sometimes it's the "mistakes" in a
painting that make it interesting and possible for the artist to take a
new turn.
That is
much less the case in printmaking. I can say with the discipline of
printmaking, I am slowly learning patience and focus. It comes, however, at a
price of time and money.
If you spoil a chine colle´ in the final stage, at
least 30 minutes of time are gone, not to mention the design sheet,
which may have taken 30 minutes or more to create. Or if you found a
unique image in the newspaper you probably do not have another of the
same. The backing paper is quite pricey too, always a regret to throw
away.
(Rives 280 gr/m2 paper is usually about 6 euros a sheet, meaning 2 euros a print with the size I work with.)
Chine
colle´may take years to perfect but it breathes new life into any of
one's old plaques with the added satisfaction that each of these prints
will be unique.
Yves Klein inspired acid etched plate with newspaper used under the print
Found image from an ad in the newspaper again
In
this case I took a photo of one of my canvases and printed it on
Japanese paper . Since the ink was not permanent I was able to achieve
this cloudy affect with the chine colle´.
Example of the original print homage to Klein print with red ink
Second example of sugar lift print on Rives paper, without chine colle´ in black ink.
Same
print with japanese paper behind the print , color saturation
reinforced with watercolors after printing. I used less black ink to
reveal the variation of the plate."
