Nest, etc. Block and Printing on Handmade Paper

For this block, I typed my text on the computer and then printed it on drafting vellum. On one side of the vellum, the ink just sits on top of the paper, so I was able to transfer it to the block with just a little hand pressure. This made the job of reversing the text for the block very easy.

I only carved around the letters and didn't clear the whole block. I cut a stencil from Yupo (synthetic paper) to keep ink off the unwanted areas. I made other stencils to isolate individual words for printing.

I tried proofing on some paper that I made recently, but the paper had too much texture to print consistently, so I decided to calendar it. The proper way to calendar paper is with a metal plate and lots of pressure on the press, but I used plexi-glass and it worked fine, though I couldn't have the pressure so high it would crack the plate. Here is a piece of handmade paper going through the press to flatten out some of the texture and ready for printing.

Calendaring another piece of paper with pulp paint.

Then, the paper was ready for printing. Below are some of the prints. The ink seems to sit a little differently on the pulp paint areas and the plain paper areas.

Tree line

Tree line
Originally uploaded by edamamepress

Here is my tree line pulp painting--all finished! I calendared it (ran through the press to flatten out) and added some blue-gray washes to push back the background. Normally, I photograph my work with a point-and-shoot digital camera, but this time, I scanned it in quarters with my new, hand-me-down legal-size scanner and patched it together in Photoshop Elements. It was my first time doing it this way and much easier than I expected. I followed this tutorial: How to Seamlessly Stitch Arwork Scans in Photoshop Elements. I like how the scanner really picks up all the texture from the handmade paper and such.

I don't want to make any promises I can't keep, but I'd like to blog more often. Soon I'll be posted new handmade paper and woodblock prints, partially carved blocks, as well as a few things I've been sitting on for awhile. I will also be changing things up in my etsy shop in the next week--taking out several gelatin monotypes for a show at Taylor Books in Charleston, West Virginia, and adding new things.

Cheers!