The large (42 x 77 inch) prints of "Sara" reclining on her messy bed have been successfully completed -- I selected 8 for the edition plus two proofs. There is some variation among the edition, the greatest differences being in the depth of the deepest tones behind the head and in the top background -- these were introduced when I used the baren to print one of the blocks, pressing too hard about half the prints resulting in some loss of color at the edges of the block forms. Something to remember for next time! But overall the ten printed sheets are reasonable uniform, all things considered.
Here's a decent photo of one of the prints (compare to previous post):
"Sara", 42 x 77 inch woodblock print (17 blocks)
Permanent Collection, Beach Museum of Art
I handled registration a bit differently this time... The blocks were carved with three identical side kento, each about 1 1/2 inches long, and the center of the middle one was inscribed with a very narrow line. I used a razor blade to produce three flat edges in the deckle of each sheet (parallel to the edge of the sheet)so that they'd line up with the kento in the blocks, and I drew a short pencil line in the center of the middle 'notch' to be lined up with the line inscribed in the middle kento. Surprisingly, this worked very well, and I found it easy to register each sheet to the blocks, aligning the pencil mark with the inscribed line on the block. At the far edges, this resulted in about +/- .05 inch of dead on which is plenty close for the image and the eye. Given the size of the sheets I'm not sure I can do much better than that...
-- Mike
Labels: Woodblock
¶ 3:42 PM
And a great way to register large sheets. The pencil mark remains on the back of the sheet. Nice
: 4:30 AMThe registration is a marriage of kento with "T-Bar" registration -- my thought was to minimize variations in paper size (due to variable moisture content) by registering from the center of the long side and at the same time to avoid TOO much cutting into that beautiful deckle -- this all worked quite well, actually!
When I work up to printing on large sheets, say 24" x 36",I am going to use this kento system and a rolling drawer to deliver the sheet. A small break in the deckle edge is fine by me, nice to see how the print was made. Central registration is so obviously the way to go, so simple.
: 9:20 PMLinks to this post:
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