Traditional printmaking
- Thread starter Tengu
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Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
Would you like a couple of carved hardwood blocks ? the kind used in Indian cotton saree printing ?
M
M
I used to restore and deal in antique prints Tengu, copper and steel engravings, etchings, lithographs, wood blocks, wood cut and the like
What do you want to know?
What do you want to know?
Here you go Tengu
http://www.bpi1700.org.uk/resources/resources_about.html
Any questions, fire away!
http://www.bpi1700.org.uk/resources/resources_about.html
Any questions, fire away!
I have……a very long time ago. It's not particularly 'safe' iimmc, and it's hard to get lettering very precise.
Lino cutting, if you are very precise and take pains to keep it free from dross and the edges 'sharp', works very well instead of engraving metal.
Somewhere I have some engraved metal printing plates. Old advertising flyers from pre-war. I meant to take them to the local museum, but haven't a clue where I have stashed them. Probably in one of the sheds.
M
Lino cutting, if you are very precise and take pains to keep it free from dross and the edges 'sharp', works very well instead of engraving metal.
Somewhere I have some engraved metal printing plates. Old advertising flyers from pre-war. I meant to take them to the local museum, but haven't a clue where I have stashed them. Probably in one of the sheds.
M
I'd have to check but suspect in Billy the bards time plates would have been engraved, not etched copper?
Not sure; I believe etching did come along quite early in the scheme of things re printing, but it's hard to keep writing fine and even, and it's hard to keep illustrations with crisp lines. Engraving an be incredibly crisp, if the ink and paper are good 
I do know that the acid's a pain to control effectively.
M
I do know that the acid's a pain to control effectively.
M
Only the play with the concept. I used a bit of carbon steel and a sheet of copper.
The copper was really too thin and it buckled a bit and I actually struggled not to cut through it.
If I ever did it again, I'd glue the copper onto something solid, first.
Lines are easy enough to start, but taking out the slivers of copper tidily at the other end's a bit of a chore.
I can well believe that it was very skilled work.
M
The copper was really too thin and it buckled a bit and I actually struggled not to cut through it.
If I ever did it again, I'd glue the copper onto something solid, first.
Lines are easy enough to start, but taking out the slivers of copper tidily at the other end's a bit of a chore.
I can well believe that it was very skilled work.
M
This seems a good summary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQvghHs15hA
It's something I keep meaning to try, just to know how hard it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQvghHs15hA
It's something I keep meaning to try, just to know how hard it is.
I know a bit about woodcut, linocut and wood graving.
A lot of printing in shakespeare's day would have been done using wood graving - this is done on the end-grain of a dense wood (such as box) using different tools from woodcut. A bit of research confirms this; wood graving was the usual technique. Wood graving uses tools that look like small gouges but are actually solid. The actual printing is done using a press.
A lot of printing in shakespeare's day would have been done using wood graving - this is done on the end-grain of a dense wood (such as box) using different tools from woodcut. A bit of research confirms this; wood graving was the usual technique. Wood graving uses tools that look like small gouges but are actually solid. The actual printing is done using a press.
Hardly at all.
the profiles are similar to small gouges - V, round, etc, but are like a solid bar. So a V graving gouge is like a triangle.
Because you are cutting end grain on very dense wood you can make very fine marks, just like engraving on metal sheet. Unlike metal engraving, the ink is carried on the raised surface. A lot of skill is in cutting a block so that it prints ok without the paper 'bottoming'. The image also needs to be designed to be practical.
The wikipedia article is pretty good with some pictures of images done using this technique.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_engraving
the profiles are similar to small gouges - V, round, etc, but are like a solid bar. So a V graving gouge is like a triangle.
Because you are cutting end grain on very dense wood you can make very fine marks, just like engraving on metal sheet. Unlike metal engraving, the ink is carried on the raised surface. A lot of skill is in cutting a block so that it prints ok without the paper 'bottoming'. The image also needs to be designed to be practical.
The wikipedia article is pretty good with some pictures of images done using this technique.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_engraving
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