This page last edited on 29/06/2003
Questions and Answers
Material on this page is extracted from the Print Australia mailing list archives. It contains extracts of member's questions and answers from the period February - June 2003. Please use this information at your own risk - Print Australia accepts no reponsibility for what you do with this information.
How did William Blake manage to write backwards and then apply his prose to a copper plate?
I was wondering if anyone had any stopout or sugarlift recipes they would like to share?
I would be grateful if the list could discuss the protocols for numbering prints.
Question: How did William Blake manage to write backwards and then apply his prose to a copper plate?
Answer 1: The first thing to keep in mind is that Blake's etchings were relief
etchings, that is to say the lettering was raised on the plate (background etched away) and inked up with (presumably) a roller.The best hypothesis (raised by Stanley Hayter) was that he drew the
lettering with bitumen (or similar) in the normal (right-reading) manner onto a specially prepared sheet which was then transfered
(offset) to the plate with heat and slight pressure.This resulted in the acid-resistant letters adherign to the plate in
reverse form. Put the whole thing in an acid bath for a while and hey presto!
I tried this once, and it worked OK:
(a) stretched a piece of paper over a board as for watercolours
(b) coated the dried paper with a mixture of gum acacia and egg-white.
(c) wrote text (right way 'round) over the dried coating using bitumen and a fine brush. (You can use an old-fashioned pen nib if
you wish)
(d) heated the plate gently and placed it on the press bed.
(e) placed the paper (removed from board) face down on the plate
(f) added some newspapers to top of paper (to avoid possible burns on blankets and give a firmer pressure.
(g) ran through the press under medium pressure
(h) soaked plate and paper in water until gum/egg-white dissolved and paper floated off the plate.
Thanks but how high or deep should I let the flat biting go? Any fail free methods against losing blocked out areas in the plate i.e. not subject to the acid?...and any method to re-etch a part in the plate without damaging the original etch. I can re-roll a ground quickly over a cold plate but this usually works on a 50/50 high risk basis of destroying earlier etch.
Dependent upon the hardness of your inking roller (firmer the better) you shouldn't need to etch all that deeply. My suggestion would be to keep a close eye on the bite and pull it out at the first sign of loss of detail. I imagine repairing blocked out portions that have broken down would need to be done by hand with a brush as with any other plate. It's a while since I've seen one, but my impression is that the lettering (which was what began this thread) in Blake's prints is fairly solid - bold in today's typographical terminology) and was drawn with a brush. Fine detail may not be attainable with this method.
Of course if you use a photosensitive etching plate with black writing on acetate exposed face down - which is what I'd recommend - then you can etch the text in the normal manner with none of the above fiddling about.
Answer 2: Ruth Leaf describes a similar process, the 'Blake Transfer Method', in her book, 'Etching and Engraving', (Dover Pub, 1976) chapter 22. She uses a mix of gum arabic and tincture of green soap. I haven't tried it so I don't know how successful it is.
Answer 3: " A poem was written in a solution of asphaltum and resin and benzene upon a piece of paper previously coated with a mixture of gum arabic and soap ... A clean (copper) plate was well heated and the paper laid upon it and passed through the press. THe back of the paper was then soaked with water and peeled off, leaving the resist on the copper in reverse. THe designs were then drawn with a brush and asphaltum solution by the artist" (S.W. Hayter, New Ways of Gravure, red ed (NY Watson Guptill, 1981, 75)
Question: I use Oil of Wintergreen for xerox transfers onto stone. Could you give me the nickel course on how citrusolv is used?
Answer 1:
I just have been using citrusolv to transfer to paper, though I know you can use it to transfer to woodblock, I don't know about stone. The nickel course is:
For color copies, I've been using a cheap 1" chip brush, brushing citrusolv over the front of the copy, let sit for one minute, brush on another coat, then place copy face down on paper, brush a bit more citrusolv on back of copy, then either rub w/spoon, baren, etc or run through press.
For black and white copies, they need less citrusolv, so just place xerox face down on paper, block etc, brush citrusolv on back of copy and rub or run through press.My teacher had us brushing on the front of b/w copies, but I found that it can too easily blur the image.This citrusolv does really work! I successfully was able to transfer to very thin Japanese paper, and chine colle to a solarplate etching.
Answer 2
--- Re Citrus Transfers I use a product called Citra -clean for transfers..( and other things). Readily available in Woolworths in Australia in with the cleaning products.. Its active ingrediants are d-limone and eythl alcohol and seems to evaporate pretty quickly (guess its the alcohol). Warnings on label state:always use good ventilation as vapors may irritate eyes and repiratory tract and to wear gloves to avoid prolonged contact with skin. The web site is www.citroclean.com.au if you want to check it out Having said all of this is certainly much better to use than turps.
Answer 3
lots of earlier , i mean lots, notes and letters about orange turpene, which i believe is the solvent in cirtasolv. check the archives.
as u noticed, most transfer people tend to blithely ignore solvent dangers. i would always use a mask with citrasol, theres a kind of post hippy assumption that if it comes from citrus its safe, but thats absurd. tho it may well be safer than xylene or the unknown mix in lacquer thinner, which is BADDDDD. i think one manageable practice is to limit exposure, always, which means gloves and mask and serious ventilation. skin contact is important to avoid. dont slop the stuff on with a rag if a q-tip or cotton swab will work, use total common sense, i know u know this already. also, i have used orange turpene liquid to do photocopy transfers on an etching or litho press, with great care, very easy and fast, and i can eliminate 90% of the physical contact and lots of the gassy stuff. try it! its sold as paint solvent in most art stores, a little hard to find. sold by Eco-House, you can order from the web.
Answer 4
As others have emphasized, reducing exposure is what it is all about. You
should NEVER needlessly expose yourself to solvents.
I believe the main ingredient in citrus based solvents is d-limonene, which is made from orange peels. The oral LD50 (dose at which 50% of test animals
died) for d-limonene is greater than that for common table salt.
The LD50 for table salt is about one teacup. d-limonene has been approved for use in SMALL amounts as a food additive in the US. There is a patented
anti-cancer drug which uses d-limonene. Current research (always subject to change) suggests that ingesting small amounts is no more harmful than small
amounts of salt.
But in these art applications, you are not likely to be eating the stuff.
The two biggest routes of exposure are skin absorption and inhalation.
I have been unable to find research data concerning the effects of skin
absorption. In this case, prudence is dictated. Do not add it to your bath water. Avoid skin contact ... wear gloves when you are using it.
Inhalation in high doses causes respiratory distress (coughing, asthma, etc.) in some people. Having said that, the rate of evaporation of other
solvents is MUCH higher than that of d-limonene. Acetone has an evaporation rate about 1000 times greater than d-limonene. There are a couple of
consequences of this low evaporation rate.
1) You would have to use 1000 times as much d-limonene in the same amount of time to produce the same level of air concentration as a given amount of
acetone. So even if the recommended maximum concentration of d-limonene is less than acetone, it will be MUCH less likely you will exceed the maximum
concentration using d-limonene than if you were using more rapidly evaporating solvents. Just because the recommended maximum dosage of one
product is greater than another does not mean the one is safer to use. You must take into account evaporation rates to determine likelihood of exposure.
2) Since it evaporates so slowly, you will generally use much less to accomplish a given task than you would with other solvents. Put a bit of
acetone on a swab and swipe your transfer a couple of times, and the acetone will be all gone ... evaporated into the air. Put the same amount
of d-limonene on a swab and you can probably do the entire transfer and still have d-limonene on your swab.
Because it evaporates so slowly, it is VERY important to dispose of material dampened with d-limonene in a covered receptacle or even a plastic
bag ... otherwise the d-limonene will continue to evaporate into the air. Carefully disposing of your waste will greatly reduce the
contamination of the air that you are breathing.
Obviously, if you are experiencing respiratory distress, then wear a mask of some sort, and use the stuff out of doors if necessary.
I use d-limonene to transfer xerox and laser print copy to wood block and to metal plate.
For woodblock, just place the copy face down on the block and rub the back of the copy with a swab dampened with d-limonene. The block will absorb the dissolved toner and the d-limonene.
For metal plate,
I find the swabbing technique produces smudgy images. So I place the copy face
down on the plate. Then I dampen another piece of paper with d-limonene and put it on the back of the copy. Cover with a few sheets of
newsprint and a piece of mylar and then run it through an etching press or a lithographic press. You can also achieve a reasonable transfer by rubbing
the back of the sandwich with some sort of baren (e.g., the bottom of a tin can or glass jar). Transfers seem to work better the fresher the xerox or
laser print.
It works ... and from the RESEARCH I have read it is safer than using lacquer thinner or similar products. BUT do not needlessly expose yourself to any such product. Wear gloves and reduce the amount you inhale by using adequate ventilation and properly disposing of waste. If it bothers you, then wear a mask.
You may be one of those people who are overly sensitive to the stuff ... in which case, do not use it at all. Some of my friends are lactose intolerant and cannot drink milk or eat soft cheeses. Similarly, your own toleration limits may be less than the average. Listen to your body. But keep exposure to a minimum, no matter what.
If you are interested, it is better to do your own reading of the research reports. Just do a Google search on d-limonene. Begin with the "material safety data sheet" or MSDS. Search on "MSDS d-limonene"; do a search on "MSDS XXXXXX", where XXXXXX is the trade name of the product you are using. Then just do a general search on "d-limonene". Check out sources like FDA and EPA. Some people are ignorant of the fact that the EPA maintains a large data base of research on the effects of many substances on HUMANS.
Question: Does anyone know of a transparent or near transparent paper which is archivally sound, and strong enough to take a print and glue? I've been using tissue paper?
Answer 1: I would look into Japanese papers. A lot of Japanese papers are quite transparent and very strong; they are used for Chine collé, but can also be printed on seperately. These papers are sold here in Montreal, they should be available in Sydney.
Answer 2: asian silk paper is very strong and when used in chine collee virtually transparent. hard to handle when wet but quite strong. lovely silky sheen too. too fine for laser/inkjet printers unless u mount it on another sheet
Answer 3: You can get very thin Gampi - http://www.awagami.or.jp/english/gampi.html - paper that is extreme strong .... extremely expensive.... and is extremely archival. The web site above tells all and there are probably others out there. Hosho paper is the next best and would probably work.
Question: I've known about Grapheion for years. Last I checked though, they went out of business back in 2000 or 2001 and have since only been selling back copies. Have they resumed publishing their wonderful magazine again ? Can you send a link or further information to this list please ?
Answer 1 Last year about October or November I think, someone on the list told us all about Grapheion magazine from Prague. Well, I ordered 5 in November and they arrived on Friday. And they are fantastic. Heaps of printmaking theory in them and fabulous images of European prints (even some Australian). The total cost for the 5 mags - 2 being yearbooks - is $US38. And well worth every penny. Thank you to whoever posted that original message.
Answer 2 Yes, its a pity it is just coming out occasionally now due to economical difficulties. In many issues it has focused a lot on eastern-european art. A couple of articles about art from the Balkans. If you like to keep up with what is going on in Belgrade these days in printmaking you can have a look at the Graficki Kolektiv http://www.grafkol.co.yu/ . In Belgrade there are many great printmakers like Zoran Todovic, Milan Blanusa, Katarina Zaric, Branko Pavic etc. So many good printmakers around! I can also recomend you all to order the Grapheion magazine. It´s is really giving a picture of how alive, expanding and interesting the printmaking scene is today.
Answer 3 This is their address: http://mujweb.atlas.cz/kultura/grapheion/index-a.htm
Editors Note: Extract from Grapheion special issue 2002, collection of papers from the conference of the 3rd International Triennial of Graphic Arts Prague 2001, Digital Technology and the Information Revolution POSSIBILITIES for Further Development of Graphic Arts by Dragana Kovacic http://karaart.com/prints/articles/dragana.kovacic/dragana.kovacic.html
Question: I have suddenly found myself to be a printmaker due to my use of computers and art programs. i would like to print my work on some good quality paper, but i am not sure what i want. can any of you out there making prints from a digital image, give me some information about what paper you use and why.
Answer 1: Buy an Epson 2100 (new) - paper and ink good for 75 years with no fading if you use archival Epson toner and paper or an Epson Photo 2000p (new or used) - paper and ink good for 200 years with no fading. if you use archival Epson toner and paper The Australian prices are about $2000 per machine. They print A3 oversize and there are 3 papertypes available. If these printers are outside your budget try using archival (acid free ) or light, not more than 160 GSM, rag paper in a bubble jet printer. These papers are available from Melbourne Etching Supplies and Neil Wallace in Melbourne.
Partners in Print in Rozelle NSW has an archival digital printing service using a large format Epson printer. www.pnp.org.au
Answer 2: PMA: New paper for Epson Stylus Pro previewed by Peter Cohen,
March 4, 2003 10:15 am ET.
"Epson America Inc. is using this week's PMA show in Las Vegas, Nevada to debut three new double-sided paper types for its popular line of
Stylus Pro printers. The new papers are targeted at photographers and artists, according to the company.
Epson UltraSmooth Fine Art Paper is a 100 percent cotton rag that is acid-free, lignin-free and optical brightener-free, according to the company. It's a slightly alkaline base with a 2 percent calcium carbonate buffer to preserve a pH of about 8.0. Independent research has rated the paper's dark storage in excess of 100 years, according to the company. The surface texture of the new paper is similar to Epson's Enhanced Matte variety, with greater archival ability. Epson will release it in 205g, 325g and 500g weights.
Epson Premium Double-Sided Photo Paper is resin-coated and displays a low-gloss finish ideal for quality photo presentations. The double sided coating makes the paper suitable for portfolio work and proofing, according to Epson
Epson Double-Sided Ink Jet Paper rounds out the offerings. It'll be available in 110g and 210g weights. The bright white paper is coated on both sides and works with dye and pigment inks. Epson is positioning the paper for comps and imposition proofing.
Both the Premium Double-Sided Photo Paper and the Double-Sided Ink Jet Paper will be available in wide-format cut sheet. The UltraSmooth Fine Art paper will be available in cut sheet for its double-sided version and in a roll for its single-sided variation."
Answer 3: if I were gonna recommend a paper it would have to be Kizuki Hosho.... The hand made Japanese stuff that cost $35.00 a sheet (28" x 22" ) retail. I mean if you are gonna produce a work of art them you should have the pride to use the very best paper.
Answer 4: There are many finepapers for digital printmaking, depending on what look you are trying to achieve. I am not sure about AU sources, but in the USA, you can check at www.digitalartsupplies.com, www.inkjetgoodies.com, MIS, hawkmountain and others.
If you want a soft look, you can use uncoated papers like somerset velvet and boost the saturation while printing.
If you want a crisp look, you need to either coat your own papers or other materials using something like inkaid, www.inkaid.com, or use the ones manufactured for this purpose.
I would suggest buying sampler packs and trying them out before choosing to place an order for any in quantity. Hahnemuhle makes particularly nice ones, as does Legion. Also, hiromi www.hiromipaper.com handles inkjet japanese papers,including handmade ones, that have been coated. but you have to be really careful working with them and the inkjet printer--at $20bucks US per sheet its easy to ruin a lot of sheets before you get a good print.
Question: I'm about to try printing on vellum, (goat and sheep)..I know its not quite the latest technology, but I don't mind being old fashioned. Has any one tried it lately, like in the last century or two?
Answer 1: I don't see that there should be any problems with printing on vellum. Just keep in mind that it is a greasy surface that will buckle with too much moisture. I would think that oil-based inks would do well on vellum. The paints/inks I have used for illumination were either oil-emulsions (egg tempera being such) or water-based (iron gall ink/glair tempera/ watercolor), with water used sparingly over small sections at a time, and no problems. I would definitely do relief printing, as vellum is almost certainly too stiff to work with intaglio, and you wouldn't be able to wet it without major buckling, even if you tried pinning it out.
The only thing I would suggest is to make sure that your vellum is properly prepared. Even if comes prepared for writing from a manufacturer, the surface can become greasy over time (it is leather,after all) and that could particularly be a problem with water-based inks. Before printing, it should be pounced to raise a slight nap and remove any surface grease. This can be done by first using a fine-grade sandpaper in a gentle circular motion over the entire surface of the vellum to raise the nap. You aren't trying to sand down the surface at all, just give it a bit more velvety texture. Then pour a little finely powdered dental pumice (I get mine from John Neal Bookseller) onto a clean rag and use the same gentle circular motion to rub the pumice into the vellum, which will absorb some of the surface grease. Brush off the excess pumice with a soft brush, and the vellum should be ready to print on.
Answer 2: Sorry, it is not leather, as it is not tanned, thus no crosslinking of the proteins in the skin. And leather can be printed too, same way, does curl less nor not.
I printed etchings on sheep, pig and calf parchment. It is easy, looks beautiful and works like this:
This technique is suited for line etching, coarse aquatint, dry point. My experiences with mezzotint and fine aquatint are not so good, in the sense that the parchment does take less ink than paper. Raising the nap, as described (above), may have a certain effect. Mind that parchment - if not split - has a flesh and a hair side. The hair side is smooth and may be greasy, the flesh side has a nap. Try both sides and judge the differences. Pig is coarse in structure and thick, sheep or goat are hardly or not distinguishable nor different in behaviour, calf is finest and what I prefer especially because of its tint.
The raised nap will be compressed again in running it through the press. But it may be an interesting technique on certain occasions, as it will create a different surface structure. May also see to it that more difficult to print tints are taken by the parchment.
Answer 3: I used to purchase my vellum from Rick Cavasin, a master parchment-maker in Ontario, but I don't know that he sells to the public anymore. I have also purchased calfskin vellum from John Neal Bookseller http://www.johnnealbooks.com/jnb/ and more recently from BookMakers International http://www.bookmakerscatalog.com/, but I believe most stores that sell vellum in the States has to import from Britain, so you have to order well in advance of any deadlines. BookMakers sells black vellum, which I have been greatly tempted to try out... well, someday! One of the drawbacks of vellum is its expense--$52US for a 12"x16" sheet is a pretty good deal for goatskin manuscript vellum, at least from my experience, so choose your projects carefully.
You'd have to experiment as far as registration. There are potential issues with buckling or stretching, if you use too much pressure, but if you spend a bit of time getting to know vellum and how its characteristics are similar to and different from paper, you could easily make those sorts of adjustments. Some shops sell vellum scraps that come in handy for experiments.
Question: I was wondering if anyone had any stopout or sugarlift recipes they would like to share?
Answer 1: I am have been making this lift ground for twenty years and it always works. It never 'contracts' on the plate even if you don't degrease properly.Mix as much sugar into Sunlight liquid (or Palmolive [any] dish washing liquid) as you can and stir it up with a spoon. Keep adding sugar and stirring. Try not to froth it. Then put some waterbased drawing ink into it. This enables you to see when drawing. You then need to add a bit of water to it so that it draws easily. If you draw with a dip pen or brush it should flow off the brush and be not too thick on the plate. To speed things up in the processing you can blow dry the drawing with a hair dryer (or hot air gun at a distance). What you want to do is dry a skin on the drawing but not all the way through. This means that when you apply hard ground to the plate, the brush will not go through your drawing but the sugar lift is still soft and moist underneath. A soft water-colour brush is best. The thinner your liquid hard ground is the finer the detail you get in your drawing. You then can wash off the lift ground under hotter than warm running water instead of in a water bath. I am always looking for fast ways to do things especially in etching. The blow-drying should take about 5 to 10 minutes and the washing under the tap 3 or 4 minutes. Your sugar lift is complete and ready to spray aquatint in 20 minutes
The Rembrandt recipe for hard ground is a 2:2:1 mix by weight.
The secret of the boil up is to have the asphaltum just under the boil. You will see tendrils of smoke start to waft off the surface. Then sprinkle the powdered rosin slowly into the asphaltum. It must melt into the rosin and this takes about twenty minutes, keep stirring all the time. When you have no goo of the rosin on the bottom of the pan then add the wax. This substantially lowers the temperature of the mix. This is OK. Keep stirring the mix so the wax melts.
I pour this mix into muffin trays. Put them in the freezer overnight and the steel contracts and loosens the hardground cake. A smart inverted whack against a table or the floor will knock the hard grounds out of the tray. You can also dribble the hot mix into a bucket of water. It will go hard and float to the surface. With rubber gloves on, gather the thin sheet of hard ground and squeeze into a ball and thus your hard ground ball.
If you want to make liquid hard ground get an empty jam jar and fill two thirds with petrol and just pour the hot mix straight into the petrol. It will froth if it gets too hot so just stop pouring and carry on when it has stopped frothing. I normally make three or four jars, so when it froths I start the next one. It will not explode however I advise you not to smoke!
If you want to make soft ground you put in something like Chef Aid or lard to after the wax has melted in. [up to about 5% but the drawing into the ground will inform you if you need more or less. It is quite a personal thing] The lard retards the drying time of the ground.
I teach my students to make it as it is so cheap to make. Two hours for the boil up makes enough hard and soft ground for about sixty students doing etching for the year and some to give away. Total cost of about fifteen dollars. Much better and cheaper than Le Franc.
A great stop out for etching is shellac. Buy the flakes from a paint manufacturer. This difference in price from a retail store and the manufacturer is enormous. You can pay up to $100 per kilo in a store, but we get ours for NZ$22 per kilo from Mainland Paints in Christchurch - I am in NZ. Another tip is to have a shellac brush washout bottle with a screw top metal lid. The meths in this can be recycled into the shellac mix when it gets too much shellac in it.
The trick with using shellac is to get it off the plate. Shellac should always be applied extremely thinly. Best if you can only just see it. When it is too thick it will stay rubbery on the plate and take a long time to dry. If it is thin it will dry within a minute. To get it off is easy. Put half a teaspoon of methylated spirits on the plate to be cleaned and put the plate inside a plastic shopping bag. Press the plastic bag down so it traps the meths against the plate and fold the bag to make it air tight. Do something else for five minutes, then take the plate out and wipe with a kerosene or turps rag and everything will just wipe off. No scratching or scraping.
Answer 2: Here are some recipes we were given in my intaglio class at University of
Hawaii at Manoa. I don't know how to change these to metric measures....
By Peter Milton:
Heat India ink and add sugar to make a thickish syrup, add a few drops of glycol antifreeze to retard drying and improve quality. Dilute with more
ink to working consistency.
By Ruth Leaf:
5 oz. Karo Syrup
4 oz. India Ink
2/4 oz Tide or other granulated soap
1/4 oz. gum arabic
Mix together parts until its no more than 10 oz. total. may mold with time, remove mold its still okay to use. If thickens with age dilute with water.
By Nancy Anway, for drybrush technique:
4 0z by weight powdered gum arabic
6 fl oz warm not boiled water
1.5 oz. Daimaru varnish
1 fl. oz. stand oil
1 oz glycerin
Heat water and add gum Arabic add the oil and varnish and beat with egg beater until blended. beating constantly, add glycerin. Use only with
alcohol based not asphaltum based stop out.
By Fran Meyers:
powdered sugar
India ink
dissolve sugar into ink slowly while stirring. Add a few drops of liquid Ivory soap.
By Cynthia Murno
3 tsp. powdered sugar
3 tsp. gum Arabic
black gouache
water
Sugar Lift (no name)
2 parts India ink
2 parts clear Karo syrup
1 part tincture of green soap
trace of gum Arabic
Evan Lindquist Lift Ground for pen use
1 part black pigment made into paste with alcohol
1 part liquid detergent (Ivory is best)
3 parts karo Syrup
9 parts water
Stir together, test on plate, if too runny, add more detergent.
Alan Weinstein's Lift Ground
1 tsp. Texy Liquid
1 tsp. karo Syrup
5 tsp. Water
Several Drops food coloring
Another by Cynthia Murno
2 tsp. powdered sugar
3 tsp. gum Arabic
black gouache or tempera
1/4 tsp. warm water
Lift Ground Transfer
Use above and coat a sheet of paper. Use as you would carbon over a plate, drawing with a variety of objects produces different grainy effects. Cover
with very thin asphaltum ground and immerse in hot water till it lifts.
Ross and Romano Lift Ground #1
10 parts Karo Syrup
2 parts Black India ink
1 part powdered soap
1 part gum Arabic
Ross and Romano Lift Ground #2
10 parts simple syrup (1 part sugar, 5 parts water, boiled)
3 parts black poster paint
2 parts liquid detergent
gum Arabic "to feel"
Answer 3: Have come across a excellent sugar lift, through the Print forum at http://www.mtsu.edu/~art/printmaking/wwwboard/messages/1766.html
Its cheap and simple, Coffee and Chicory essence
In Australia , is called Bushells Coffee and Chicory Essence..In England, Camp coffee
Works extremely well, lifts off beautifully . I pour a Graphic Chemical liquid hard ground over it, let it dry , then put it into cold water...I tried it with turps diluted ground and also normal hard ground, and both came off easily..The third year Printmaking students here at James Cook Uni are quite impressed with it..
For stop out, we use bitumen ( from paint or hardware shops) thinned with turps or the grahic chemical liquid hard ground.
Question: I would be grateful if the list could discuss the protocols for numbering prints. A normal edition is simple enough, but I have had some difficulties deciding how to number a set of prints all from the same plate but each inked differently. I sought some advice from two printmakers who both said each print would be numbered one of one, but since have had different advice that they could be numbered as an edition with e.v. (for edition variable I imagine). Similarly, because much of the printmaking I do is experimental sometimes my plates change quite markedly in the process of producing an 'edition'. Is there a consensus on numbering in this instance?
Answer: Try and get your hands on a copy of the Code of Ethics For Original
Printmaking put out by the Quebec printmakers
Conseil quebecois de l'stampe
811, Ontario St. East, Montreal,
Quebec
H2L 1P1
It has a great discussion of printmaking issues and editioning practices as well as examples..
It defines a variable edition thus
"The Varied Edition
In an experimental process of aesthetic research, the artist may explore a number of printmaking possibilities from a final matrix or matices.
THe varied editition is made up of proofs that are different versions of the same image.Though these varients are all different, the artist considers them equal
and aesthetically valuable" (p47)
"Identification
In the case where individual variants are not editioned, the numbering appears after the denomination <variant>. Numbering is expressed a
roman numeral fraction, the numerator indicating the rank and the denominator , the total number of variants produced.
Example 1: For a variant with four different proofs
Variant I/IV (II/IV, III/IV, IV/IV) title, signature of artist, date.
When one or several variants are editioned, a supplementary, arab numeral fraction follows where the numerator indicates the order number
and the denominator, the total number of identical proofs pulled.
Example 2: For a variant with four different proofs, this version (I/IV)
having been editioned in 10 identical proofs:
Variant I/IV 1/10 (2/10 etc) title, signature, date.
In the case of an open edition, variants will be numbered in whole roman numerals in order of impression.
Example 3: For a variant of 4 different proofs
VAriant I, (II, III, IV ) title, signature, date."
pp54-55
© Copyright 1999 - 2003 Josephine Severn