Saturday, May 7, 2011

Etching over Monoprints

Today I have been printing some small etchings over monoprints.  This works best when the monoprints I use as background are indistinct and are in need of 'something' to create a focal point. And of course there's no shortage of monoprints that fall short of my expectations in any session of printing that I do.

For a change, I used water soluble ink - Caligo Safe Wash Etching Ink.  It was so easy to clean up - just water and detergent.  The downside was that I accidentally stained my press blanket.  I suspect that I overdampened the paper and during printing the ink mixed with the surplus moisture and leaked through onto the blanket.  I immediately washed the blanket in wool-wash but I was unable to use friction to remove the stain as I was wary of any rubbing action which might have caused the wool blanket to start felting. 

So now my blanket is permanently stained.  I guess its not really that bad considering I've used the same blanket without mishap for the past 2 years.  It sort of looks like a tatoo, a 'right-of-passage' perhaps?

One my prints - note how the ink has run,
creating some nice effects but staining my press blanket!

One of the prints used for a book cover

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