Begin the Experiments

Having finally received my new can of relief ink after its tour of New Jersey, the next step was to try it out, and see if this is something I might use for myself, for my class, etc.  So I brought it to the Studio, figuring I'd find an old block or two to print.  And I did, as well as find some scrap paper I could use.  I opened the can, used my ink knife to cut through the edge around the paper covering the ink, and lifted it out in one piece.  The ink was much stiffer than I expected, more like a litho ink than any relief ink I've ever used.  However, I did remember in the advertising for it that it was formulated specifically to cleanly print fine line art of the type Tom specializes in for his prints.  So I pulled a little bit from the can and worked it with my knife a while to loosen it up.  Then I got out a hard brayer and gave the stuff a practical test.

First up was an old Christmas card block, a famous Ancient Greek black figure pottery image reworked as a Santa scene.  This ink has less oil than what I'm used to, so it wasn't as obvious where the fresh ink had been applied over the dried ink (more than a decade old) on the block.  And it didn't appear that I had much ink on the brayer.  But I decided I had given it a good inking and printed it on a scrap of stiff Strathmore drawing paper.  Printed it with a wooden spoon (the go to tool for my Belmar students) and it came out just fine.  There were a few small spots that I had missed, so I gave those spots extra attention on the second proof.  In each case I got good crisp prints picking up every detail of the relief.

The second test would be a saint print on Rives Lightweight, another common use for me.  I had planned to pull another copy of the most recent, Bd James Strepar, but that block wasn't in the Studio (found it at home later that day), so I went with Pamphilus.  I had colored 3 copies of the print originally, but the one I liked best was damaged in the clean up following the flood we had over the winter- looking like many droplets from spraying or mopping as it sat in my drying rack.  So I had a reason to need another one of this saint on the proper paper.  Again, not easy to see the ink on the brayer or on the block, but it printed easily enough, and once again with crisp detail.  In both cases I got a good solid black.

The testing phase is not quite over yet.  I want to see how long they take to dry, and make sure that the ink dries evenly.  And then I'll make sure it holds up to the effects of coloring with watercolors.  And before I declare this my official ink I may test one or two other options.  But now I know that this is one of my options.