Terraplane Blues part 14

 Late last year I learned that the plan for the Nashville show of the Robert Johnson prints is off for now, but Tom did write something about showing the prints in his booth at a print fair in Brooklyn in March.  That's coming soon, so I probably should do something about it.  I don't know any specific dates or the location yet, only that he said that one would be shown in a frame.  Which one?  I don't know any more than you do.  I hope he tells me something soon, but who knows?  Meanwhile, I can see what I have and what I might need to do.  If he wants them all, I'll send him the whole set.  Whatever it takes to sell this project.

I did start making a list of things to buy online for the next boardwalk print, but I haven't called in the order yet, as that has no deadline, and this might.  So for now I will get back to the Johnson project, and the first part was seeing what I had.  All six that I have done so far included me carving the chosen lyric under the image.   This would not be needed for the Nashville show, as we had a plan to have that added by letterpress by the shop making the prints, but that's out now.  As a result, I didn't print the lyrics unless I needed them for something else.  I did include them on the two horizontal images I showed in recent years in Ocean Grove, but not in any of the vertical ones I framed.  (those purchased and sent to Virginia had them as requested by the collectors, but I don't have those now) But now I seem to need them, so today's time went toward that.  

While everything was still dry, I played around with paper and decided to go with a full sheet for each proof.  A half sheet of the Rives Lightweight would have been too tight.  This will look better for the proofs, and be easier.  (probably have to add a few sheets to my order of art supplies) Plenty of ink, though.

It was in inking those words that I found a problem- some was just not cut enough and some stray marks showed up.  Hoped that blue tape would do the job.   The rest of the image wasn't bad, possibly the best proof I ever took of this image.  I could see that the image area needed some re-inking as well in spots, but I'm used to that.  But then I found another problem- the paper shifted just a little.  I might be able to fix the spots in the image with some careful mat board touch up, but not the lettering.  Then the paper shifted some more, and that was all.  Time to clean up.

I did learn a few things at least.  Learned what I had in terms of supplies.  Learned how much paper it would take.  Learned how much paper I would need and how to best place it.  Next time will be better.  Meanwhile, I put this print in my drying rack and called it a day.