Screenprinting on Copper

With a cautious and limited reopening, I was granted access to the printmaking studio at Martha Street Studio (thank you, thank you, thank you!), which has been closed to artists since last fall due to Covid-19. There are a few processes I can't do at home, such as etching my plates, doing some aquatint (I need good ventilation for that), exposing some screens and screenprinting. I did as much prep work at home as possible, so I hopefully will be able to etch all my plates within the next week or two. One of the etching processes I utilize more and more is screenprinting an acrylic resist onto a copper plate. Rather than needling the plate in a traditional way, i.e. drawing an image with a steel needle through a hard ground coating, I create a drawing with a medium of my choice, like grease marker, ink washes, chalk, etc. I then scan my drawing, invert and flip it, and print out a stencil, which I then expose onto a screen. This allows me to work with a much broader range of mark making in etching and, in the case of these plates, use a bolder line to give some of my figures a stronger presence in my prints. That's the plan anyways...let's see if it'll work. Here is a small video of the process (printing missionary on horseback): 

Digital Printing

Last week I finally had an appointment at Martha Street Studio with the digital printing technician to get some digital printing done on their fabulous large scale Epson printer. I hope to successfully incorporate some of the early maps I have come across in my research as a light background layer. I have one sketch map of the Chaco by Seymour Hawtrey published in the SAMS magazine in 1910, one by Wilfrid Barbrooke Grubb printed in the SAMS magazine in 1910, and one map by Walter Regehr of the Makthlawaya Anglican mission station from 1979. Maps are very much part of the colonization process, creating a record of accessing and opening up of the land, and I think they will lend themselves well as a possible underlying background layer in some of my prints. I am printing an on translucent Asian paper, which will allow me to move around and layer other printing plates on top. I'll write more about the printing process once I get to that stage. 

Plate preparation

Life happened. I had to work on some other stuff for a few days and then I got a cold (thankfully I didn't have Covid). I fell a bit behind with my timeline for this project, but I'm back at it. For the past week I've worked on getting my etching plates ready: I filed the edges, put a mordant-resistant backing on all the plates, polished and degreased the surfaces, coated the plates with asphaltum and started needling the plates. I have prepped sixteen plates of different sizes. Each plate will hold different image elements based on key ideas of my research, which I will then combine and layer in a series of prints.

The asphaltum is a mordant-resistant tar and wax based coating through which I then draw my images with a steel needle to expose the copper. When I put the plate into an acid bath, the mordant bites into the exposed parts of the plate, which will later hold the ink. I had to improvise a bit and set up a work space in the kiln shed to coat my plates. Fortunately the weather is getting warmer now that spring is here. I don't have any ventilation in my basement studio and I don't have access to the downtown print studio yet, so I try to get as much as possible done from home. I've tried to book some time at the print studio to etch my plates, but with pandemic restrictions it seems booking time is more complicated than I anticipated. I hope to figure out a solution this coming week, so I can continue.