Print Test with Black and Blue + Problem Solving

After I finished carving the blue block it was time to run some tests to see if it lined up with the black. The first step in this process was to roll out the blue ink and print a few sheets, making sure to line up the corner in the registration keys.


As a side note, I have to say I really dislike the blue ink. It has a very low viscosity, is very messy getting out of the can and prints inconsistently. In the future, when I need a similar blue, I will try a different brand.



After printed three sheets of paper with the blue, I switched to printing on the black block. Like the blue block, I made sure the paper corner fit into the registration key before letting the paper fall into place. Here's what came out:

Oh the horror!
When starting this project I feared that I would have problems getting all the colors to line up correctly. Seeing this was disheartening because it could be caused by a multitude of reasons. The one I feared most was that the transfers somehow became distorted when transferring the xerox copies to the Sintra, which in turn would cause me to carve in the wrong places.

My next step was to determine what the problem was. I ran some more prints with the blue block, paying close attention to how the paper was falling after being placed in the registration key. I measured the margins in a few prints and discovered that some were off as much as half an inch while others weren't off much at all! This led me to believe that despite being aligned in the corner, the paper was shifting when it was supposed to be falling into place.

To double check to see if my transfers were an issue, I cut the margins off one of the blue prints. Instead of using the registration key to line up the print, I used the block itself. This picture was taken after being printed, hence why the black is already on the paper.



Oh what a relief!
Seeing that the transfers were not a problem I then proceeded to figure out a way to keep my margins. A flush image would be acceptable, but I planned for margins, so margins is what I want.

I used a ruler to measure and draw a line on the top and side margins.


While trying to use the drawn line to align the blue prints with the black block I noticed that sometimes the top and side of the paper would not lay on the line as they were supposed to.


This led me to believe that I was sometimes tearing my paper crooked. I don't know how this is possible since I am using a paper roller with a straightedge bar to tear with.


At any rate, I began focusing on aligning my paper on the top margin since that side of the paper was not being torn. This picture was taken after the image had been printed and dried:


In the future, I may end up gluing some extra registration keys further down on the block, but for now I will stick with the lines for aligning my paper. It may slow the printing process down a little, but I am not really concerned with time and I worry that the keys may become more of a problem than a solution. Also, while running my last print, I accidentally had my block crooked and the registration keys were scraped off by the press.

I think it's a sign that I shouldn't bother with the corner keys


There were a few places in the blue block that I want to go back into. Two places in particular stood out to me as needing to be fixed. One was the peacock's feet and the other was the arm of the scout standing behind the peacock.




These are very minor fixes and like the black block, I will wait and come back to them after the yellow block is carved and tested.

Getting Everything Together

The Graphic Chemical catalog finally arrived!!! It's been over a month since I ordered this one and almost three months since I requested a free one (which has yet to arrive).


Here is the only page I was interested in. I am making the decision to use water-based inks because I will be printing in the kitchen of my house. While I could open windows for ventilation, I would still have to clean my supplies in the kitchen sink, which doesn't sit well with me. As much as I love the look of oil-based ink, water-based inks just seem like a safer, easier alternative.


Not long after the catalog arrived, my hand roller arrived! It mostly looks like a huge rubber rolling pin. The blocks of wood on each end are just a temporary stand. While I think this type of roller is meant for lithography, I used one while I was in school for a large relief print and liked the weight and feel of it. Since I plan to do more large prints, I chose to get one for myself. The brayers I keep finding are a bit too small for my taste.


While it might have taken a long time for the roller and catalog to arrive, the ink came less than a week after I ordered it. I ordered black, peacock blue, and lemon yellow. The colored bands are pieces of tape to help keep the lids on and air out.


I scraped some blue ink on the paper I intend to use with a paint scraper. After it dried, I scraped yellow on top of it. The green and blue are both way too dark. I am not really sure what I am going to do about the situation.


Here is some ink spread on a piece of glass. Before I go and buy additives or other inks I wanted to see what the blue looked like when rolled out on a block and printed. The messy blob to the top left is a piece of wax paper that is kept in the can on top of the ink to help keep it from drying. Despite the lid, tape, and wax paper, the blue had already started developing a skin on top of the ink. It was a bit messy to remove and discard. I don't like letting it stay in the can because it could break up and get into the usable ink.


I got a few things with the press I bought. One of them was this mystery canister of what I think is extender. This is added to the ink on the glass to stretch it out and keep it from drying as fast. I added a good bit to my test pile to see if it made the blue more transparent when printed.


Here are the results of my tests with the blue. The topmost piece is the scraped on blue and yellow that was shown above. The rest are in consecutive order as I work the test block up to print. The splotchiness bothers me. I am not sure if it's due to the extender I added to the ink, or if it's the ink itself. I still feel that the blue may be too dark, but I will see what happens when I print yellow on top of it.