Day 6
Saturday 24th August 2024
Today was going to be a half day due to a prior engagement. So essentially the end result had to be leaving the stones ready for the second week’s project.
Yesterday had ended with a pleasing breakthrough. The tusche marks left on the stone had reticulated nicely, so I was keen to see how they looked this morning.
Both tusches had dried to reveal different but interesting reticulations, although from the experiences of earlier in the week, it was likely that the tusche with white spirit was going to turn out to be too dark.
A Ghost
The large stone having dried overnight revealed an unwelcome ghost. A feint shadow of ‘Our Lady of Pain’ was still visible. Having ground the stone over a period of 45 minutes, I am not quite sure how this was possible. Nevertheless, there she was.
It really was very feint, however its presence meant that there was a slight waxy residue left on the stone, which in theory could pick up ink in subsequent images. Only time will tell if this actually happens.
Printing the tusches
The one funny occurrence happens when preparing the stone for printing. The wiping of the stone with white spirit lifts the ink from the stone and suddenly, what was clearly visible, no longer is.
Fortunately, now with a full week’s worth of experience under my belt, I have learned not to panic at this stage as I know that the application of asphaltum, returns a layer of brown grease to the images making them visible again – phew!
The tusche with water (top left) showed some very delicate reticulations which should print beautifully. The tusche on white spirit (bottom left) as expected is too dark and will simply print out as a solid block of colour which is disappointing.
The results of printing were not quite as expected. The tusche in water appears to have filled in with ink in the darker areas (probably too much ink on the roller) but failed to produce much of the finer reticulations that had made the dried pattern so interesting.
Well… what is there to say? Some positive results, a slight improvement on earlier in the week, but definitely not as good as I’d hoped. When this happens, there really are only two things to do and they are 1) admit to myself that I don’t know enough, so to stop and take stock of the situation and 2) refer to some good books.
Luckily I have two books to hand which will help in the future.
The Tamarind book, is by all accounts, the ‘bible’ of stone lithography, produced by the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The one on the right, written by Paul Croft a master stone lithographer, who trained at the Tamarind institute and who does run advanced workshops at the Curwen once or twice a year (something to bear in mind)!
The day session finished with the smaller stone being ground and prepped alongside the larger stone, all ready for next week.
Can’t wait.