oh YEAH babey!
The image below is actually upside-down, and is all my test prints resting on our drying laundered bedsheets stretched across chairs. Just so you know what you’re looking at.
So, registering the lino was always going to be hard. Because I was combining printmaking methods, one registration matrix would not be appropriate for both – in part because one takes a positive print, and one takes a reverse print.
So, the image above is me taking about ten prints on copier paper. Before each print, I would make a note on an undersheet exactly where my lino had sat, and then I would place a stencil paint layer under it and shine my phone torch through it. I would see how far it was offset, and in what directions, and made minute adjustments until I was happy with it. This trial and error method nearly killed me, but I did it. I DID IT. And, of course, once I had the undersheet notated with the correct registration, I was guaranteed a registered print for every proper, stencilled sheet.
Below are two images Jamie took of me doing my work. Bare arms because I had to wear just a vest: taking prints is SUCH a workout. Sometimes I wish I was a unit, with big arms, and then I could take such gorgeous prints. No excuses here, though: I just inked up thoroughly and sat with each print for like ten minutes, working the ink onto the page with immense love and patience.
I bet you’re terribly excited to see the successful prints, aren’t you? Well, scroll no further!
When I saw that the first print had registered correctly, I stood and cried for a few minutes. I then cried again about four prints in. And I’m getting misty now. After so much design, so many hours, to see my work coming out as I had imagined it totally overwhelms me. This is me, in a print, on a page. (Not literally. But I can really say that my soul is well-represented here. You know?)
But, to business. The prints need trimming, and I will make a final blog post where I photograph and exhibit them properly.
LATER EDIT: I also did a print on pink cloth, perhaps to be used as book cloth. Jamie said I should include it, and he’s right.
SEASIDE ILLUSTRATION 