I feel like someone who does as much relief printmaking as I do should have less technical difficulties. So I get to the studio and ink up my block, only to lay my block on the press and discover that the press is too small. Somehow I was convinced that the press bed was 60″ long when in reality it is only 50″. And because the press is too small the blankets are also too small and everything pretty much sucks. I am calling around and apparently nobody carries any boards longer than 40″. One of the people I talk to recommended I get that “dark brown stuff” from Home Deopt (lol masonite) which is stiffer and thicker than what I am used to but should work alright in theory.
Ok back to printing at the studio… Masonite seems like it would be a good idea, but because one side is very textured and one side is smooth. The press has a better grip on one of the sides and everything shifts when I run it through the press. For my flat blend roll layer a little sliding wasn’t a big deal but I am going to have to use something different for the carved layers. Oh drama! So without further ado.
The blend roll is pretty subtle but the grey gets darker on either end. There is a little unprinted stripe at one end because I didn’t have time to tear my paper down to the new slightly smaller dimensions. Because of the shifting, this layer has some unintended texture which I think will be fine for a cloudy winter sky. But so help me there will not be any shifting on the next 2 layers.
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