Third week of Collagraph

The third week was when I began printing my actual work to be installed.

I first prepared a slab of black etching ink, as I planned to print intaglio. I used a very small portion of burnt plate oil to make the ink smoother and slightly more runny.

Using the softened ink, I spread the ink with a plastic tab and rubbed it evenly across the surface with a toothbrush.

This was how the collagraph looked like after rubbing the whole surface with ink:

It was a long process since the collagraph itself was large and the toothbrush I used was tiny compared to it, yet I wanted to rub the ink evenly and in every corner possible for the print to show every detail of the objects.

I ran the collagraph through the printing press using newsprint paper, since the last time I ran it the first time, the collagraph was over-inked and thus I ended up wasting a good paper. I think this helped the possibly over-inked parts to transfer some inks onto the newsprint, which in this case would be the phone case.

This is the first print on Somerset satin paper. I liked the result and thought it definitely would’ve been over-inked if I didn’t print it on a newsprint paper first. I was satisfied to see its photographic and almost X-ray-quality imagery.

Also, I did not attach the coin on the far left onto the cardboard as opposed to the one placed in the cardboard area. I inked it separately with a toothbrush and placed it on the semicircle part of the cardboard before printing.