Quelab Print Party

We had a spontaneous printmaking party during the Quelab Open Hack on December 14, 2022.  

And Robert Atkinson created a print masterpiece by simply drawing on a Styrofoam plate with a ball point pen:

Ready for framing!

Robert Atkinson's print from a Styrofoam plate --

was so good that we printed it out the next night

with oil inks on nice paper

Robert Atkinson printing at Quelab

This would not have happened without the inspiration of Allie and Adam, who have been very busy creating a lot of projects recently at Quelab:

Allie printmaking and inspiring us

Adam printed

"the Grinch that saved Christmas"

First Adam had laser engraved the Grinch on linoleum

using the laser cutter at Quelab

Adam printing with a Print Frog glass baren,

using Speedball black water-soluble block printing ink

The Grinch printed on typing paper

STYROFOAM PLATES

Instant Karma!

Printmaking with Styrofoam plates delivered INSTANT KARMA...aka a "quick turnaround" (but not so quickt that we went back in time).

We raided the kitchen and cut up Styrofoam plates to print with.  The artists drew onto the plate with a ball point pen -- with enough pressure to gouge the Styrofoam. They could then see the drawing he is going to print -- but in the inverse, as the gouged lines will be white as they won't print in relief printmaking:

Cutting up Styrofoam plates 

for quick-and-easy printmaking

The Styrofoam worked a lot better than I anticipated.  Moreover it was both quick-and-easy to create and print:

Halley visited during Quelab Hack Night

and walked away with her 

Styrofoam print masterpiece

My quick sketch in the Styrofoam plate

turning into a print

Adric showing off his 

masterpiece print of a single dice

Adric's dice gouged drawing

on a Styrofoam plate

AI distraction:

Midjourney prompt: "a linocut print of a dice"

Adric's dice

reimagined with AI in Midjourney,

ready to be engraved on the lasercutter

and printed once again

Rebecca showing off her 

Styrofoam relief print masterpiece

Inking with black water-soluble block printing ink

by Speedball

Printing by hand

Expanded PVC Foam plates

Earlier that week I had bought a sheet of Expanded PVC Foam at Port Plastics, and had it cut into 6x6 inch squares for printmaking.  The idea was also to "draw and gouge" into the expanded foam with a ball point pen, although this PVC foam was more difficult to gouge into than the Styrofoam.  We also had made prints the previous night, from the figure drawings on expanded PVC foam:

Brian with his print masterpiece

Brian pushed really hard with a ball point pen

to gouge the expanded PVC foam plate

Inking and printing

Brian's print came out very nicely, 

perhaps because of the contrast between the uneven ink

and rigid lines

Allie also made this print

starting with a ball point pen on expanded PVC foam

December 1, 2022

I brought in a figure drawing

I previously made on expanded PVC foam

December 1, 2022

The results of my prints were not pretty

 Gettin' Jiggy with It

Then we got bold and started experimenting, pushing the print, and Gettin' Jiggy with It:

The Jiggy Master Instigator himself,

Adam decided to add red mica pigment

to the black block printing ink

Mixing red mica pigment

with black water-soluble block printing ink

The linocut that Adam had

previously prepared on the laser cutter

While the final print did not look red,

it did seem to have an extra zing

that I attribute to the doping with red mica pigment

Rebecca sewed a design into a leathery pie shape piece of fabric, and inked it up.  I believe this process is more kin to "Collagraphy," for the low relief (example):

The Ghost Print had more definition

but not really satisfying

I think that Rebecca's print would have been more successful using an intaglio printmaking process; perhaps on the Sizzix embossing press in the sewing room, using etching ink.

***

Adam created this Christmas tree print

by drawing into Styrofoam

Allie wrote backwards into Styrofoam

so that the words would print and read correctly

Taking it One Step(s) FURTHER

"Further"

imagined in Midjourney

The quick-and-easy Styrofoam prints can serve as a spring board to make bigger and better things.  The artist might key from them to make more sophisticated prints.  Or we could scan in the designs, refine them, and cut them out in metal on the plasma cutter, or into large sheets of wood on the big CNC machine, both at Quelab.

We can print onto t-shirts with fabric ink, using the hacked Skateboard Press (which was Hecho en Quélab), and making linocuts with the hand held LaserPecker2:

Printing with a wheelless Skateboard Press

For example, previously Allie had poured resin over various objects, elevating everything into something entirely different.  One could also pour resin over our block prints as well.

Perhaps we can also transfer and bake prints onto ceramics somehow...

Maybe we can even make holograms from the Styrofoam prints.

Printmaking mess

Again, this relief print workshop unfolded rather spontaneously.  Once people saw what was happening, and easily figured out how to do it, they jumped in.  It's always hard to get that spark going, but with the energy building during Hack Nights at Quelab, that momentum was enough.  In particular it was the maker energy that Adam and Allie were bringing weekly to the antediluvian hackerspace; but also what Daniel, Sherrie and Robert were bringing as well, not to mention Bob, Ray and Aaron (I'm surely leaving a few others as well).