December 19, 2023

We drew at Sir Henry Morales' studio in Albuquerque:

PRINTMAKING

Ellie brought the Sizzix BIG SHOT PLUS embossing press that I had ordered from Amazon, to Henry's studio:

We tried the press out -- and it would print a 6x6 inch linoleum on an 8x8 inch piece of paper:

Ellie and Henry using the BIG SHOT PLUS press

This is excellent!  The BIG SHOT PLUS press works almost as nicely as Henry Morales' heavy letterpress proofing press.  However the BIG SHOT PLUS is a lot lighter, and therefore portable.  It works with 8x8 inch paper, which is the exact size we need for BUCKET EXHIBITIONS. 

Note: I had tried out the smaller version of the BIG SHOT the night before our second reception at North Fourth Art Center, and found that it worked perfectly well...but could not accommodate 8x8 inch paper.

Also we experimented a bit with the non-toxic hardground -- JHARDGROUND -- being developed at Remarque Print Workshop:

JHARDGROUND

I heard that the key is to apply the hardground in a thin layer.  Henry spread the hardground with a brush on both a zinc and an acrylic plate:

Hardground on a small zinc plate,

and a large acrylic plate

Apparently the hardground went on evenly on the zinc plate, but not as even on the acrylic plate.  Of course we just did this quickly.

My idea was to apply the hardground on an acrylic plate to do dry point, so that you can see the scratches that you make with the diamond point.  

Previously they applied transparent floor wax to a copper plate for etching, and it was hard to see your scratched lines.  I used other "masks" at the previous etching workshop, trying to get around that problem.

Of course Henry Morales got around that problem by placing the acrylic sheet on a dark background, when he drypointed the model that night into plastic:

Henry Morales' drawing

from that same session