Ravens are one of my favorite birds. I love listening to them when I’m walking my dogs – they love to chat.
Raven
When I went to clean the brayer I was surprised to get a nice ghost print.
ghost raven
Here’s another one:
raven calling
And the ghost:
ghost of raven calling
Made some viscosity prints today with white as the top ink. It’s a little tougher to pull off with chine-colle because the paper has to fit just right.
Untitled
I used a different white, too – opaque white – it’s much brighter. These are 5×7 prints.
Untitled
These viscosity prints are made by inking a plate with ink that has burnt plate oil (linseed oil) added to it. This makes for a loose, juicy ink that will resist the stiffer ink that will be rolled over it. Here’s an inked plate:
inked plate
I then roll out some black ink that has been made less viscous by adding magnesium carbonate – a white powder that “stiffens” the ink.
black ink for viscosity roll-up
The black ink is rolled over the inked plate and the “juicier” ink repels the black ink – the black ink only sticks to the plate where there is none of the less viscous ink.
plate after viscosity roll-up
I don’t really like the bright white ink so I add some Japanese paper to the print to tone it down.
Japanese paper for chine-colle
Chine-colle is adding paper to the print during the printing process. I lightly moisten the paper and sprinkle wheat paste on the damp paper. The paper is then placed on the inked plate.
inked plate with chine-colle paper after paste is added
Lining up the damp paper onto the inked plate is the hardest part. The paper often stretches and hangs over the edge of the plate so I try to cut it a bit smaller than the plate. I quickly add the moist printing paper and run the whole thing through the press.
The completed print:
completed print
It still takes me by surprise seeing the print opposite of what I painted.
The chine-colle paper I added tones down the bright white ink and the light spots show through.
A second inked plate:
inked plate for 2nd print
Second print completed:
Second print
Alander Art 
