Sunday Printmaking Session

This project started out with these Alocasia leaves, which my friend Ren saved for me to print when they fell off the plant. After I bought them home, I realized they were far too large (about a foot wide and 18″ long) to print on my own. I contacted Josh Johnson, a printmaker and gifted illustrator whose studio is nearby and suggested we print them together. Unfortunately, even though I tried to take extra good care of these leaves, they did not last until the agreed upon print session day. Not to worry – a new leaf took the plunge off the plant shortly before our scheduled session.

So below is the inked leaf. It is a pretty thick specimen so we were able to roll it up using Caligo safe wash relief ink and a 6″ soft rubber brayer.

Genius that I am, I forgot a barren (a hand tool for printing without a printing press) to transfer the image! Josh could not locate any of his barrens at that moment so he resorted to ingenuity and produced a metal measuring cup (to use the flat bottom) and a wooden spoon (which Ren is holding).

And below is the big Reveal

We each took turns printing the leaf. Below is Ren contemplating the large leaf and a smaller one that Josh inked up with different ink. Aside from being an artist Ren is a philosophy professor and is clearly the one who thinks things through here. As printmakers, Josh and I are much more impulsive. I also like this photo because it gives a good idea of the scale of the leaf with the stem.

Below are various versions of the printed specimen and us discussing them. The second from the left is printed on Unryu paper, the others are on a machine made masa paper. These are Eastern (thin, long fiber) papers. You can click on each image to enlarge them.