And here is a picture of the love of my life. A showcase proofing press I picked up in Warm Springs, Ga.

Letterpresses hold, for me, secret thoughts, desires, mistakes, elations – a sort of communion of creative thought, if you will. A thought which has taken a great deal of time to express itself. Something that is unattainable by any other means.

I had a much larger Vandercook once, it took six guys to get it into my basement. For a myriad of reasons, I was unable to keep it and donated it instead to my printmaking teacher for the school – as long as he moved it. Still I miss all the artwork that was in my mind to be printed on that press and that loss never leaves, every bit as much as memories of other loved ones. So, this little proofing press follows me from house to house, in hopes that one day she will be producing much more. Thanks for the quiet sidetrack there to admire a true lover of type.

© 2006 J.O’Hara-Barrett

I cut stencils of colonial people based on some pewter colonial workers that my mom had when I was growing up. The other images, the cornucopia of roses, floral border, wagon, eagle, liberty bell, etc. are from a book of stencils I stashed 30 years ‘in case I might want to use them’. It’s so old, the glue binding had crumbled – so I am happy to have found a use for them now.

The ink paste was Pro Chem’s Indigo MX Fibre Reactive Dye. It’s the same as before, but this time I used 4 tbsp of pigment for a darker color. I think these types of images would be really nice on a smaller scale on some Irish Linen, so that will be my next task.

Here’s the pics (btw, the fabric is white, but the gray of my tables is coming through because the fabric was damp with starch):

This was the original artwork for some loosely based designs:

Challenge 1: Could only get Indigo Dye – one color (note to self: used 3 tbsp pigment to paste)

Challenge 2: Maple Woodblocks cut with xacto’s like to whisker when soaked, dried, soaked. Had to keep a blade close to trim off the whiskers.

Challenge 3: Inital idea of ‘literal blades of grass’ was getting really cheesey the more I had time to dwell… So I returned to the original photoshopped pic of the blue tarp with a screen on it. Merged with the blades of grass, tiled, etc… I kind of liked it from the start but wasn’t sure about straying from the simpler image of the grass… but what the hey… can’t do grass.

Challenge 4: One maple block carved which was intended for the yellow patterns, became ‘the’ pattern. Lost my nerve 1/2 way before printing, ran out and bought some stamps from Michael’s “just in case” and proceeded to print.

4 days of angst later + 2 days of printing, it’s a relief – no – seriously – to have the pieces printed, rinsed and drying!

After soaking the fabric in a ‘fixative’ I laid it out on the worktable (which was covered in vinyl, newsprint, single layer of flannel) slightly damp with a fan on it.
I had made up the print paste the night before, I started printing.
The first prints I did were on a play 1/4 yd scrap at one end which had dried by then.
Then I printed, using the largest rubber stamp. Printed about a yard of it before calling it a night. Not too happy with the difficulty of registration on it, I bucked up and went to the woodblock I had carved the next day. Ahh… so much easier than stamps! All in all there were some wonderful suprises along the way, some major grumbles at several untried methods of registration, but I really loved doing it and can’t wait for the next time.

Here are some pics with more technical notes following. These pics are of fabric fresh from their final rinse, still very damp. When they dry, I hope to see the underprinting a little better. The layering and underprinting and resist techniques are things I’m really looking forward to playing with in the future. Also, the washing soda did an incredible job of getting rid of the plastic residue left from the green fabric paint used previously.

Maple Woodblock:

Rubber Stamp:

Some of the differences I found throughout the printing are:

If a rubber stamp has solid areas of more than a 1/4 ” they were more difficult to apply ink faithfully with the waterbased pigment paste. Fine lines are absolutely amazing to print. I haven’t seen that kind of detail since I made aluminum plate etchings. Rubber stamps also require a ‘break-in’ period of 4 to 6 prints and then some.

The maple block required about 40 printings before things were not fuzzing up so much.
The wood also had fewer cleanings (mainly because the rubber is so shallowly engraved).
The print pad was made of poly foam 4″ thick, set into a tray, covered with one thin fleece and one sheet of flannel, topped with muslin. Tucked into the tray tightly, hot glued to keep sides down, allowing a slightly rounded top. (Guess washing it out will be a challenge, I’ll have to let you know as I still want to play print on some other fabrics before tossing the remainder.)
I brushed the pad about every third print 4 times in one direction, 4 in the opposite. Reinking each time. The woodblocks faithfully picked up the right amount, I found that daubing the block on the pad about 7 times was giving the best amount of ink for the design, though it took a-l-o-t of prints to get to that point.
Underinking was taking place at 3 to 5 ‘daubs’
Overinking at 8 or more ‘daubs’
While 6 to 7 seemed a good number for reproducing without losing the crispness of the block.
The rubber block on the other hand was extremely difficult to control. As evidenced by the randomness. Even when inked the same amounts, the rubber wasn’t always receptive. A few times I ran into the table not being absolutely flat and the fabric having damp spots.

Susan Bosence recommended dampening newly carved wood blocks and wiping dry, as used blocks tend to print better than fresh ones. The dampening did help with printing, initially, but it really took about a dozen times printing with it for it to settle down. The edges began to fuzz quite more than I had expected, not having been used to water-based inks. In the old days of oil based inks and kerosene, the blocks took ink and gave ink like a silverstone pan! And, ultimately, after lots of printing the woodblock settled in it’s water paste environment like a good ol’ cast iron skillet!

I’ve been searching out some printmaking sites lately and ran into a baren forum tonight.

The postings are thin but the links to other sites are a sweet journey.

In her book, “Hand Block Printing and Resist Dyeing”, Susan Bosence mentions for inspiration, begin with subject matter that describes where you are. Camera in hand, I took some ‘micro’ type pics from the backyard. One, was a clump of grass growing tall against the corner of the house. The green and cream colors along with the simplicity and strength of the grass appealed to me, so that is where I started. Not to mention, the only colors I had to use were turquoise and sunflower yellow. lol. These dyes are grocery store bought direct dyes, not fiber reactive. So, they have a will all their own. Here is a pic of the prelims. Original photo, artwork, stitches (because of the blue background) and some blocks.

The block on the bottom left is for the grass buds (hasn’t been printed yet because I was waiting on some fiber reactive dyes and supplies). The block on the right was printed in mono fashion. It’s made from electrical cord and sunflower seeds. Problem #1, sunflower seeds crush (even when hot glued down. lol) Problem #2, the vinyl grooved housing for the electrical cord causes “globs” of paint to print. Fortunately, I only did one width of the top edge of the fabric with this block, so it will make a fun summer border piece.

The fabric I’m printing on is bleached, cotton muslin sheeting from Walmart. About 5 yards, 45″ wide. Okay quality at a cheap price.

First, I washed the fabrics in grocery store version of washing soda (soda carbonate).

Second, while the cotton sheeting was damp, I painted and stamped some leaves and flowers with DEKA resist, some were thickly applied, others moderately applied. Let dry overnight.

Third, mixed up very warm water dye bath of turqoise. I don’t have a way to heat the water, other than tap hot and microwave hotter. So, it’s not as hot as it probably should have been. Into this dye, I put the now resisted, woven sheeting. I let the fabric sit in the dye for 36 hours, because it just wasn’t taking it very well. It was evenly dyeing, but not a good absorption of color. This fabric was taken out, run through the washing machine without detergents in cold water wash. Dried on hottest setting of the dryer. Even paler dry.

I decided to try dyeing some cotton knit sheeting that I had (left over top sheets to a king bed. lol) This took the color beautifully! Nice rich color even though the dye bath was cold. I left the sheeting to dye overnight also. I suspect there’s nylon or something in that fabric??? Washed and dried, and it still just as pretty. Wishing I had used the resist on it, but alas, the resist washed out of the first woven sheeting in the warm dye bath and the marks are barely visible. Poured the dye bath off into a five gallon container for later use.

No pics to this point.

Fourth, I mixed up the yellow dye concentrate, in a seperate plastic tray, I folded up some flannel scraps, making sure there’s a bit of a bulge to the middle of the folded fabric (humped a bit in the middle). Over this, I poured some dye concentrate. Tried printing a bit, but it was too loose. Went to the kitchen for thickeners. I only had cornstarch and unflavored gelatin. I added some cornstarch to the printed pad. Made a neat paste. Printed some leafs with it, using a foamie – precut stamp, then I decided to try the gelatin, mixing some concentrate with it, let it sit for a bit, it wasn’t thickening, so I added a couple of ice cubes, started to “thicken” as I painted, so I quickly proceeded to loosely paint some ‘dancing flowers’. I let this sit overnight without rolling up. What I think started a neat ‘haloeing’ effect. The image on left is wet painting to the right which has dried. Notice the haloe from the gelatin? On the right image, it looks kind of like an dry, oily patch. It get’s better….

Fifth, I printed with some green textile paint (ceramacolor paint with textile medium added) using the sunflower/wire block. I did not like the lack of control with the block, so I only did about a foot or so of the fabric, full width. Let it dry for several days. The printing was getting better by the last image. If the worktable had been padded with a thin layer of cotton batting, felt or flannel, I think this would have gone a bit better. The vinyl and newsprint was not enough to give a sufficient ‘cush’. Foam stamps work well because of they have ‘cush’ built in. So, in the future, I’ll probably use two lengths of flannel under the vinyl.

Sixth, I repoured the original turquoise dye into the utility sink and put the woven sheeting back into it, letting this sit for 3 days. When my son reminded me with “If your looking for your turquoise fabric, it’s in the downstairs bathroom sink”, I remember to rinse it out. I ran it through the washing machine, cold water only rinse, and dried it in the dryer. The paint sits on the fabric in spots like dried acrylic paint. Guess it was too thick? lol. But, the gelatin had a really awesome effect! Wherever the gelatin was, the turqoise dye took right to the fabric, making it dark in those areas. The cornstarch had some effect but not as strong as the gelatin, wonder why? Does the cornstarch and gelatin have softening – absorbency properties? Feel free to let me know. Novice Here <--- The rest of the fabric still did not overydye too well, which resulted in a strange, original yellow, turqoise showing, but with a darker halo of turqoise around it. This was a neat discovery that I'll use more in the future.

Here is a pic of it:

Here’s the original before the last turquoise dye bath:

So, I am back at what to do for stage seven as the fabric sits again for awhile atop the work table. I’ve finished carving the block for the grass flowers which originally I thought of making yellow.

There is still some yellow dye concentrate, without thickener, sitting in a tin coffee can (slowly beginning to rust). Hey, gotta try all adversities. Instead of printing right away with this block, I am tempted to try the gelatin method again. The depths are really sweet. So, I may just have to reserve the final ‘overall’ block for later printing. I think it will be neat to continue layering some stuff first.

Today, I received the chemicals and pigments to make the block printing paste with an indigo pigment. I ordered them from Pro Chemical and Ink. They’re the flip side of Dharma. Not that Dharma is bad, I like their honesty and their education of their consumers. But coming from a printer background, I prefer Pro Chemicals ‘master printer’ mentality. You know, the not so free-spirited scientific minds that recommend particular measuring spoons and give you the chemical breakdowns of what you are using kind of people. After all, the only ones playing here should be me.

If anyone is looking for PFD fabric (Prepared for dyeing) and other blank textiles, there is another company I received samples from that seems reasonable enough. They are Test Fabrics, Inc. They ‘re selling point is consistently produced, high quality fabrics. For example, they test all of their fabrics as they come in to make sure things are as consistent as possible from batch to batch. So, when I finish playing and am ready to get on with it, this is where I’ll probably purchase fabrics from.

During one of the semesters there, a visiting artist, Keiji Shinohara, came to demonstrate printing from a woodblock using water based inks. Being monitor of the department gave me the opportunity to talk with him, listen to him, watch him the entire time he was there, not just when he was demonstrating his artistry. He was printing, by hand using a baren, from blocks that were carved hundreds of year ago by master block carvers. He talked of the brushes he was using, the cherry that the blocks were carved from and the inks that were made from pigments ground by hand. His goal in life was to spread information about these blocks and the remaining carver left. He said there was only one master carver left and that he was very old. There were no apprentices coming up to replace him. What a great and sad loss this is to the world. I gave the print demonstrated that day to a dear friend of mine who would appreciate it in all of it’s beauty. This print still hangs in her foyer. The process was the most beautiful thing I had ever experienced and it left an extremely strong impression, as you can probably tell. haha.

Well my cupid struck again and today I received in the mail this book:

I was discussing this site, which showcases the work of Susan Bosence with him the other night and how this artist had recently passed. He suprised me with the book in the mail today. I don’t know if he understands how my heart leaps when I look at works by true masters, such as this, but I hope that he knows how loved I feel by him. I love you so very much and thank you for your enduring support!

After college, my first marriage, and going into a completey different career direction, I decided to donate my studio to the college (*sniff* even my lovely 600lb Vandercook press and mahogany blocks) but I did keep my sweet little proofing press and some of the lead type. It has waited patiently for me from garage to garage, marriage to marriage, and now is set up once again in a printing studio in my basement. Susan’s invaluable book gives recipes for printing inks and I cannot wait to play again. I feel so humbled by those that share their crafts and their love in this world.

Thank you to all.