Grade -- 5-8 or over
Objective - To introduce Printmaking techniques to encourage abstracted
imagery
Time needed - 3 two hour sessions
Materials:
- Styrofoam meat trays
- Blunt pencil, nail, popsicle stick engraving tool
- 4" rubber brayer, water based block printing ink
- Piece of glass or masonite, lots of newspaper
- Large wooden spoon for burnishing
This printmaking uses very simple techniques involving en-graving and
embossing styrofoam plates. (You can encourage students to recycle meat
trays from the supermarket, or trays from a deli.) Students are asked
to explore any theme that interests them and do preliminary drawings in
charcoal. Subsequent Prints are based on these drawings.
Using a tool such as a blunt pencil, carve or engrave lines, dots and
larger flat areas into the styrofoam. Experiment with a variety of marks
and shapes, including pressing small objects into the plate to make an
impression. One session can be devoted to preparing the plate. Subsequent
sessions should involve smaller groups who are taken to a printing area
(see below) to ink their plate and pull prints. One good proof in retained
while another can be enlarged and embellished with further printing, drawing
or stencil-ling. Younger printers may enjoy colouring their rint with
magic markers.
Setting up an inking area
You will need to create a "clean" area where the actual good print is
worked and not contaminated with ink. The "dirty area" will have been
covered with newspaper to protect the table. A pile of newspaper is available
to place the plate on while it is being inked. Replace this with a clean
one for each inking.
A large piece of glass or even masonite is used to roll out the ink
with a rubber brayer. Water based ink dries very quickly and becomes unworkable,
so dispense the ink in smallish quantities and stop every now and then
to clean the glass of dried bits of ink. An ordinary triangular scraper
from a hardware store is a good tool to scrape spread out ink occasionally
back to a little discreet pile.
Roll the ink out evenly by picking up a bit on the roller, rolling it
thin and even on the glass(pick the roller up each revolution to present
a new surface to the glass for each pass)and rolling it once or twice
over the plate. You will need to reload the brayer (roller) frequently
and pass over the plate in all directions until it is thoroughly covered
with a thin and even coat. Too thick and it will begin to fill up the
finely engraved lines...too thin and you will get an uneven, ghostly print.
Remember this takes a bit of practise and experience. If the ink starts
to get too dry on the glass, a fine mist of water from a spray bottle
and a little working with the scraper can salvage it. Plates can be inked
and printed about six times before the image starts to deteriorate.
When the plate is nicely inked take it to the clean area where you will
place the plate face up allowing for a border edge for the paper. Gently
place the paper on top of the plate starting at one corner and "laying"
it on to prevent the paper moving in any way and smudging the image. With
a clean hand, press all over the back of the paper to adhere the plate.
Then burnish the whole area with the back of a spoon to transfer the ink
to the paper. You can lift a portion of the print from the plate to check
on the impression without detaching it completely. When you are satisfied
with the print slowly "pull" it off the plate while holding down one corner
with your finger.
Bonus: Tattoos
You will use the same method but on a very small piece of styrofoam (
about 2" square or 2'x3') Make a simple design such as a spiral or lightening
bolt or starburst. It also looks better if you incise some kind of border
around the rectangle. Don't confine the design to just line, but experiment
with pushing down all the background and leaving the design itself raised.
When satisfied, you will have to glue the thin styrofoam to a thicker
piece such as insulation board cut to the same size. This is so you have
something to hold onto while inking and pressing it onto the skin. Asured
your customers that the ink is washable and that it needs about five minutes
to completely dry before coming in contact with a sleeve etc. When applying
the tattoo, instead of pressing it straight down, sort of roll it onto
the skin.
Contributed by Pamela Allen, (B.F.A. Queens University) |
