When I traveled to the IMC2017 conference in Hawaii, I had the pleasure of talking shop with the Scottish printer Mr. Paul Binnie. If you aren’t aware of his work, please do yourself a favor and check it out. His prints had always been very inspiring to me on many levels- and even more so in person. We quickly ‘got into the weeds’ technically. He’s a great guy- very humble, warm, and helpful, and seemed to be excited to talk about my prints and the processes he uses. While going through his portfolio, I pointed out that his colors were especially vibrant and his large print registration was -dead- on.
I asked him question after question about choice of pigments, paper, etc., but one technical difference struck with me the most: Instead of keeping his printing stack damp throughout the edition, Paul would print a color, then dry the prints, then re-wet them before the next impression.
Moisture control is the name of the game IMO-especially in shin hanga which requires many overlapping impressions and large areas of printing. I also observed that Ayumi-san, at Tokyo’s Mokuhankan, would ‘start over’ her shin hanga moisture process by drying the printed sheets at some point and re-wet them within the middle of her edition (see pic #2).
My process is, up to now, to print (with each impression adding moisture to the areas printed), to stagger the prints in order to distribute the moisture within the stack- see photo#1 (this is sometimes impossible to allow the newly-printed areas from overlapping), and throwing the stack in plastic into the fridge or freezer overnight to help further distribute the moisture within the stack.
This keeping the stack damp works “OK”, but I have found that it’s difficult to truly distribute moisture overall- plus the condensation of a cold paper stack can add water to the top and bottom. I also feel that the printed pigment doesn’t get a chance to become fully absorbed into the paper. Either way, keeping that proper dampness just right is very difficult. I also feel that Paul Binnie’s vivid color is partially a product of drying and re-wetting.
I was intrigued about drying and re-wetting during an edition (I hope to print 200 soon). In order to dry the prints, I have simply been interleaving them with chipboard underneath a weight and letting them sit overnight. I found that occasionally, the prints took more than 12 hours to dry completely. This could slow down future production EEEK!
So, What is a Printmaker to Do?
So, in an earlier entry, I described using my hand-made press to glue/laminate cherry onto birch blocks. I searched online for various ways that other printmakers dry prints and came across Crown Point Press’ forced air print dryer. It uses corrugated cardboard (I bought a stack from ULINE) that channels warmed forced air through the stack with pressure. So while designing my press, I kept this in mind as a secondary purpose for the press as a forced air print dryer. Please keep in mind the direction of the corrugation when you purchase the cardboard!
I then re-purposed a marine fan I was given by my parents and enclosed its electronics within a wood frame. It started to look a bit like a middle school science fair model of an engine block…
Initially, I was a bit concerned about how the air flowed length-wise through the 10″ x 15″ stack (under light pressure) along the corrugations and decided to direct the airflow to draw through the press rather than blowing through it. To aid in drying, I also interleaved the prints as follows: blotter paper, damp print, corrugated cardboard, blotter, print, cardboard, etc., etc. Also, I did not add the heating element as does Crown Point, but could easily add a ceramic heater on the intake side of the stack.
After loading the press, I positioned the fan snug against the cardboard stack and gave it a whirl- the airflow seemed to work well passing though the corrugations suprizingly well.
“Within an hour, I had a very flat, VERY dry stack of prints!”
I removed the prints and let the fan run for another hour to dry the blotters and cardboard. The arrangement surpassed my expectations and I believe that will greatly expedite the process. I believe that this press can dry 50 small prints at a time- 100 if doubled up each hour. Maybe by adding a heater, this can be even quicker!
A big thanks to standing on the shoulders of Mr. Paul Binnie, David Bull, Ayumi Miyashita, and Crown Point Press!