Feature Works

First of all I want to say that I am still learning about my graving tools and how to use them. I am fairly new to wood engraving and so far have only carved about ten blocks to make small editions. The problem is finding end grain wood blocks. According to my instructor, Jim Horton of Ann Arbor and former president of the Wood Engravers Network, maple is the best available wood. Those maples grown in the upper Midwest are superior for this purpose.

I am not sure where our maple boards came from other than to say a good hardwoods supply store. The ones I have used are scrap pieces glued together to get an end grain block of any size. I am limited to three 1″ boards glued together because the press I use to put great pressure on them is my small book press. The print above was made with a block I had made this way about five years ago and after having another class with Jim, I decided to try it again. Those blocks are even harder to find now if a wood engraver wanted to purchase some.

So here is my process:

Step #1

Cut a 24″ long 4″ x 1″ maple board into thirds. This  leaves each board a bit under 8″ with the saw cut. Each of these was sanded using a bench hook with a right angle to help keep them in place. I used my electric Black and Decker Mouse sander starting with an 80 grit paper and then onto a 220 grit. Two of these boards only needed to be sanded on one side. The middle one needs to have both sides very smooth. I then brushed all saw dust away from the surfaces to be glued.

 

 

Step #2

Using a cyanoacrylic glue that is super thin and quick drying, Zap Gap by Pacer, I loaded the first board on the smooth side and added the middle board to it. Next came the final board glued down to the middle board, smooth sides together.

Step #3

The glued boards were placed between masonite sheets and put into the book press. My book press is small, only 12″ inside for length and will only open to allow this thickness of three boards and two masonite sheets. They are left under as much pressure as possible for 24 hours.

Step #4

The next day the “loaf” of glued boards are squared up on the table saw and sliced into pieces just a bit over 1″ in thickness. Remember that the end grain will be on the largest surface of the “slice”.

Step #5

The saw cut blocks are now sanded down on a belt sander with a 220 grit sandpaper. This takes time to get all the saw marks off and work on both sides. Sand the ends to make square and clean up and rough saw marks.

Step #6

Now it is back to the bench hook and the Black and Decker sander to get the blocks polished down to where there are no seams showing or catching on your finger nail. Try to do both sides as it will become apparent that one side is just better due to better glue contact. Even if there are still seams open, the block is not hopeless. It can be used for an image like say, a stand of bamboo, anything that will disguise the maybe visible lines between boards. Those dark marks that are visible are in the wood itself. These six blocks came from one length of glued boards about 8″ long.

Step #7

The final sanding is done on sheets of sandpaper that have been fixed onto a flat piece of plywood. The grits are 220, 400, 600 and 1200. Each block is hand rubbed onto successively finer grit paper until they shine and no indication of seam is visible.

Step #8

The blocks are then carefully wrapped in paper and notations of their thickness is written on the side. Also I will note that one may be a “bad block”. That only means that I will have to pick the subject matter carefully to fit flaws in the block.  The print above was made from a block that had worm holes in it so I chose the Eucalyptus leaves and pods because the leaves have insect holes more often than not.

Note

I do not have access to a proofing press and type so am not too concerned that these blocks are at type high (.918″). But they are close and those under that measurement can be packed on the bottom with papers to get the right level and height.

I use these blocks with my etching press and with that I have quite a bit of leeway to get the right contact with the inked block and paper.

Hopefully this will help others who love working on the end grain woods with gravers. Nothing quite matches the detail possible with these blocks and the scritching sound when light is carved into the surface.

 

 

These are the test books for ways to format text and images for a limited edition of the Lost Time book I have been working on. I wanted to get it all figured out this past week and have everything laid out in the computer. The thought process was to get the images the right colors and size needed to decipher the details. Then where does the text go? Over the image? On the left blank page? Under the image? It is funny how often my mind changes. But not so funny as the printer continues to suck up the ink as I deliberate. My quite large Epson Stylus Photo R3000 has informed me, just at the moment I thought I would use it, that the ink is low. A quick check on the website for purchasing more ink and the cost of $283 seems a bit much right now. Maybe I will wait for a sale.

The other problem was that the larger Epson printer originally saw more dull greys, so I corrected the images yet again only to have them look too yellow. It seems the smaller office type Epson was more in sinc with what I had in mind. Of course the problem here is that it only takes 8.5″ x 11″ paper and the images need to be a minimum of 5″ to be legible.

The book above on the left is six inches across and only has the images from the printer glued to plain paper to see how it looks. The one on the right is five inches and turned landscape wise to let me put additional background pages next to each one with image and text on the right.

But I don’t like trying to read the text within the image. Especially since I went back through all the images in my photo program and had them all made fainter to get rid of the yellowness, feel a bit more mysterious and match up with the graphite used in each one. It is so strange that to see something in my head is one thing but I need to complete the entire process to actually see that it won’t happen quite the way I envisioned it. Lots of ink and paper lost, well sort of lost, in this process. Although I like the soft cover on this second prototype for some reason I thought maybe I should start again making the book larger with images only on the right with the text under the image and a blank white page to the left. This required using a piece of card stock weight paper 8.5″ x 11″ for each page and having a folded and glued foredge. Of course each image needed a decent margin around it making the new book size 7″ tall and 7.5″ across. Here is that process.

Each page folded and one half inch glued to the back plain paper. All in a card stock that I liked the feel of. So much about book arts is how does the page feel? Does the “feel” of the page match the way the images and text “feel”? These images invite touch and “strolling” of fingers through them.

I decided that there should be a concertina spine section to glue the open pages to each side of a fold. Then of course thought stitching these folds into place would be better than gluing them. This would let them “breathe” more when turned.

Next was getting each lined up with the one below as they are glued into place.

I chose a lighter weight paper for the concertina fold section that was 100% cotton fiber office paper. It held a crease nicely and was easy to pierce and stitch using only four holes.

The messy part for me was making the cover and getting it close enough. Actually I had to tear it apart twice before getting something acceptable. I wanted it hardbound using two colors of lokta paper that referenced the interior illustrations. Getting the three pieces (front, back and spine) that had all been covered individually the right distance apart was challenging. Hanging the text block did not work the first time because I had overestimated the width of the spine and it, well, just looked bad.

I redid it smaller after pulling it away from the covers and tried getting the text block attached. That took two times and adding more paper to the little I had left for the purpose of attaching to the covers. I did not like the gap that appeared between the end papers and first and last pages so I re cut them larger to cover the gap. See below.

I put some end tapes top and bottom to help fill the gap and edge of the concertina between the text and spine.

Here it is finished.

A bit boring is my conclusion. The cover does not do it for me. Too plain. And way too much work to insert a title or image to make it more interesting. If I want to make a small edition in the hopes of selling some, I need to maybe go back to the smaller book with the soft cover. So this morning it is back to the printer (even the smaller Epson is now telling me that “magenta” is low) and back to the layout problems.

What I did learn is that the page on the left is better off blank, the text needs to be below the image, and the image needs to be smaller…..just a bit. The most important thing I have learned is that I need to make more of the dreaded blank journals to improve my hardbound binding skills.

This next week I am taking a wood engraving class. Five days of hearing the scritch, scritch of small shavings being taken away from the end grain. By tomorrow I should have had this Lost Time book decided and perhaps printed out. And then have selected my subject matter for carving this next week. And that means detailed drawings before heading into class if I am going to get much accomplished.

I will show my efforts here next week.

This is a large watercolor paper sheet that has been chemically rusted and then rinsed. I was using up the chemicals at my studio that were left from a recent workshop. I colored about twenty of these sheets then moved on to every sheet of protective papers from wax foundation sheets for bee keeping. After those were all dipped and rinsed I had enough left to do about ten large sheets of vellum.

I had a request to think about doing illustrations for a children’s book last week. After doing some research on how to go about that, I decided not only don’t I have the time it takes, but I am also a bit low on the photoshop savvy needed to lay it all out with sizing and backgrounds. It is more than just drawing pictures anymore. So I said thanks for the faith in my skills, but no thanks to the project.

But the idea of drawing in graphite again had its appeal. That combined with these pages from above, I decided to try to find places to put illustrations within the designs that occurred in the coloring process of making these papers.

Here is a detail of the first drawing. After I did this one, I placed it over another sheet of patterned paper and realized that it would be fun to turn the work into a small edition of books with the subject being looking for lost time. Each illustration has a clock just beyond the searcher’s vision. In the image above it is underground in a cave. Here it is behind her on the background sheet as she is sailing off on turbulent waters and looking out ahead.

Next she is peering over an edge and still looking for that lost time.

I think I will age her as she looks, and looks and looks for her lost time. Also there will be some text. Probably written by hand in graphite below or within the image. It might be an accordion style book. Because of the details of the drawings it seems that no less than six inch illustrations will do. That makes it a fairly large book. After each image is drawn I scan and adjust the colors to what they are supposed to be and work over the contrast/brightness. When I have enough drawings of her endless and fruitless search I will decide on a format for the book and decide how many in the edition I want to print. More later on that. For now I am completely absorbed in the idea of time and where to look for it. Start in the studio!