Prints and magic by the sea

Whenever we spend time in Scotland I catch myself saying over and over 'the light, the light!!"

The light there is magical and stops me in my tracks time and again.  I feel the same way when we visit the Maroochy River for our mini-breaks.

Each and every time I look up from the couch - I say "oh, look what the light's doing now" kind of thing. Here are a few examples...

And onto the water...

Can you believe this??? Reflected sunset reflected onto the water.

The morning we said farewell.

 And then lucky me.  I was at home on Saturday doing a few bits (washing those tea towels!!!) whilst B was at the studio.  He was printing his 3D plates and was doing really well. You know when you hit the groove and things get into a rhythm and it all just happens?  He was doing great prints and sending me photos and I said - if you get bored, feel free to print mine - and he did!!!

I am so grateful because they are really good prints.  I would have mucked around for ages and wasted paper and ink and not ended up with as many goodies as I did had I done it myself.

 So on Sunday I returned the favour and printed the titles on the front, and the postcard and press on the back; on both mine and his - team effort!

Printing 3D printing plates

Well, it was time to print the plates we had printed...

I must admit the printing of plates printed by 3D tends to become a bit of a word-warp for me!

Because the printer lays the filament down in lines, some lines are evident on the top surface when you do the first roll with the brayer.

So you go a  bit heavier and in the direction of the lines to fill the gaps. And of course make a mark or two on your plate which you have to clean off!

And then you print. Pretty happy with this wee one. The paper was damp, and the pressure pretty light and the combo worked well. The ink needs to be sticky/tacky - we used Sakura oil based and cleaned the plate later with vegetable oil and hot soapy water.

Before I inked I wanted to check how the plate might emboss. Our first run was a bit heavy and creased the paper.

The second run with less pressure produced  a lovely image.

I managed to 3D print a second plate - this time a Heilan Coo. Sometimes known as a Highland Cow.

One thing I have learned is that my tendency towards to lightness does not always translate into the print - my fine lines can be too fine and some bits can get missed.

I also wanted to see what happened to the print if you didn't do the bit in between printing and printing - the filing and sanding of the surface.

And I am glad I checked - because it really does make a difference.

And I really enjoyed cleaning off my plate on a phone book page, and the loveliness of the random marks on the paper.

Thanks again to Noosa Council and Noosa RADF grants for the opportunity to do this workshop.  We have both become members of the Makers Space there and can see that we will do more...

3 D Printing

 Who knew?

I think of myself as a very analogue maker.  Everything I do is pretty much by hand, and takes time.  Whether it is stitching books; stitching my handkerchiefs, setting type, or designing calligraphy layouts; they all take time and the hand of the maker is all over them.

So it was weird that I got excited about the chance to do a workshop on 3 D printing and printing plates to print from.

I did and we did. Barry and I went along to Noosa Library, where with the generosity of the Noosa Council and Noosa RADF grants, we learnt how to make files and print plates.

One of the printers,with purple filament. 

Moving my image onto the base plate in the computer...

In position; but the base plate is big big for my simple image.

So I shrank the base plate.

And then transferred the file to another program to slice it - ie tell the printer which bits to print in a pass; and where the gaps were. I think!

The printer mid-way.

Completed.

Close up

Ta Da.

I still need to file it and dust the muck off it; but tomorrow (Wednesday) we print!

The imagery is a modified version of the fishing sheds in our village of Armadale in Scotland.

Printing here we come!