ink

Today started out as not so great. In printmaking, I wanted to transpose some words from paper to my stone. Basically, what you do is put your piece of paper (face down) with an image (I think it has to be one-toned and I kno it needs to be printed from a laser printer) on the stone and place the stone on the press. Make sure that your pressure is set correctly (or you might break your stone) and the bar that will press the image onto the stone is aligned. Then you have to wet a piece of smooth newsprint with Alkaline (an oil that transfers the ink form your paper onto the stone) and place it over your paper on the stone. Then cover with dry newsprint (without Alkaline on it) and place the plastic cover on your stone. Then pull the lever down to put pressure on your stone and crank away (and when I say crank away, I mean make the wheel move so that the bar goes over your image but not off the stone...that would be bad.) You have to move the bar over the image your transferring around 8 times.

I didn't have the image printed out on the right kind of paper at first, so I had to go to my room to print out the image again. Then when I tried transferring it, it didn't work. So, then I went to Carnegie and photocopied it, brought it back cut it out, arranged it on the page, and went to mark where I needed to place the image. So, I was putting marks with chalk where my paper with my image should be placed, however as I started marking, the paper I used to transfer the image had ink on the back and stuck onto my stone...and it wont come off. So, there is a possibility that the ink from my pen will attract ink from the roller and those lines will be part of my image, whether I want them there or not. Professor Chen and I tried rubbing the image off with a mini grinder (a bottle cap) but it didn't work. The ink from my pen is very insistent. However, I will make the best of it and if the marks end up attracting ink from the roller, then I'll try to figure out a way to make it work with my idea/concept/design. I guess I'll hope for the best and see what happens.