Registering wood blocks using a floating Kento
This YouTube video from the Interlochen Centre for the Arts out in Michigan features Linda Beeman showing how she goes about setting out to carve a woodblock.And here's her second video. Again, it's really handy seeing up-close and personal how she lays stuff out so I've got a better idea of how things should be clearly organised.
Great tip -
Use Non-Stick shelf liner underneath the woodblock to stop it slipping around. Seems like my local Wilco may stock something suitable. In other places I've read that some damp newspaper would be a suitable anti-slip mechanism, but that would presumably mean that the underside of your block would be a big soggy, so you'd have to wait till it dried out to carve it in the future?
Preparing paper -
- Prepare your paper the night before so that it's nice and evenly dampened.
- Spray each sheet with a light spray of water.
- Place on top of each other.
- Place sheet of heavy blotting paper on top and bottom.
- Wrap the whole lot in a big sheet of plastic.
Preparing the woodblock -
- Give the block a light spray of water to get it ready for the ink.
- Drop a few pea-size blobs of nori on to the block.
- Put a pip of water-colour paint on your brush.
- In a circular motion rub it (and the nori) into the wood.
Aligning the woodblock -
- Put block into Kento device
- Take a piece of paper from your pile of damp papers.
- Align your piece of paper into the two registration tapes on the Kento device.
- Put a piece of parchment / kitchen / tracing / whatever paper on top of the damp paper.
- Remove the Kento device.
- Start rubbing with the baren.
- Repeat for each colour.
Looks like she's using some plywood to make the woodblock. I've got a few sheets of Japanese Magnolia (150x200mm and 10mm thick) from www.handprinted.co.uk to work with. I've noted that they're 10mm thick so that I can make a similar thickness floating Kento registration device for them.
Comments
Post a Comment