Playing in the Studio

This past week I spend 3 days at AB UNO rocking out with Lorena and Matias on some new lithography projects.  On Tuesday and Thursday we tested out some very practical techniques in stone lithography and also some less useful ones that were geared more as good learning experiences.  The days in the studio were super productive and although all our experiments didn't turn out perfectly, the amount learned was off the charts.  We also managed to run into a couple of fun surprises... fun at least for printmaking dorks like us.

The first thing was to grain our stones.  At AB UNO we grain our stones by placing one stone on the graining table face up while evenly spinning the second stone on top of the first.  Using water between the two stones so that the top stone can spin easily.  We also use carborundum a.k.a. silicon carbide (60, 120, 180 and 240 grit) between the stones to remove the last image from both stones and prepare the surface for new drawing materials.   The limestones that we use come from a quarry near Munich, Germany.  These specific limestones are rich in calcium carbonate and carbon dioxide which is essential for the lithography process.  (Fun Fact!:  Lithography was invented by Alois Senefelder in 1796.  Some contemporary lithographers curse Senefelder's name for inventing the process due to its problematic nature, but deep down we don't mean it.)       

 
The press room doubled as a classroom where I explained in detail tusche (pronounced too-sh) washes to Lorena and Matias.  Basically tusche is a highly concentrated greasy material that can be mixed with water or solvents to create areas that have a wide tonal range with diverse reticulations.  I brought two types of tusches from the states so that we could test their differences.  One was a liquid concentrate and the other was a solid that needed to be turned into a liquid concentrate using water.  With a dropper I added 20,50 and 80 drops of each concentrate to 1 ounce of distilled water.  I also added some of the liquid tusche concentrate to various amounts of rubbing alcohol to make a light, medium and dark solvent wash.  Various solvents provide different reticulations because of the chemicals in the solvents reacting to the grease of the tusche.     

As I made my own tests to see the different variables of the tusche washes, Lorena and Matias created drawings with the same washes.  Tusche washes are one of the most difficult materials in lithography to control but the result of this material is very unique when executed properly.

Above is my test stone with all my notes written below each test.  I puddled the washes in their designated areas and when the water completely evaporated I processed or etched the stone.  Meaning I chemically changed the surface of the stone with a calculated amount of gum arabic and nitric acid so that the drawing will except grease from my roller and the open areas of the stone will be water loving (this is the basic principle of lithography).  

After the first etch Lorena assists Matias by keeping the stone wet with a sponge as he rolls up his first tusche wash drawing.  All three of our washes turned out about the same after we rolled them up.  Our medium and dark washes turned out the best while our delicate light didn't quite come out.  

 
Above is my test after I rolled it up with black ink.  The alcohol washes turned out perfect but as you can see the water washes need some tweaking.  It's always important to keep notes when working with new materials.  We learned a lot from making these washes and I would bet that the next time we do it they'll be close to perfect.  

More processes means more stones to be grained.  After the tusche wash tests we wanted to try our hand at lo-shu washes and we figured we'd mess around with some negative methods.  

The idea of the lo-shu wash is that you mix teensy amounts of gum arabic with water to puddle on a stone, and when the stone dries you are left with an interesting reticulation.  The reticulation is created when the water slowly evaporates leaving a delicate paterning of gum.  The gum then protects the stone from grease and all the areas without gum will be black.  Because the water takes so long to evaporate we start up on the other negative process. 

Above Lorena and Matias are drawing on their stones with water soluble materials that we think will protect the stone from grease.  Like the lo-shu wash this is another exercise in working negatively, meaning everything that is drawn will ultimately be blank or white and the non image areas will be black.

After rolling up her stone Lorena identifies the areas that were successful and the areas just plain didn't work.  She feels good about the experiment and looks forward to working with the process more in the future.    

After our lo-shu washes dry we cover the surface of our stones with a mix of ink and terpintine.  This establishes a grease reservoir into all open areas of the stone.  Above is a close up on my most successful lo-sho wash test.  In three of the tests i mixed salt into the washes.   Matias had great success with the salt lo-shu washes.

I was actually super surprised when Matias rolled up his stone in ink.  The salt created reticulations that i've never seen before.  All in all the testing of AB UNO's new materials made us all think about the great possibilities of using these materials and others in the future.  Hopefully when artists come into studio to work they will see our tests and become excited and inspired to incorporate some of them into their work.