Reverse Piano Hinge Bookbinding

Spine of my first homemade RPH13cm x 18.5cm sketchbook

I have been struck over and over again by the generosity of printmakers. Artists I find are a generous breed in general, willing to share advice and tips but it is printmakers who have shown themselves to be super generous in giving a beginner a leg up and lots of advice and instruction, not to mention materials. Belinda del Pesco, bless her, is such a generous person. She shares her techniques with anyone lucky enough to find her blog and when I was stuck for mat board supplies here in Italy she surprised me with offcuts so I could make collographs. Then there is Sherrie York a.k.a. Brush and Baren who enabled me to make my first reduction linocut. Martin Stankewitz who provided me with fantastic insights into monotype printmaking and may eventually succeed in teaching me How to Draw a Tree. Of course there is always Rick Woodbury whose ongoing generosity includes a key to his print studio here in Tuscany!

Today I'm paying tribute to another Printmaking Angel - Wendy Shortland a.k.a Quirky Artist.

Wendy travelled into the city to meet me when I was last in Sydney and spent hours answering my questions about Solarplate Etching, Viscosity Printing and Bookbinding. Now she has given me directions to make a Reverse Piano Hinge Sketchbook. This was my first real attempt at bookbinding. I've made a couple of concertina fold books but nothing more ambitious. Now I am delighted to have been shown how to make a book that has a very pleasing Japanese-like spine, sits flat when open and has the benefit of being able to remove and replace pages.

Inside cover

Internal hinge with removable paper pin
These are in the middle of each of the 6 signatures

In my book there are 17 double pages where you don't see the hinge

This book was made from two sheets of Italian Grafia printmaking paper, a piece of coloured craft paper, a scrap of brown packing paper for the cover and two pieces of cover board, in addition to some PVC glue, with which I made a bit of a mess. The book is far from professional bookbinder perfect but I'll do better next time.

I'm not suggesting Wendy invented the reverse piano hinge method but I am saying a big thank you for refining the instructions and sharing them with this beginner.

Editors Note: For those of you interested in learning to make a version of this book, Wendy recommends Gwen Diehn's book Real Life Journals - Designing and Using Handmade Books, a copy of which I've just ordered for myself from Amazon.

Gwen also generously posted instructions for the EDM Yahoo Group. Everyday Matters is a great group well worth joining.

Quince Woodcut

Woodcut 10.5 x 14cm

I bought some thin plywood as backing for lino blocks and couldn't resist trying a little woodcutting. Of course I didn't spend enough time working out the design. Couldn't wait to start cutting. I also think I may have ruined the sharpening job Rick did on my favourite linocut tools. Not sure how I'm going to tell him.

I did learn from this that it's easier to cut fine detail with the grain, rather than across it! I need to come up with a greater variety of marks. I need to keep a lookout for some nice pieces of timber. And finally, the most exciting discovery is that Baby Oil is a great alternative for cleaning up oil based inks. In future I'll not be using turps.

Venice Etching

Bird Woman of Venice - Etching & Aquatint 24cm x 24cm

limited edition prints for sale

This is my first attempt at a copper plate etching with aquatint.

The picture is based on my own photograph of a woman shooing birds from her balcony, high above a Venetian canal. At first I thought how sweet, she's feeding the pigeons but when I enlarged the photograph I realised I'd probably witnessed a daily battle between this woman and the birds who squat on her tiny balcony. What struck me about the picture was how much the old lady's arm was beginning to resemble the wing bone of a bird - almost as though she was going through a metamorphosis that would one day see her too fly away.

Here's how I went about making the print.

Burning lamp black on to the varnished copper plate

I believe you can simply use a dark tinted varnish for this first stage of etching but loved learning the traditional smoking technique demonstrated here by my printmaker teacher, Rick Woodbury. Once the thick layer of lamp black is wiped away the copper plate has a hard dark ground into which I scratched my drawing.

Copper Plate before etching in an acid bath

The bird in front of the old lady's arm got in the way of the focal point of the drawing so Rick showed me how to use block out varnish to stop that area being etched by the acid.

The process of inking the plate is time consuming and pretty messy so I was covered in ink by the time I finished and I wasn't able to take photographs. Currently each print I make takes me about half an hour of inking and wiping the hot plate.

First Proof

In order to bring some darker values into the plate, and after using more block out varnish to preserve the highlights, Rick showed me how to dust it with powdered Gum Arabic. The plate was then heated to melt the Gum Arabic on to the copper and then it was back into the acid bath. I got quite a shock when we fished it out to see what a dramatic change I had in the second proof.

Second Proof after Aquatint

Now the hard work started, as I had to scrape or burnish back the aquatint pitted areas to make softer transitions between light and dark values.

Third Proof

That's more what I was aiming for and I can't tell you the thrill of pulling back the paper after the plate had passed through the press. I had no idea what it was going to look like. I don't think I will ever get over that excitement no matter how many prints I may make in future. I scraped and burnished a few more refinements and then pulled the final print that you see at the top of this post.

The print is too large for my scanner, so I've had to photograph it for this post. When I get some more sunlight I will replace this with a clearer photograph which I will have signed and numbered correctly.

I've never offered any of my art for sale before but since my plan for 2008 was to finally sell something here's your opportunity to acquire a rare piece of art! You are welcome to email me for further details.

Awarded to this post by The Colorist - Many thanks Casey.

Monoprints Umbrella Pines

Three Pines - Monoprint 13cm x 13cm

Three Pines 1 - monoprint 24.5cm x 24.5cm

These are a couple of my early early monoprints. I enjoyed the process but have a long way to go. I'm still working on my first hard ground etching. I'm hoping to get it going again now I'm (hopefully) over this virus.

Rick keeps a neat studio.

I'd really love to have this at home.

Studio actually has a lovely view out over the valley but I'll save that for another day.

Printmaking Adventure

Linocut 10cmx10cm

Apart from the Flying Pictures Sketchbook Exchange, I haven't been doing a lot of sketching lately because a few weeks ago I started a three month printmaking workshop. I found a wonderful teacher, Rick Woodbury with a beautiful studio right here in Castiglion Fiorentino. I couldn't believe my luck! Then I had to wait for more than a year for Rick to fit me into a workshop. I couldn't have wished for a better opportunity as the rest of the group is made up of American university students here at the Santa Chiara School for a semester studying art and architecture. They are keeping me on my toes!

I'm going to post all my efforts from the beginning in the hope that it will be a record of my evolving skill.

First of all we tackled monoprints.

The lesson I learned from the last two prints was that if I am going to experiment, it's a good idea to experiment on proper paper. I have a tendency to over-ink my plates, so Rick suggested I make a second print from the same plate. I used a piece of scrap newsprint (notice the text) and, of course, ended up liking this second print best.

I have some more monoprints to post but I have now moved on to drypoint and hardground etching which I think better suits my desire to draw.

The little snail at the top of this post was my first effort at linocut where I've had access to a decent press. I've since made a whole series in different colours.