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Firstly, I'd like to take this chance to thank the people who have been interacting with me since agreeing to participate in my "Getting Got" interactive art project; Max Brooker, Ines Monguio, Meghant Metcalfe and Cindy Davis have been enriching my life by feeding back their responses to my work and I will be sharing my discoveries here when it relates to techniques I've developed or learned while making the 2024-2025 GOT-O-GRAM.
You may be wondering what links this set of prints and what it has to do with introductory text referencing another project. You see, I used the last remnants of an engraving ink I had made myself for use in the GOT-O-GRAM; it was the first time I've ever tried to make oil paint and it was almost total guesswork based on the use of some devices which I'd attained to make the ink (but which I had no idea would actually work): a Chinese spice grinder and a rice cooker. Firstly, I whizzed a combination of charcoal and green pastel coloured chalk into fine powder a bit like, well, a Chinese traditional doctor would create rhinocerus tusk powder for an erectile dysfunction medecine. It was a very dark black with a hint of green. I then placed this in a blending device and poured enough linseed oil until a paste formed and I knew the dust was already in contact with the oil. After this, I melted beeswax in linseed oil in a metal bowl I'd put in the rice cooker; then I mixed the waxy oil into the tinted linseed paste in the blender. This final activity of blending the two together seems to be an important part of the process. What I ended up with was a very thick and slick paste. I knew I was onto something when I noticed the way the paste retained its thickness but was without lumps of any kind. The beeswax must've played an important role in this process.
The five plates I made prints of and which you can view below were all different, and as far as I can see although the prints are far from ideal, I nonetheless made them in a few minutes to test the limits of my ink. I used it for a couple of contrasting relief prints into oil cloths, an intaglio plexiglass plate, a 2-plate gotograph ... and an etching I made into a pcb plate by plunging the copper plate into an upright acid bath I'd invented for this purpose called a "zaquarium".
Okay, the etching doesn't look good at all; but in this case I included the comparison with the print I'd made from the same plate using the thick engraving ink I already had and which people had told me was too difficult to make myself. As you can see, both prints are similar and the fact that the dark green one is lighter is more to do with the fact that there was very little ink left at the end. You can see the little grooves that were etched into the pcb plate. Making this goes to show that you can etch into the pcb plates you can pick up from any electrics shop. They are cheap but the copperplating is sufficiently thick to make plates with.
Here is a list of these prints:
0/5 - REMNANTS OF BEESWAX - Cover
1/5 - HEADLESSLY
2/5 - I DEFY OCTOPI
3/5 - STILL SLEEPING
4/5 - AARGH!
5/5 - ACID BATH FOR ETCHING (acid bath etched in a zaquarium with intaglio style inking)
I describe the method I used to make the ink in a previous post, and I'll be including here later a more detailed explanation of this method.
Anyway, I had a small patch of it on a glassy surface, and since everthing was wrapping up but I still had this ink, I scraped up every last remnants and tried it on various different types of printing plates using various different types of printing methods I've been experimenting with recently.
Although the prints themselves may not appear that striking, it seems to me astounding that I was successful at applying the ink to all the different surfaces and to make prints from them.
Now that I've achieved this - and I can basically turn anything into dust, I plan to try all sorts of ingredients. To the melted waxy oil solution? I've also been adding coloured crayons and scented oils to change the texture, shift the final colour shade and... well... make the ink smell!
REMNANTS OF BEESWAX
...snatching the gotograph...
Snatching the Gotograph "WHO ME? LUNA SEA!"The first of these two images shows me while I am busy snatching the second plate of the two-part gotograph "Who Me? Luna Sea". I made these plates as part of a complex piece of postal art I call a "GOT-O-GRAM" for the 2024-2025 New year period. I made in total 20 of them.
This small gallery consists of two images. In the first image, you can see me leaning over my antique etching press that I used to make these 20 prints. On the press itself you can see some prints, plates and frames. In the second image you can see a close up of these items. In my next post I will be describing in more detail exactly how I used these items to snatch these prints. Both of these images show at the bottom left at the very front a look at the results of a successful "snatch" from above. At the front, you can see a print of the first of the two plates (with the floor vinyl plate behind it). On the second, the complete two-plate print, with the single-plate snatch behind it...
Although a "GOT-O-GRAM" forms part of a "Getting Got" interactive art project, I am going to be talking specifically about the printing part of this particular work. In summary, however, two specially prepared pieces of paper or cardboard are essentially folded together to enclose other artworks. This particular (and most recent) GOT-O-GRAM consists of three major interconnected parts: [1] The FRONT Piece, [2] The BACK piece and [3] the Greeting Card. "Who Me? Luna Sea" is on the inside of the front piece of the glueless self-enclosing envelope. On the other side, is the address of the person who has received the GOT-O-GRAM.
.... And since soon these packages will be arriving. I would adore it if you could film yourself opening it or sending me an image of you with the artworks or the packages in your hands. A film of your hands opening the package would be equally adored. Any other type of interaction you make by responding to this piece of postal art in any way you like will be pondered upon and form a part of my creative universe. I'd like to take this chance to thank all 18 people who agreed to receive this package... and also the one who got sent one without knowing he would receive it...
This small gallery consists of two images. In the first photo, you can see me leaning over my antique etching press that I used to make these 20 prints. On the press itself you can see some prints, plates and frames. In the second image you can see a close up of these items. In my next post I will be describing in more detail exactly how I made these prints and used these particular items to achieve to snatch them.
On the right side you can see at the top one of the "excised" floor vinyl plates. At the end of the twenty prints it is starting to look a bit exhauseted by all the high pressure printing. This is actually the second plate of two. To inked the plates by pressing the engraving ink I had made myself using a process I invented that involved using wax, linseed oil, charcoal, coloured chalk and a rice cooker to make the green and orange coloured engraving ink which was pressed into the "excised" floor vinyl plates. "Excised" means here the thin shiny layer of the vinyl which was gently peeled off after the design was cut into the floor vinyl, revealing the softer layer beneath which absorbs the ink way. With my handmake ink, I was able to snatch up to six prints for every application. I applied the ink by scraping it onto the surface approximately in the position of the excisions, and then running a plastic card over the surface until I was sure that all of the excisions were completely filled. Finally I was able to use a starched cloth to press the ink further into the excisions while I rubbed the rest of the surface free of ink. Although I made a few with acrylic ink, being able to press the oil-based ink into the gotograph resulted in me being able to snatch so many prints for a single inking.
On the left you can observe there is a print that fits exactly into a frame, and above it is a "fitted squishing plate". This printing frame and squishing plate were specifically designed to press this plate. I call it a "squishing plate" because of its function. The cushioned vinyl is a soft as opposed to a hard plate. It has to be prevented from stretching when you apply enormous pressure to it. The squishing plate has a curved edge so that it will shift into place and provide more pressure from above. Only the frame and the plate are rolled through the press (no fabric is required below or above it. This is thus how gotographs are snatched...
...So yes, although you press intaglio inked printing plates to register them, in Zachar teminology, you "squish" excised gotographs to snatch them!
I'm afraid you'll have to get used to me making up my own amusing terminology to refer to the processes behind how I make art. You'll just have to believe me when I say there there is method to my madness: it is all wrapped up in the way I create.
Needless to say, you'll be able to watch me squishing and snatching my way through a whole series of gotographs and 3D impressing plates while I describe how I made this artwork, the other artworks within this year's GOT-O-GRAM as well as various additional works I've been making in which the process is such an important part.
The "Making an Impression" left frame navigation buttons are really easy to recognize as they show me squishing mice... I mean, using my printing press of course... The etching press and that's all! Control yourself, Zachar!!
I included two of these buttons below so that they are easy to recognize, and to basically have a reason to make the first post for this division of the website and test my theory of transferal of HTML from post to homepage with the same divtags having different meanings with different style sheets...
Anyway, to satiate your perverse desire to see small and innocent animals needlessly tortured, here follows the buttons!
