I spent the afternoon at Swansea Print Workshop, editioning a photopolymer intaglio plate. First I cut 15 pieces of BFK Rives 250gsm paper and put them to soak in clean water. I set up my workspace around the hotplate that I preheated and put some Intaglio Printmaker’s drypoint shop mix oil-based ink in black onto the glass work surface and mixed it a bit with a mini squeegee to get it nice and malleable.
I spread the ink over the photopolymer plate that I’d put onto the hotplate (with newspaper to keep the hotplate clean). Once it was well covered, I removed excess ink with the edge of a piece of stiff card then took the photopolymer plate off the heat and onto the work surface to continue removing the ink with a piece of washed scrim.
After a final polish on the areas I want to highlight, I cleaned the edges of the plate with a rag and put the plate onto the small Inverleith etching press. I’d already placed a registration sheet on the press bed and covered it with a piece of acetate to keep it clean. Then, using ‘paper fingers’ I took one of the pieces of paper, that had soaked for about an hour, from the tray.
I schlepped it against a white board and squegeed it once to get rid of excess surface water, then put it between several sheets of blotting paper and rolled it a couple of times so it was damp, not sodden.
Again with clean ‘paper fingers’, I placed the paper carefully onto the inked plate, put a piece of clean tissue on top then the three swansdown blankets and turned the wheel to take the whole lot through the press.
Phew! A perfect print. But I’m tired and manky. 🙂
scribblah 
Always nice to see people’s techniques. Thanks for posting your process. I think I need to pull out some plates and do a little intaglio again! 🙂
Great 🙂
Would oil based ink dry like oil paint if applied to a canvas with a brush? I’ve wanted to try that for a long time now, but I’ve never done any printmaking so I don’t have any of the materials to experiment with…
Printing ink is very thick and sticky. I’ve applied it with a pallette knife and a printmaker’s roller to primed cardboard but you’d need to thin it out considerably with turpentine or linseed oil before it could be used with a brush. I’m not sure it would be any cheaper than using oil paint. 🙂
After reading this I realize that I sure miss print making. When I was in school, the only place I spent more time than my paint studio was in the print shop. I did some of my own work but I enjoyed the process so much I ended up helping a lot of other students with their work too. (Even though they were print majors and I was not!)
Come on over to the dark side LOL. There might be a print workshop near you 🙂