Registration is critical for a printmaker and when you start as a callow student it’s difficult to get your head around it, but eventually it becomes second nature. It also makes use of some of the boring maths I learnt in school. I did one tabletop registration for all eight of my recent silkscreens on women artists and fitted the registrations on the different screens to it. I used thin masking tape for the registration marks on the tabletop and the screen frames and wide masking tape to mask the edges of the mesh so that the ink didn’t squeeze through onto the paper except where it was supposed to.
It isn’t glamorous, but it’s important and it’s worth spending time to get it right. This screen has four of my women artist stencils on it: Hannah Hoch, Gabriele Munter, Camille Claudel and Broncia Koller-Pinell. The stencils were created with Speedball Diazo Drawing Fluid and Filler. The finished prints will be going to the London Art Car Boot Fair this coming Sunday. Please call in if you’re passing by Brick Lane 🙂
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Oh the joys (and sorrows) of registration. So important with all printing styles! 🙂
It’s okay with one colour but if I was doing more I would book the vacuum press at the Print workshop. Especially with hand made paper, no two sheets were the same size x
I can’t even imagine what life would be like with a vacuum press…. My dad made one using a shop vac and a piece of plywood with lots of holes drilled in it. I don’t get that fancy. 😉
Oh it’s lovely to use, but not necessary for small work or one colour 🙂