true colours*

that's *colors for those over the pond

(-;
.

etching
.
it's brilliant


did I tell you that already? if not I ought to have done. . . I've learnt various techniques so far, the beginner's techniques: hard ground, soft ground, aqua tint, dry point, sugar lift

I want to understand something called chine collee (pronounced sheen col-lay)

this is where one overlays tissue paper (I think it has to be tissue paper, but I can't see why it could not be any kind of paper actually) onto specific areas of one's etched and inked-up plate just before one prints

what happens then is that the printed image is transferred in part onto the tissue paper (which sticks to the paper you're printing on, as it is on the top of the inked-up plate and thus will be underneath the image)(understand?)(everything in printing is back to front - left becomes right - under becomes over - images are reversed/mirrored)

so last week on one of my jaunts up to London Town I stopped by my favourite paper shop - Faulkner's - with which I became familiar whilst bookbinding - and bought myself some tissue paper

of course, it's Japanese - for some reason all the best paper is Japanese

don't ask me why

(but if you know, pray tell - I'd love to know)

so today, when I go to my class, I'm going to ask the tutor to explain chine collee (just in case there is something I've missed - I've seen the artists around me using the technique [the Etching class is full of bona fide artists who are only there really to use the facilities, the nitric acid bath and the copious supplies of printing ink in every colour available and the heavy duty presses][altho I think the local council might have a problem with that, as it's an insitution of learning] and it all looks fairly obvious to me)(usually a sign that I've missed the fairly obvious. . . but that's another story)

I'll report back. . .

I hope that you learn
something of interest
to you today
.
have a good one!

10 comments:

Mel said...

k......so......

Part of the image is stuck to the tissue paper on the paper you're printing to?

k.....maybe not? LOL

Nope. Thinkin' I'm not understanding it. Or am I and I'm just having problems getting the picture in my head?

Regardless.
I'm glad class is going so well (what in the world is sugar lift?) and that it's turning out to be such a good time.


*humming*
Oh where oh where has the camera cord gone
Oh where oh where could it be......

;-)

Rimshot said...

Mel - you can come join me in the clue corner (I don't get the tissue paper thing either). I've constructed a loo and showering facilites and a BBQ pit...next week I'm having a jaccuzi installed.

Rimshot said...

Mel - you can come join me in the clue corner (I don't get the tissue paper thing either). I've constructed a loo and showering facilites and a BBQ pit...next week I'm having a jaccuzi installed.

Sorrow said...

japanese????
Thats news to me..
now i must go find out why!
she mutters with the web at her finger tips...

I, Like The View said...

well here that's the case sorrow, don't know about where you are. . .

now I know what else to send you when I finally get around to sending you what I want to send you (still haven't gotten to the PO - sorry YIKES)

shot and mel: come out of the corner and I'll explain!

Mel said...

k.....but he's talking a jaccuzi and EVERYthing.....

k...AND there's a bbq pit which, I'm bettin' if I ask reallllllll nice he'd let me toast marshmallows on!

k....

*going to get edumacated!*

Anonymous said...

Advantages of reading backwards. Now I think I understand the bit about the tissue paper.
However I still can't remember how you're supposed to 'see' the back to front upside down image the right way round before you have printed it!
The Japanese made lots of paper didn't they - for those paper walled anti-earthquake houses and all.
I did hear something (else) interesting today. Unfortunately I've forgotten it so I suppose I haven't learnt it at all!

Anonymous said...

Yay! Chine collee (which is French for Chinese collage, just to further confuse!) and soft ground etchings. Love it! Sadly, I'm not set up to muck about with acid these days.But I'm loving your quirky notes!

I, Like The View said...

glad you're enjoying it dinahmow XXX (Chinese collage, huh - well that explains a lot!)

I could handle the acid, it's the press I'm not ever likely to have chez moi. . .

mig it's a mirror image, basically (I kinda fibbed about the up-side down bit, oops, sorry!). . .

and you have to mask out the places that you want to be lighter, and the places on the plate that are exposed more and more to the acid become deeper etches so hold more ink - so come out darker: so you have to work back to front in terms of your lighter areas versus your darker areas (block out the light ones, the places where you don't want any ink, at the beginning)(and then make sure that you clean all the ink residue off when you're inking up, cos they'll be covered in ink anyhow cos everything gets covered in ink!)(sensible people use latex gloves at the inking stage - but I like to feel what I'm doing. . .)(and hence keep getting inky fingerprints on the paper, which isn't so great)

katherine. said...

so...I am reading about you in England....making something Chinese with a French name using Japanese paper.

such international culture!