Japanese Woodblock Printing and Collographs

In class on Thursday I went over a quick Japanese woodblock carving and printing demo. After playing around with some of the tools from Baren Mall on scrap pieces of wood from McClain's, I showed everyone how to print a simple woodblock.


After soaking the blocks in water for a few minutes, you add a few drops of watercolor mixed with Nori (rice paste) to the block.


Next you use this traditional brush to spread the ink evenly across the block.


You then lay your hoshi printing paper over the block. Ideally your paper would be decanted in a plastic bag with spritzed newsprint in between each sheet of hoshi.


With freezer or wax paper on top, you use a barren to place even strokes of pressure across the paper.


Then you peel off your print!


Many of the students also printed their collograph plates. Nate made many blind embossments of the above plate.


This is Jamie's colorful collograph.


Nate and Jamie in action.

Long Stitch Binding

In our last class we went over a classic bookbinding technique called the long stitch. First we cut down our text weight paper to make 20 sheets of 8 1/2 x 6 inch pieces grain shortNext we nestled four sheets together and folded 5 sections that were 4 1/4 x 6 inches.

We then cut down our cover paper to be 17 x 6 1/4, and then created the spine by measuring from the left 8 1/8 inches and folding and then 3/4 of an inch to the right and folding. Next, we placed all five sections inside the spine and scored 1/8 of an inch from the edges and folded the front and back flaps over. These flaps can be trimmed or left to give the book more weight.

We then created both a text jig and cover jig to put holes into the sections and the cover spine

Next we used seven lengths of thread and began sewing the last section into the bottom hole of the book, starting from the cover in.

We wove the thread up to the top of the section through the cover and then moved to the adjacent hole and came down the section and tightened the threaded sections, making sure to always pull towards the direction we were sewing. We next knotted the threaded needle with the tail of the thread and did a kettle stitch before moving on to the third section and weaving to the top.

At the top of the third section we did a kettle stitch to the previous loop of sections one and two, before moving on to sections four and five (which also had a kettle stitch in between sections)

At the end of section five we made a kettle stitch and tucked an inch of left over thread between the sections on the inside of the cover.

After creating our long stitch books, we looked over the completed monotype accordion books

We also looked at collographs and discussed the difference between intaglio (below the plate surface) and relief (above the plate surface) printing. We will be printing collographs in our next session.

Japanese Stab Binding and Accordion Books

This week we made a more in-depth version of the Japanese Stab Binding, using screenprinted papers as our covers.

Everyone cut down their paper and made a jig in order to accurately punch holes into the covers and forty sheets of paper to be bound.


Making the holes larger than usual with the awl and using thinner thread made the process somewhat easier.


We then sewed the book together using the technique taught it session 4.


Everyone left with a blank book with screenprinted covers.


We then went over how to connect folded accordion books to create larger accordion structures. Everyone will bind their monotype exquisite corpse prints for Session 7.

Monotype printing

This week we went over monotype printing on plexi. We started by ripping down our sized Stonehenge paper with the T-Bar.



Everyone then sketched out their design for our monotype exquisite corpse, while their paper soaked in the tub.


We mixed oil based etching inks and placed our sketches underneath the plexi.


Everyone then painted, dabbed, wiped off or scraped the ink onto and off of their plates.


We then worked on the etching presses to pull the prints after drying off excess water in the paper between blotters. The presses were set to 1 over 7 and 10 over 4.


We placed a piece of acetate with the paper measurements in sharpie marker down first, then the inked plexi, then the soaked paper, a piece of newsprint, and a top layer of acetate before laying the blankets down.


Here Andrea is pulling her print through the press.


After it goes through the press she peeled it up to reveal her print.


We each will make five prints and combine them into accordion books in session six.

Stab Binding and Screenprinting

Session Three of Printing and Binding we covered traditional Japanese stab bindings and created simple flip books. We then taped up screens and printed cut paper stencils in preparation for the printed book due in three weeks.

Screenprinting with Stencils

Materials needed:

• Screen
• Squeegee
• Packing tape
• Screenprinting ink
• Butcher paper or water-resistent paper
• Craft knife
• Cutting mat
• Marker
• Paper
• Acetate (one sheet)
• Spatula

Step One: Design your stencil with the marker on the uncoated side of the butcher paper. Make sure to keep it somewhat small and simple.

Step Two: Cut out your design with the craft knife.

Step Three: Adhere your stencil to the outer side of the screen with packing tape. Make sure the coated side is taped against the screen. Tape any areas close to the image area where you do not want ink to go through the screen.

Step Four: Put your screen in the clamps and adhere the acetate near where the stencil will be printed.

Step Five: With paper under the acetate, put ink on the top of where the stencil is taped.

Step Six: With two hands (not shown in picture), push and pull the ink with the squeegee at approximately a 45 degree angle towards yourself; printing on the acetate.

Step Seven: You now know exactly where the ink will land when you pull your prints. Place your paper where you want the print to be, then remove the acetate and pull again- this time printing on the paper.

Step Eight: Flooding between pulls will prevent the screen from drying out. Flooding is when you gently pull a layer of ink over the print area.

Step Nine: Put your print on the drying rack and repeat.

Step Ten: Once you are finished printing, clean out the ink in your screen and on your spatula and squeegee. Hold your screen up to the light to make sure there is no blockage.