Tag: paper

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69 Print

This design came about because I was thinking about number plates that went on the handlebars of BMX bikes. I guess they are now “vintage” since they were around in the 1980s. And honestly I probably haven’t even seen one since the 1980s! I did some image searching and found examples of what I was remembering.

Since the plates are “vintage” it made sense to print on paper that had an “old” and “worn out” look, so I used some of the recycled paper I made recently.

I wanted a more modern (and sans-serif) typeface, and the 6 and 9 mirror each other perfectly and seem to fit well into the oval. It’s a clean design with some added contrast of being a non-perfect print on less-than-perfect paper.

Oh, and why 69? Well, I live on 69th street, and I was born in 1969.

Here’s the printing plate I made. I don’t know why I etched so much space around the actual artwork. All that did was make the laser etching process take more time. I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different methods for doing the laser etched plates and I probably had some clever idea and forgot what it was.

I’ll keep messing around with this, as I do enjoy mixing digital fabrication with more traditional forms of artmaking. And creating physical things from digital designs is sort of in my wheelhouse. Cheers!

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Recycle Print

After I made my own recycled paper I had to do something with it… Well, the plan was to print on it! So I did. I used my (recently built) printing press to print a recycle symbol on the paper… which seemed fitting, since it is recycled paper.

I really love how this turned out. One of the things about printmaking is, you need paper. I remember when I started experimenting with printing and was told “Two words: Rives BFK” and yeah, you know what? That shit’s expensive!

I get that to make high quality prints you need high quality materials, but I’m also cheap, and I love doing what I can with low-cost materials. I’m using water based inks because they are cheap and easy to use (and clean up in my slop sink) and I do get some paper that isn’t total crap sometimes, but I’m also going to use cheap material sometimes because art should be accessible. But…

The more I think about it, the more I want to just make my own paper using the stuff we already recycle at our house. We shred plenty of paper, and toss a lot in the recycle bin, so why not put it to use? I think making my own (recycled) paper and then printing on it makes perfect sense.

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Making Paper

Hey, I made some paper! To be more precise, I made recycled paper using scrap paper from my own home. I remember facilitating an event years ago at the museum where we had people make paper, but it was one of those things where I was so busy running things I didn’t actually get to make anything. So a few years later (and with my renewed printmaking efforts) I figured it was time to make my own paper.

And if you’re interested in the whole process, there’s a ton of information online, and plenty of videos on YouTube. I watched a bunch, and while I didn’t follow any one of them exactly, I got close enough to get some good results for the first try. I bought a tub, strainer, and sponges from a dollar store, found a piece of scrap screen from a window, and then I made my own mould and deckle.

This is one of those things where if you’ve got a wood shop and scrap wood and that sort of stuff, cranking out the mould and deckle would be quick and easy… Since I don’t really have access to those thing I figured I would 3D print them. I designed the two parts so I could embed magnets into the corners to help hold them together while in use. It mostly worked. I may tweak a few things in the next revision.

I printed the parts on the Prusa MINI and they’re about 160mm square, so the paper I made is just slightly smaller than that, probably closer to 145mm x 145mm, which is about 5.5″ square which should work well for my prints that are on 3″ x 5″ paper.

I made two pieces, one of them turned out good. It’s thick enough that no light passes through it…

The other piece, not quite as good. It’s a little thin, and you can see the lighter spots in the photo where it’s a little translucent due to the thinness. Still figuring out the technique. I used an old t-shirt for my couching sheet, but I may need to experiment with other material or break down and actually buy some real sheets.

Overall for a first attempt without really knowing what I’m doing, I think this is a success! If you remember my experiments with home recycling of HDPE this is pretty similar, except it’s with paper, and less heat, and probably more useful for the art I’m creating now.

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Hipster (Doofus) PDA

It happened innocently enough. I had some index cards, and I started writing things on them. They were better than scraps of paper because they were more sturdy, and when I tossed them in my backpack, they didn’t get all crumpled up.

I kept putting these loose index cards into the front pocket of my backpack, and every now and then I’d take them out, look through them, rearrange them, and put them back. No problem.

Then I thought, maybe if I put a binder clip on them, they’d all stay together, and I could even put them in order. Wham! That was it. Before I even knew it, I was a Hipster Doofus with an index card/binder clip PDA…

Hipster (Doofus) PDA

Of course mine does have 1GB of flash memory, which I find quite handy…