Tag: printmaking

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Printmaking Registration Pins

Here are my pins and tabs used for registration of multi-color relief prints. They are heavily inspired by the Ternes Burton system, and I’ve found a similar design on Thingiverse but as usual, these are mine.

Print at least two pins and then as many tabs as you need to do a print run.

When printed the tabs should fit tight into the pins. This is by design. Depending on your printer the tolerance may or may not make a good fit. I print the tabs and then if they are too tight I just give them a very small swipe inside the hole with an X-ACTO blade.

Once shaved down the tab should fit the pins slightly tightly but not too tightly, and not too loosely obviously. Welcome to 3D Printing!

If you need a quick tutorial on how to use these check out How to get perfect registration with Ternes Burton pins.

With my latest batch of handmade paper the blue painters tape I use tends to pull up a lot of the paper when removing it, but the typical printmaking paper you can buy (this is some Strathmore paper) holds up just fine.

You can get the STL and .scad files from Printables.com – Printmaking Registration Pins. Note: These are very thin prints! I printed mine at 0.1 layer height. But hey, print them if you need them!

Note: This post contains an Affiliate Link. Read More.

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January Prints in Progress (Part V)

Hey, that’s it. It’s all over. (See Part I, Part II, and Part III and Part IV.) There were 31 days in January and I made 46 pieces of art in that time. I am pleased. I don’t love everything I’ve made, but as a creative I never have. I don’t think there’s anything I’ve taken on where I absolutely love every piece and think it’s my greatest work. Be it songs, photos, videos, writing, whatever… Which brings up a good point. Does making a lot of work prevent you from making fewer pieces of really amazing work? Well, that’s a question best left to art pundits, of which I am not.

But maybe it’s that desire to continually make things you love that drives us. I feel like there is nothing I have mastered, and so we go on. We try again, we try new things, we do not give up and call it a day. We keep going.

A decade ago I had this idea (dream?) of teaching art at the university level. I even did it for about a year and a half. It was a lot of fun, but it also wasn’t my full time job, which might be why it was a lot of fun. Anyway, I did not pursue it, and in time I became totally okay with that. In fact, it’s probably for the best.

For me, making art is a hobby, and fun thing to do, something where I am in control of what I do and not beholden to clients or bosses or institutions that sign my paycheck. It’s for me. That said, I do love when I can make art for people, or art that people feel a connection to.

I’ve seen a number of academics I know who teach art get all into AI and NFTs and other stuff I hate that I consider shit. For some of them, I think they have no choice. The institutions that employ them may expect or require them to learn and teach such things. Or they may feel pressure to stay relevant in a changing world. Students may also be expecting to learn about AI art. As an independent artist I can just say that I don’t give a fuck and no one can tell me what to do. It’s sort of freeing…

Whew, okay… got off the rails a little on that last bit. Anyway, remember when I was doing all that electronic music stuff about two years ago? I enjoyed it quite a bit, but two things that sort of bothered me was that it was time-based media (which of course takes a fixed amount of time to consume) and that in the end it was all still zeros and ones in the form of digital audio (and video) files. Making real-world tangible objects with handmade paper, ink that I applied (sometimes mixed) and just this… physical thing. Well, as a maker, that hits differently that some digital ding dong doodle.

A friend of mine said they really enjoyed seeing the posts of my work each day. There’s something there… I told them that we live in an amazing time where we can share art so freely with the world. Sure, much of the Internet today is a cesspool of complete garbage, but being able to see art by people around the world every day is amazing. You don’t have to go to a gallery (though you still should!) and you don’t have to only look at the work of the masters. You might find some random person in the UK who makes art and you just love seeing their stuff each week. (And if you do, consider supporting them!)

The next question. Are these for sale? Yes. But it’s complicated.

I didn’t post these prints along with “For Sale!” or “Visit my shop!” or put prices on things. My goal in creating these was not to sell them, but to challenge myself to be creative and make art for an entire month. I did that, and I enjoyed it. It did not become a slog, I did not burn out or get sick of it, though when the end came I had some mixed emotions. First, I was like “Whew! Almost done!” and I was relieved. Then I was like “Well, what am I going to do tomorrow? Wake up and not make prints?” And the answer is yes, for now. I need to take a break to get caught up on other projects. (Then I will probably go back to printing!)

Where was I? Oh, selling them! Typically someone I know online (either on Facebook, Instagram, or Mastodon) would see a print and as if it was available. I would let them know that they could have it and either come pick it up or cover the cost of shipping, and then pay whatever they could for the art. The most someone paid was $50 USD and the least was zero. Most were in the middle, around $25 or $30. (I am not upset at all about the zero dollar ones. Two pieces went to friends of mine, and they both had really weird shit happen to them the week the prints arrived, so whatever. I’m all good, and I am glad they are all good now.)

Almost every print (though not all) were sold to people I knew. It makes me feel really good to know a friend liked the art I created and was willing to accept it into their lives and maybe even pay me for my time. As for the materials costs, the money covered the cost of ink and filament. Since I make my own recycled paper that cost was close to zero. I bought a few more brayers and X-ACTO blades, but those are fairly cheap. Again, I am extremely privileged to be able to do something like this and not have to rely on the income from selling art to survive. I appreciate the work that independent artists put into their work, and I definitely get why art can cost what it does.

So what’s next? Well, I am contemplating whether I should keep this going. Not at this pace, mind you, but the whole “prints for sale, pay what you want” thing. I have way more ideas and things I want to try out, and it’s fairly easy for me to post art and see if anyone is interested in it.

But wait, what about Gallery 69! Indeed! I do have a gallery I need to keep full of art. I am 100% sure some of the seconds and test prints will go into the gallery. I’ve been waiting until January is done, but I’ll probably drop some of these prints into the gallery in the next few weeks. So hooray to more free art for the people!

Maybe combining the two things makes sense. A print goes in the gallery, and anyone local can come and grab it! If you miss out, or are not local, you can contact me about sending you a copy of it. I don’t know, I’m still figuring this out, but if you have ideas, let me know!

And finally… one more thing. You can see all the January 2024 Prints in the RasterWeb! (online) Gallery.

See Also: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

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How I 3D Print Printing Plates

This is a follow-up post to 3D Printed Printing Plates which covers my method of creating 3D Print Printing Plates using Inkscape and OpenSCAD.

If you just care about the specs, here they are. I create a 3D model that is 3mm tall, then 3D print it using plain PLA filament. I turn on the ironing feature set to Topmost surface only. When the print is done I sand it with some 800 grit sandpaper to make the surface a bit more smooth and remove any weirdness caused ironing.

Why make the plates 3mm tall? That works perfectly with my Provisional Press. If the plate needs a Base I make that 1mm thick, and the Art sits on the Base with the bottoms aligned. This means The bottom 1 millimeter is the Base, and the top 2 millimeters are the Art part of the plate that is the raised surface the ink will be rolled onto.

Here’s our example. It’s cat. The Art is black and the Base is gold. We’ve got the two parts on different layers though as long as they are two separate paths it doesn’t matter too much.

We hide the Base and then Save a Copy with just the Art layer visible. We’ll name the file Cat Art.svg

Now we’ll hide the Art and make the Base visible. Once again we Save a Copy. We’ll name this file Cat Base.svg

Next we need an OpenSCAD file to combine the two SVG files into a 3D model. (Grab the Cat.scad code if needed.) There’s one very important line in there. Line 10 contains offset(delta=0.001) This line fixes weird issues with SVG files.

If you’ve ever seen a Manifold conversion failed: NotManifold error when importing an SVG into OpenSCAD you probably know what a pain they are to debug. Anyway that offset thing prevents those errors.

Oh, the other handy bit is in Line 3 mirror([1,0,0]) this flips the model on the X axis so it is reversed and ready for printing.

Fun story, one of my old coworkers once etched a plate on the laser cutter which took over an hour. When it was done they realized they forgot to flip it!

Once you’ve got your two files (Art and Base) and your OpenSCAD file to combine them, you can output an STL file. Once you have your 3D model in the form of an STL you can slice it and print it. (Don’t forget to turn on ironing!)

Now you’ve got a plate and you’re ready to print… Good Luck!

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3D Printed Printing Plates

I used to make plate for relief printing by laser etching wood. When I got the Provisional Press I basically set it up optimized for working with 3mm plates, since I used 3mm Baltic Birch wood to make plates. Well, a decade ago I was playing around with 3D printed plates, so I figured it was time to revisit that idea.

First, a few advantages to 3D printing versus laser etching. Since the plates are only 3mm tall they print fairly quickly (at least compared to much taller 3D printed objects) and using the laser cutter involves being there watching it and running the (noisy) water pump, air assist, and exhaust fan. While the laser cutter is (usually) faster, you can just hit “Print” on the 3D printer and walk away. Come back later and you’ve got a plate!

Every plate I used for my January 2024 prints (over 40 at this point) was 3D printed.

For wood plates I would typically sand them and then coat with shellac, which is not completely necessary but can help with the top surface. With 3D printed plastic plates I turn on the ironing feature in the slicer software to give the topmost layer of the print a nice smooth surface. I do tend to sand the plastic plates as well, typically less than a minute with 400 to 800 grit sandpaper.

Ironing doesn’t always work perfect, so the sanding helps knock down any little imperfections on the top surface. Again, it’s not a lot of sanding, just enough so the surface looks smooth with no (or very few) imperfections. Of course the imperfections might be what you are going for! The one thing you’ll see in linocut prints is chatter. (Chatter is the unwanted printing caused by areas that were not cut away enough in a linocut.)

I think chatter adds character and sometimes it adds a lot to a print. Since 3D printing is an additive process there is no natural chatter like in linocut, but sometimes you do get a sort of reverse chatter where a print doesn’t have a perfect surface and you get interesting artifacts when using a 3D printed plate. I am 100% fine with that and I embrace it.

Now, 3D printing doesn’t always work. For small fine detail it can be tricky, especially depending on your 3D printer and how well tuned it is. Simple designs tend to work best, at least for the smaller plates I’ve been making. The laser cutter still wins for “thrown any image file at it set to etch” and it’ll probably work. For 3D printed plates you’ll also have issues with really fine lines. (Granted, fine lines can also be an issue with the laser cutter but they seem easier to fix.)

One more advantage of 3D printed plates is that I feel like the plastic will last forever (oh, maybe that’s a bad thing?) while the wood plates do seem to wear after repeated use and washing. Remember, the wood I use is thin Baltic Birch, not hardwood like letterpress.

As for the filament, I use plain old PLA. Often it’s MatterHackers MH filament, but I’ve used PolyMaker PolyTerra filament as well. Really any regular PLA should work just fine. Color doesn’t matter, but I ended up using white for a lot of plates because I had white filament loaded, and it is pretty easy to see the ink on the plate, unless it’s white ink of course.

I should note, I am very much about making things easy because that means I am more likely to do it. If making plates is a pain then I won’t want to do it. Laser etching the plates was a little bit of a pain, but not too bad. The thing I like about 3D printing the plates is that I can create the file and then send it to the printer and in about an hour I’ve got a plate. I don’t have to babysit the 3D printer the way I do the laser cutter, and I can easily make the back part of each plate exactly 1mm tall, unlike with the laser etched plates.

So right now I 3D print my plates, and have well over a dozen prints made this way, and they work quite well, which means I will keep doing it. Stay Printing!

One more thing… since we are using digital fabrication to create the plate not only can we make a replacement plate, but we can change the scale quite easily. This is an advantage over analog plate making methods where you create a plate by hand.

There’s another post that is more of a “How-To” for making 3D Printed Printing Plates using Inkscape and OpenSCAD, so check that one out as well.

Update: Someone asked if the plates are easy to clean. I use water-based inks so I just scrub in a sink with soap and hot water. Sometimes voids in the plate will get some ink in them that doesn’t come right out, but scrubbing with a toothbrush can help. Absolute worse-case since this is digital fabrication you can print a new plate.

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January Prints in Progress (Part IV)

This post is the fourth covering the prints I’ve made in January 2024. (See Part I, Part II, and Part III.) The idea was to create 30 prints in 30 days. (I know, January has 31 days.) I based this on Var Gallery‘s 30x30x30 Exhibition which I applied to, but alas, I was not accepted. No matter. I’ve made well over 30 prints in fewer than 30 days. Zing!

I am writing this on January 27th and right now I’ve got 41 prints done, and another four plates ready to go, so I’m going to guess the final total will be 45 prints. If you had asked me if I could create 45 prints in less than 30 days I don’t know that I would have said yes, but somehow I did it.

While I certainly made a lot of art, is it any good? Well, there are pieces I definitely really like, and at least a few people liked some pieces enough to offer me money for them, so that’s nice… But from a challenge standpoint, I would say I definitely enjoyed the challenge, and I can see a path forward with new art I want to create.

This month has been about creating a process that works for me. The process is one where I can work fairly quickly, but I’m also interested in slowing down. There is one design I worked on about a week ago and I haven’t finished it yet. Most of the designs were done in little time, sometimes it took less than 30 minutes to design something, produce the files, and then hit “Print” on the 3D printer so I would have a plate ready for later.

The “working really fast” method is great for kicking out ideas, but that refinement and iteration of ideas can get lost in the speed of moving fast. I think there were only a few designs where I made a second plate because something wasn’t quite right with the first one. Two were size issues and one or two were redesign issues.

I think what I’ve seen after creating all this art is that some ideas and methods and styles have emerged, and the next step is to push those further. I consider these all experiments to figure things out, and things did get figured out.

I think there’s a good variety of different pieces included in this post, and some of them are favorites of mine, and some mean something to me personally, and others are just “meh” because I don’t think I quite nailed it. It’s weird though, because I’ve somehow melded graphic design (with iteration) into a printmaking practice, which I don’t think people who do woodcut or linocut really deal with.

Alright, thanks for once again reading my rambles around art. I guess there will be one more post in this series since I’ve got a few more prints to do before the 31st rolls around. Stay Tuned!

See Also: Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part V.