I love printmaking! I practically lived in the printshop at college. I visit printshops. I have a printshop! Printshops are these magical spaces full of old metal presses, flat files full of beautiful paper, nicked wooden type letters and carved linoleum blocks, and of course the designated "clean area" for tearing and handling paper. And there's ink! Lots of ink! I think having ink on your hands and still handling that bright white paper is a beautiful balancing act that takes years of practice. I learned most of my habits from formal classes and years of printing.
My love of all things inky is shared by thousands of printmakers around the world, so I decided to make a small broadside print to celebrate our love of this old frustrating medium!
The design was sketched by hand. I really wanted to give these the look of an old broadside, but use a polymer plate instead of old wood type. The design was then sent to Illustrator and cleaned up.
Using a polymer plate gave us the always killer advantage of getting a very deep impression in the paper.
These are a lot of fun! And I can tell you from this past week they have been available that they are on their way to printshops and printmakers all over the world!