Bloom / editioned
Ros Ford and I completed the Bloom edition last week at BV Studios, and after 4 or 5 days drying time, the completed, editioned, etchings are packed and in the post to my Experimental Print Club members today.
It's been a fascinating process working with Ros on the etching. For clarity, Ros made the copper plate, and has done all the inking and printing, my input has been the original drawing, the film work, all the digital stuff, and the print finishing. I've chosen to leave one naturally deckled edge, and 3 cut sides, partly to show orientation, but primarily to make a real feature of the beautiful softened edge of the handmade Somerset paper. All the prints also have a full watermark in the bottom r/h corner.
Bloom / Patreon Experimental Print Club / 1st edition, April 2016
We're looking forward to inking up the copper plate we completed a few weeks back, and actually printing the first edition - Bloom - at BV Studios this week. After a certain amount of trial and error, we've chosen to use a digital bitmap of the original drawing at 500 ppi, transferred to the copper etching plate using a laminated photopolymer film, exposed with an aquatint screen. All good stuff. There are just a very few decisions left to be made about the exact hue of the black ink, which is likely to be fairly warm.