Revisiting Plate Litho

I printed my first plate lithograph in years, and my first lithograph in Japan ever! My husband and I moved to Sapporo, Hokkaido in the summer of 2019. Fortunately, there is one place in the city where one can print lithographs. (There may be more places that I’m just not aware of yet). There are some smaller stones in the studio there, but I was told that no one has  used them for years. In the fall, we took a beginner plate lithography class together and it was one of the most fun things we’ve done as a married couple. 
Taking a class is always a good way to familiarize yourself with a new print studio: the customs of the studio, their specific rules, and where everything is. It’s really fun to show someone who has seen many lithographs before but has never made one themself, all the steps and challenges and magic that is involved in litho printing! It was my first time to take a class fully in Japanese (other than Japanese classes about the language itself). This was a great experience for me. It was a really good way for me to learn some print-related vocabulary and verbs, especially since I already knew the content of what was being taught and could focus on trying to absorb everything that was being said and to copy certain print kanji. 
I drew a mushroom based on ones I’d seen in the summer when hiking up Mount Moiwa. There are so many varieties of mushrooms here in Hokkaido. It’s something I’d like to learn more about and draw more of. This class reminded me how convenient (and lightweight!) it is to work with plates, but I did miss the feeling of litho crayons on smooth stone. 

The print studio with pretty komorebi

litho quadrant Dieter-style

I printed multiple book pages on one stone using a few different techniques. Various lines and forms to convey mountains were created with tusche toothbrush splashes, gum arabic stopout and some Dieter Roth-inspired double-handed drawing. Followed by double-handed etching of course!

Hengifoss

Hengifoss Lithograph

This was the first image I printed during the residency. What I consider to be a ‘pure’ litho: just straight crayon drawing. This is one tier of the majestic Hengifoss waterfall that I hiked to with another resident on my first day in Iceland. I think it ended up looking like an illustration that might be found in a book of Nordic fairy tales…

Hiking towards one of the tiers of Hengifoss waterfall.

printing on tissue

What the Fukunishi

What the Fukunishi!?
A couple months ago, local gallery and printshop Graven Feather put out a call for submissions for the wonderfully titled “What the Fukunishi!?” show, where participants were invited to use fukunishi washi however they’d like, to create works to exhibit in a group show. 

This paper comes in 3 colours: Nemu (yellow), Sakura (pink), Akebi (grey). I was able to integrate every colour into each of my two pieces, Hira Hira and Pika Pika. My pieces were made by combining fukunishi printed with two colour layers of pink litho ink, with bare fukunishi sheets and some tengu-jo. I used some metallic pigment on the printed sheets which I purchased at PIGMENT in Tokyo. I added some origami pleated to show the reflective qualities of the pigment and try to add more dimension to the papers. I aimed to create pieces that recall noren or washi curtains. 

K-Salago

Like most of the washi I print on, I was introduced to this paper at The Japanese Paper Place. There I learned that it’s a paper that is specifically made for lithography, as requested by David Lynch. The fibres are from the Phillipines, and somehow it feels like they aren’t as long as traditional washi long fibres. After printing my smaller mikan prints on K-Salago, I decided to commit to this as my paper of choice for 4 larger colour lithos I would make for my prints about my beloved Shikoku. 

The paper is incredibly smooth, with beautiful deckle edges. It picks up detail very well from litho stones, and I really love the warmth of the colour. The only issue I had with it was that it really doesn’t take water well. If it gets wet, it can immediately start to pill. I made sure my stones were inked up yet totally dry before printing.