The amazing 60gsm paper I bought from the Awagami Factory arrived so I decided to test it out on my Wisley demo print. It's meant to be a kitakata and has the same colour but it's really difefrent from the 36gsm and 90gsm versions that I've used before. It's really quite hairy! You can see the texture on teh surface in the picture on the ones I've printed. It's quite textured too so I had to use really, really thick ink to get a good first layer of coverage. I was rather worried that it would take ages to dry but I actually seemed to dry really quickly (I did use wax driers, but still, for the amount of ink it surprised me how quickly it dried).
I hope I don't have to use such thick ink for every layer - I always think it looks really unprofessional slathering heaps of ink on, a bit of a rookie thing to do! I also think that I'll lose all the subtle cutting if I have to use the ink so thickly. I've packed a wooden spoon and some baking paper so I can touch it up with that as needed. I'm taking my Blueboy relief press to use at the show.
This is the print that I've designed. It's really similar (and uses the same source material) as Bluebells and Beach Trees, but I've drawn it completely from scratch. I want to make this one look better, iron out lots of the mistakes I made in the previous one. I've printed the first layer so people can see the next one going down on Thursday. I thought would be more exciting to see some tree shapes and cutting than just a plain rainbow roll.
I'm going to leave one unprinted for each additional layer. I have 24 first layers printed and I thik there will be about 4 more layers so I'm looking at an edition of 19 (all being well!) it'll likely be more like 15 by the time I've tested colours and got a bit distracted!
I think I've just about got everything ready. I just need to add my glasses, tools and the press to this pile. I'm slightly worried it won't all fit in the car at once! All the bagged frames are going to get strapped on the back seat, the boxes in the boot and I think a box and the press might end up on the passenger seat. I'm very excited about the new trolley I talked Chas into buying for family camping trips - at least I won't have to lug the press for miles by hand!
I really can't wait to see lots of my work all hanging on a wall together. I've never had a solo exhibition and this feels like a real opportunity for me to actually see a lot of my work all together. I'm hoping it's going to be a real celebration of the Swinley Forest as pretty much all the work is about the Forest. I'm really excited that I can arrange it all exactly as I want it rather than being at the mercy of a curator. It's very indulgent!
(I do really hope that I don't have to bring quite all of it home again though!!)