Traditional and new printmaking techniques
Printmaking has played an important role in
the art history of many societies. Over the centuries, its meanings
and uses have changed or become obsolete, transforming the craft
into its current status of a pure art form.
We are among those artists still fascinated
by the analytical conception and the technical process of making
a print. Producing a plate or a block, which means to work in a
sculptural way and to create a matrix, is completely different from
painting or drawing. Some printmaking techniques are very old, and
are still practiced in the way they were 500 years ago. It is our
interest to research the origins of printmaking as well as to follow
new (and less toxic) ways of printmaking techniques.
In order to work with 
intaglio,
we therefore turned towards new, less toxic methods, the
acrylic
grounds. We also introduce here the
photopolymer
film, which allows to use a photomechanical process in
addition to the classic techniques, and the traditional technique
of
photogravure, which makes it possible
to transfer photos to the copper plate with the most finest grey-tones
(but requiring toxic materials).
In the field of
woodblock, we are interested in the traditional
Japanese woodblock. Its transparent colourings and lively
surface produced by the use of water-based inks and the handprinting
with the baren lend this method its particular charm. This technique,
which stands for one of the most important chapters in printmaking
history, can be used today as it was used in the Edo period hundreds
of years ago.
It is not a printmaking technique, but a wonderful
craft and indispensable for printing Japanese woodblock prints:
kami-suki, the
Japanese papermaking.
Woodblock printing was developed in China. Traditional
Chinese woodblock fascinates us with its perfectly copied
washes. Here we present an historical introduction into the technique
with prints copied from classical
woodblock
prints from the Ming period.
Screenprinting is a recent, formerly commercial
printing technique, which is now an additional facet in the art
of printmaking. Here we present a formula for producing a
water-based screenprint paste.
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Copyright 2006 Eva Pietzcker and Miriam Zegrer
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