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 2004 Eva Pietzcker and Miriam Zegrer