Artist's Proofs. Although there is a limit to the edition of a print, there is a custom that the artist reserves the right to print an additional 10% of the total numbered edition for personal use. These extra prints are identical in quality to the numbered prints and are usually identified on the left margin (in place of a number) by one of the following markings: Artist's Proof written in longhand, A.P. (abbreviated version of same).
Bon-a-tirer (Fr. "Good to pull;" pron. bone-ah-ti-RAY) The first impression of a print run acceptable to the artist and used as the standard with which each subsequent impression is compared.
Cancelled plate. When the edition is fully printed, the plate is either destroyed or cancelled by the artist. Most artists mark or deface their plate in some way to show that the edition is completed. Sometimes, the artist will donate or sell the plate to a museum, where the plate serves to instruct the amateur and professional alike. Some plates, being in excellent condition, have been reprinted with the cancelling lines indicated.
Edition. The authorized number of impressions made from a single image, including all numbered prints and proofs. A limited edition has a specified number noted on the impression. The inscription 50/200 reveals that there were 200 prints issued, the one at hand being number 50. This does not mean that it is better or inferior in quality to higher or lower numbers. Since the artist destroys badly printed proofs, all are of equal merit.
Edition Size. The size of an edition is determined to some extent by the technique used. Intaglio printing yields many less successful prints due to the limited life of the plate. Editions of less than 100 are considered small. The contemporary artist often limits editions to 150-350.
Giclee(g-clay) is an elegant, state-of-the-art reproduction. The name comes from a French printmaker's term for "fine spray", and was adopted to distinquish the technique from odinary offset printing. A giclee is created by a digital printer's tiny ink jets that spray millions of droplets of water-based ink onto fine archival art paper or canvas known as the "substrate". The combination of specific inks and substrate are carefully selected to assure maximum print longevity. The original painting is photographed under specific lighting conditions. A digital file is created. Then, color technicians manipulate this file so that the hues and subtleties in color of the original will be captured in the reproduction. This involves many stages of proofing sending the final proof to the artist. He/she marks up any further corrections that need to be done to their print. Once these final corrections are completed, production is ready to begin. At the printers, output of the final canvasor paper reproduction begins. Tiny line by tiny line, using pigmented inks (not dyes), the image is created as the canvas/paper rolls forward and the ink is sprayed back and forth, line by line, to create the image. Each printer can print up to seven feet per hour, and is closely monitored for accuracy. Once a roll of canvas/paper is full of printed images, the coating process begins. Each roll proceeds through a coater, where an environmentally-safe, protective coating is applied to each image. This protects the image from damage, such as water. The inks are permanent, and the life of the product is guaranteed. An important advantaqge of the gicle'e method of art reproduction is that, like an oil, the final product needs no mat or glass. A staff of curators carefully inspects each piece of art. Any printing flaw or surface defect is detected at this stage, and is either repaired or rejected. The final product is then ready to be signed by the artist. After signing, one last inspection of each piece is completed.
Graphic. Any work printed directly on paper from a plate or block.
Hors de commerce (H.C.). (Fr. "Outside of Sale;" pron. OR de com-AIRCE) A designation for prints not in the numbered series, which are not for sale, but are pulled for the use of reissuing damaged prints.
Mezzotint. An intaglio process in which the plate surface is roughened and then an image is created by smoothing the areas to be printed.
Monotype. A unique print made from an inked, painted glass or metal plate. During production, a flat unprepared surface is painted with inks or paints in one or several colors, and a single impression is taken. A monotype is more closely akin to painting than any other form of print making.
Off-Set Lithograph. A reproduction, as opposed to a handprint, is a copy of an existing image, for example a painting. A photograph is taken of the image and by means of mechanical reproduction, using only four colors, a print is made of the painting.
Printing. Each is printed separately, usually on a hand press. Naturally, if
each color on a print has to be printed separately and each print carefully inked, the task is a long and
time-consuming one.
State (1st, 2nd, etc.) Version of a print which has been altered in color or image as the edition is printed.
The technique of etching is a very old process going back many centuries; Rembrandt, the great Dutch artist, was famous for his etchings in the 1600s.
Intaglio is the Italian word for indentation, to cut or to incise. After the image is cut into the plate, it is covered with a greasy printer's ink and carefully wiped clean so that the ink remains only in the incised design. A sheet of moistened paper is placed over the plate and then run through a press between rollers transferring the image to the paper. Areas of the plate that have been masked out during this process are still the original smooth metal and will hold no ink; these are the white areas in the finished print. The great pressure required to pick up the ink in the intaglio printing leaves a visible plate mark within the margin of the uncompressed paper.
All of the techniques listed below are basically similar. They vary only in the manner In which the lines to delineate the image are cut into the printing surface.
Etching. A metal plate, usually copper or zinc is etched using various acids or
mordants. Instead of cutting directly onto the plate, the artist covers the plate with acid-resistant ground and then draws on the plate, with special sharp tools, to remove the ground where the design is to be. The plate is then immersed in an acid bath which bites into the plate where the protective covering has been removed. Areas that are corroded, or bitten, are what will hold ink.
Engraving. This is probably the oldest of the intaglio processes. The design is cut into a hard surface, usually metal, with a sharp tool called a burin which carves a line out of the metal very cleanly, giving a clear and sharp final line. This process is used in the design of bank notes, postage stamps,
etc.
Dry Point. The artist works directly on the copper or zinc plate with a sharp steel or gemstone needle, which leaves two burrs, one on either side of a scratched line. The depth of the
line is controlled by the artist's muscle and experience. It is the ink caught in the burrs that forms the design and gives a wonderful velvet tone to the line.
Aquatint. Literally means "like a water color." Instead of lines being bitten by the acid bath, whole areas are exposed to the acid. The area is first prepared with a resin, usually in a powdered form, which is dusted on an area, heated from below the plate to make it adhere, and then given an acid bath to bite the tiny areas not covered by the granulated resin. The final effect is an image on a finely pebbled background. Most often the technique is used with engraving or etching. However, there are rare examples of pure aquatint.
The metal plate usually will last only for a limited number of pressings before wearing down, unless it is steel or chrome faced. However, there is still a limited lifetime to the plate, therefore, any prints coming from such a plate are true limited editions, limited by the lifetime of the plate!
What is an Original Serigraph?
Because it is basically a stencil process,
serigraph-(also known as silkscreening or screen printing) has the deepest roots of any of the printmaking techniques. Some early cave drawings may have been done with stencils; in the Middle Ages, artists used stencils to enhance other prints.
In 17th-century England, craftsmen made flocked wallpaper by applying adhesive via a stencil process. In Colonial America, artisans decorated objects with stencils that had frequent gaps caused by the bridges of paper needed to keep delicate designs from shifting.
Japanese artists solved the gap problem by attaching a fine but strong network of human hairs to fragile parts of the stencil. This may have given birth to the idea of using fabric stretched over
bars-silkscreens.
After World War I, silkscreening became popular among sign makers in the United States; during the Depression, the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) promoted it as a fine art form. Carl Zigrosser, a noted art historian of the time, gave the process its name: serigraphy, from the Greek
serikos, silk; and graphos, writing.
Though American artists established serigraphy as an art form, they seemed to lose interest during the 1950s, while artists abroad picked up the medium. In the 1960s, however, the pop art movement in the United States took serigraphy to new heights. Today, serigraphs are very much a part of the art market.
The technique offers artists a chance to do their own printing, since the equipment is easily assembled, relatively compact and inexpensive. Serigraphy also allows a great latitude of style. Screens can be stretched for large work, and an artist can produce the stencil image on the screen via a variety of techniques. Serigraphy is a "direct" printing process-the image isn't reversed from the screen to the
print which facilitates experimentation.
Briefly, a serigraph is made this way: A screen of silk, nylon or polyester is stretched tightly across a frame. A design is made in stencil form on the mesh by blocking out parts of the mesh. The remaining open areas allow the ink to be
squeegeed through to the paper below, resulting in the final printed image.
There are numerous methods of making a stencil. In the traditional method, artists make their own stencils by drawing an image directly onto the screen with
tusche, a greasy substance. The entire area is then coated with a fast-drying glue; however, the glue will not adhere to the greasy tusche areas. When the glue dries and becomes hard, the tusche (image area) is washed away. Left behind is the open stencil formed by the hardened glue. This is the area that will be printed. A separate screen must be prepared for each color
that is to be printed. There are different
methods to prepare these screens for printing. For example, the tightly stretched screens can be coated with photo emulsion and allowed to dry. Then, the design can be created on a series of acetate overlays, one per color, on which the artist can draw directly. The acetate overlay is then adhered directly to the prepared screen.
With the acetate in place, the plate is exposed on a light table. Areas not blocked by the design on the acetate will be "developed" and the emulsion will harden. Blocked areas will remain undeveloped. After exposure, the acetate is removed and the plate is washed with water under pressure. The undeveloped photo emulsion will be washed away in areas that are to be printed, allowing the ink to pass through the screen.
This process of preparing a screen, no matter which method is used, is called "cutting" the screen. Whatever the methods, remember that whenever a serigraph is printed in more than one color, a separate screen must be made for each color.
The serigraphs we've been discussing are works the artist conceived as serigraphs and had printed either by himself or a master printer under the artist's supervision. Although many prints may be made from each set of screens, each is printed
individually. Therefore, serigraphs, like other graphics media, are termed "multiple originals."
Because it's such a labor-intensive process to create the screens and print each sheet
separately, most original serigraphs are done in low edition
sizes, and the artist may choose to use only a few colors.
What is Raku in the World of Ceramics?
The act of Raku is attributed to the Zen Buddhist Monks of the 16th century Japan and was favored for the tea bowls of the great
tea masters. In that culture, Raku was more than a method of making and firing pottery. It was a philosophical way of being with all that was
Raku. The Japanese symbol for Raku can be translated to mean "enjoyment of freedom". However, as often the case with
other cultures' philosophies, we in the west have distilled Raku to a technical process. Raku is now generally accepted to mean a method of rapid firing and cooling of ceramic ware and thus the name of the finished product. Due to the glaze chemistry and low firing process used,
Raku is not water resistant or safe for food and is rather fragile.
Rather than practical, these works should be considered as vessels designed for our visual artistic pleasure.
Glass blowers are highly skilled artisans enjoying the creation of art pieces through the rise of ageless traditional tools and technique. The process includes gathering the molten glass onto the end of a steel pipe, blowing and shaping the glass, and decorating it with "bits" of molten glass chips of colored glass or gold and silver leaf. Exquisite design can be exhibited in blown glass art pieces. Perfume bottles, paper weights, and vases create beauty from the inside out, gloriously reflecting light and their surrounding environments.
