Inking and Printing Woodcuts question

[Room410]

Hi all,
I know there have been quite a few discussions here about inks for various techniques. I am teaching in a new program and I notice the previous teacher had some Akua-Kolor inks near all her woodcut supplies...I found an old thread on AKua inks and went to their website to watch the "how to" video clips and then tried the ink here....I have to say, I dont like it at all!! I find it difficult to roll up (layering method) and much too translucent.

I am wondering if any of you have suggestions for inks for woodcuts and if you have experience painting ink directly on a block or rolling it on with a brayer.

Also if anyone has any suggestions for the best/easiest way to clean (and be green) the wood block that would be greatly appreciated also!!
Thank you!
Doreen

[pld]

Hi Doreen. When I was a student we used the ordinary heavy offset inks for woodcut without any admixtures and I think the result was good. The way is to rolling the inks very slowly and gradually. First you must spread the ink on glass very uniformly and then to roll the ink upon the wood in many layers.



Plamena

[Room410]

thanks Plamena that does make sense to roll up slowly....appreciate the feedback!
Doreen

[Diane Cutter]

Doreen... I understand your frustration with Akua. There is a learning curve and, I find, they are better for when you want to lay one color on top of another to make a third, as they are not very opaque.

If you do play more with the Akua, there are two things that help. First, adding a couple of drops of tack thickener to the ink before rolling and, second, leaving the ink you plan on using exposed in the air for a while (a few hours is best)... both things will make the ink roll up much nicer, more like the traditional inks.

Also, re-inking several times before printing also gives you a deeper color.

Diane

[Diane Cutter]

Oh, but I wanted to add that, if you do monotypes with your students, Akuas are wonderful, especially if aired out a while so they aren't quite so runny... they give beautiful luminous color, easy to brush on, and easy to clean up with rubbing alcohol.

Diane

PPS... And you can teach Moku Hanga with the Akuas, brushing them on the woodcuts Japanese-style with stencil brushes...

( I think I'm through now... )

[windyowl]

have you tried adding translucent intaglio base? it makes it thicker and acts more like an oil ink than the thinner Kolor inks.

[CarolAnnH]

Akua Intaglio works perfectly for me with the addition of some translucent base. I can't give you a proportion. I put out about a teaspoon of translucent base and kept adding a little, mixing it in and trying it until I got the consistency I wanted. Translucent base doesn't affect the density of the colour pigment.

CarolAnn

[bernadettefranketess]

Water-based inks like the ones made by Speedball seem to work best for non-toxic cleanup...

[Room410]

thanks everyone! And thanks Diane! I had thought about the Akuas for mono types, that may be a summer project. thanks for all your advice! Since I am working in a school, I did use water based speedball and so far so good. we got pretty good results on thinner rice paper.

I do have some oil based speedball inks here and have thought about experimenting with them for hand coloring later. :-)
Doreen