Home Forums Explore Media Printmaking Anyone uses caligo safe wash relief inks?

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  • #474567
    satandraws
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        Hey, so I got some caligo safe wash relief inks for next semester, and i have a couple questions:

        1. It’s fairly stiff, can i thin it with the regular linseed oil a little or do i have to buy their tack reducer? I saw they also have a “safe wash oil” which it says is a polymerised linseed oil – i can get only buy one out of both if i’m getting any.

        2. Can this be used for drypoints and monotypes, if I get the tack reducer and use it in more ratio? We used letterpress inks in class and those also worked with drypoints fairly nicely, so i assume it’s the same with these? I couldn’t find what exactly is the difference between these and their safe wash intaglio inks. I can probably get a black intaglio ink but not all the primary colors+white, it’s too expensive.. so it would be interesting to know if the relief and intaglio inks mix with each other well in general.
        Thanks :)

        #842263
        blackandwhite
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            I think I have used both in the past. Generally speaking there is more pigment in intaglio inks, since those are usually used in thinner layers than relief inks, but I cannot guarantee that this is the case with these inks.

            Don’t add regular linseed oil (from oil painting stuff) to the inks. It will soak to the paper and will cause oily halo around the ink. Printmaking oils are much stiffer stuff. Tack reducer may work to achieve what you are looking for, or add burnt plate oil (or the equivalent safe wash oil) to the ink to reduce the viscosity. I would also try using heat plate to increase the ink temperature and also stir the ink heavily, which are tradtional methods for making the ink easier to work with.

            Almost anything works in monotype. Drypoint is more demanding for ink and you will have to try and see if it works. My gut feeling is that a relief ink with tack reducer might be too ‘short’ for drypoint, but that is just my personal preference.

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