Artistic Explorations: 3D Design (3)

Last month I wrote about my experimentation with the 3D printer at MAKE Aberdeen to create printing plates. I have now finished my project with the lasercutter and although there is still lots to learn and to find out which images would work best, I'm much happier with the result!

Video of lasercutter in action

For the front cover I used the same image of tree branches and after many, many, many trials on the lasercutter and perfecting my design in Illustrator, I finally made this in birch plywood.

The front cover is laser cut

For the back cover, the same image was used but it was laser engraved instead of laser cut. I added text such as a title and my website.

The back cover is laser engraved (apart from the holes)

For the pages of my artists' book, I laser engraved four different photos (which were converted into bitmap) onto acrylic plates, 2 and 3 mm thick.

The first image of birch tree trunks had the best result. It did show the horizontal digital lines across from the lasercutter but not so much as the others. According to the studio manager this had to do with the fact that acrylic sheets are actually not completely flat and the lasercutter will read every tiny unevenness! For the images I have been using for this project it's not a disaster as it adds to the markmaking of the trees and leaves in the final print, but I will be very cautious with choosing a photo next time. I would like to spend more time experimenting and see what happens with different kind of images.

Acrylic printing plate with photo engraving

Acrylic printing plate with a different photo engraving

Acrylic printing plate with another different photo engraving

Each plate was inked up with Caligo Safewash ink in various natural colours and printed off (intaglio) on various printmaking papers like Somerset and Fabriano with my Xcut Xpress. I added more or less extender to the ink to vary tones in colour. I also printed off some ghost prints (printing off left over ink).

The 2 mm thickness is definitely not something I would use again as it's too flexible and it's more liable to breaking in the press (which happened to one of my plates!).

Printing the laser engraved plates with the Xcut Xpress

One of the prints of leaves

One of the prints of the birch tree trunks

One of the prints of the bark texture

Different tonal print of the leaves

Close-up of birch tree trunks print

Green print of birch tree trunks

Print of  forest with tree trunks

Close-up of leaves print

Ghost print of moss/lychen texture

After a lot of physical work I had 24 handpulled prints which were then collated and glued to make 12 signatures. These were then handbound with a coptic stitch together with the front and back cover.

This is how it looks finished. The size is 20 x 20 cm.

Artists' book "Woodland", front

Artists' book "Woodland", front and back

Artists' book "Woodland", handbound with coptic stitch

Artists' book "Woodland", pages

I decided to mix up colours and designs. There was one page slightly smaller than all the the others and incorporated this one together with the same design but in a dark green colour into one signature.

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

One of the pages in Artists' book "Woodland"

After I had posted it onto my Facebook page, I received overwhelming positive feedback....from across the world!! Thanks everyone.

My plan now is to make a limited edition of this artists' book "Woodland", with reproductions of my original prints. I had hoped I could do that at MAKE Aberdeen but unfortunately they are going to close down this week. Fingers crossed the digi lab at Peacock Visual Arts can help me with that so I can submit my work to a few upcoming exhibitions.