Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Inkodye on paper

The past couple of days I have been printing using Inkodye to print some botanicals from my garden. Yesterday, I printed on fabric. Today I decided to try printing on paper. When I researched it briefly online, most of the comments didn't sound too positive about using paper (you have to wash your print in very hot, soapy water with agitation). I wanted to try it anyhow so I got out some Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper, picked a few plants and went to work. 

I have to say, I had virtually no problems using paper. The color faded a bit during the washing process but it wasn't too bad. I'm pretty pleased with the end results. Here are a few shots of the progression:
The freshly coated paper at the start of the printing process. It was really sunny today so it immediately began to change color. 
This is the print right before washing. Notice the color change to dark violet. 
The final image as it's drying. I would show the dried version but the print is under a heavy book right now, flattening. I'll try to post a final version of it once it lays flat. 

I'm really enjoying this process, at least for contact printing objects. I'm not overly pleased with my results from enlarged negatives yet. I think I need to use very contrasty negatives to get something I will like. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, did you continue with this experiment? can i ask what kind of soap or agitation you used to wash the paper? Thank you!

Lev said...

I apologize for not responding sooner. I'm still using Inkodye in the summer on fabric, but not on paper anymore. It's not that the paper wasn't successful, I just became more interested in using fabric. I didn't use any soap on the paper. I just rinsed it off and then placed the paper in a pan of water and swished the water around the paper. I finished again with a rinse under running water. Hope this helps.