(Those of you who are paying attention will notice that posts are showing up out of order. Yesterday’s post on ink transparency got bumped up so I could send it to printmaker friends and ask for help…)

I really don’t know what has changed since I was pulling decent prints last week, but something has. Suddenly I cannot get the roller up and onto the plate if there’s enough pressure to give me a good image. It may be that the new jig is slightly shallower than the old one, making the block lip slightly higher? I just don’t know, but I’m impatient to continue with my color experiments and don’t want to waste a lot of time figuring it out.

[Block and paper]

Then comes the hard rubber offset press blanket. This gives a firm, but slightly resilient surface, resulting in a very slight and controllable embossing.

[Hard rubber offset press blanket]

To get the rollers up onto the plate, I’m using a ramp of masonite. To get the rollers onto the masonite, I’m cushioning the edge with the thick rubber blanket that comes with the Whelan press.

[Masonite and thick rubber blanket]

With just the thick rubber blanket and no masonite, there was too much pressure being applied to the hard rubber blanket, resulting in too much embossing.

So, yeah, it’s a lot of fiddling to get the layers in place for each print, but at least I’m not dead in the water while I carve yet another jig.