Hello,

I was going to show the different color separations and the groupping I've chosen for the first print of my Taketori series but I found that I couldn't attach all the images so I ended up writing a new blog entry:

http://esorigami.net/mokuhanga/blog/?po ... t-01-color

OK. Enough spamming. You can see the images and some text there. Basically, each block is meant to be re-used while printing. There are many different combinations but I've chosen this one I think can achieve the expected final composition:

Pigment colors palette: grey (alas "black"), green, brown, blue, yellow, red.

1) Print the pale green bamboo and the sun
2) Print the "first sky" blue bokashi top and yellow bokashi bottom
3) Print the red big frame
--- Wait for paper recovery
4) Print the green bokashi bamboo
5) Print the "first sky" blue second bokashi (darker)
6) Print the "second sky" bottom yellow bokashi
--- Wait for paper recovery
7) Print the brown bamboo
8) Print the seals background
--- Wait for paper recovery
9) Print the "second sky" top right grey bokashi
10) Print the "second sky" bottom yellow bokashi (darker)
--- Wait for paper recovery
11) "Print" the karazuri (embossing)


I do find it a bit confusing but maybe it's the best solution tough I think there's too many "waits" inbetween for printing over the same parts of the design.

I "want to" remember I read somewhere to wait around 2 hours for printing over the same area but I don't recall were.

Any idea to improve/short printing time? Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,
Franz

I'm not sure why you are scheduling so much 'wait' time. For the first test printing you will be doing, none is necessary. If the paper gets too wet at any point, simply ship a dry piece of paper between each pair of printing sheets for a few seconds, to pull out any excess moisture, and then continue.

When you are doing a larger edition, the moisture usually levels out by the time you come around to any sheet again, so no particular 'wait' is required. One way to help keep the moisture level constant is to stack your sheets 'heads & tails' after printing each colour - this helps keep the moisture even across the entire width of the paper.

I programmed so much "wait" times because I feared that some just-printed-pigment may be transfered to the block due to the paper fiber haven't beeing recovered from the baren preassure. All "wait" times separates zones that will be printed over again.

It happened to me with the prints of the "big" size (tested on dry and wet paper) on which I didn't wait at all and had some transfer. Probably, it was because I had to over preassure (to "flat" the infamous thin shina blocks...)

Thanks for the information. I'll test with different times as you suggest and I'll tell you how it went.

Sincerely,
Franz

Pigment transferring back to the block is usually a symptom of everything being too wet - particularly the paper. I don't think pressure per se is much of a factor ...

If it's a symptom of being too wet, as it happened also when printing on dry paper (after the first print took place obviously), probably then my pigment is too running.

But there were no symptoms of ink bleeding in the backside of the paper (neither the "normal" nor the hosho) as it happens when there's too much water in the process...

I'll make my pigment more thick and try to see if that helps.

Thank you very much for the information