In the Studio: Registration
[In the Studio: June 11, 2011 /Image & Artwork: designslinger studio]
We register to vote, to go to school, and when you want your linoleum blocks to line-up correctly for a multi-block color print, you register them as well.
[In the Studio: Registration /Image & Artwork: designslinger studio]
There's no paperwork to fill out, but somehow you have to come up with a way to make sure one color printed on your sheet of expensive, acid-free, pH-balanced art paper matches-up with the other colors that have to be printed on the exact same sheet of paper which come to you from any one of a number of other color-inked blocks. It seems like all you should have to do is precisely mark the print bed with pencil lines indicating where each block should be placed in relation to the paper, then merrily and accurately print away. In theory it works, in reality, sometimes it works, sometimes - not so great.
Even after several tests and a subtle re-shifting of blocks, with rulers out and microscopic adjustments, some prints line-up perfectly, some are off by just a hair, and some look like they were printed with your eyes closed. But you push on, hope for the best and after running 50 to 80 sheets of paper through the press, you end up with an edition of prints that you can be proud of.
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