Xerox Workshop
March 7, 2009
10:00am -2:00pm
Tiger Lily Press
April Foster will demonstrate photocopy transfer processes. Solvents can transfer black and white or color laser copies to soft printing papers. Additionally, photocopies can be turned into paper lithographs, inked and printed in color.
What to bring
Printing papers, softer work better, Rives BFK, Arches Cover, Stonehenge, Arches 88 but any kind of paper will work. Oriental papers may be printed on and /or glued onto the print using the Chine Colle process.
Various laser or toner photocopies can be 8.5" x 11" or 8.5" x 14" or 11" x 17". You might bring multiple copies of the same image in case one does not work. Darker is better. However, heavy black areas or close valued areas do not work as well. More textured black and white, high contrast is better. You can keep re-xeroxing the same photocopy to increase the textural qualities. The back of the photocopy can be painted or sprayed with shellac. This hardens the paper and helps it stand up to water. There will be spray shellac available to try. Various colored rice papers can be cut into shapes and laminated to the paper when the photocopies are printed.
Additional supplies: Apron, newsprint (provided by Tiger Lily), rags or paper towels for clean up, cutting mat, cutting knife (images can be cut out and inked up carefully). It is better to recopy a cut out image so there is paper around the image. Very small pieces are hard to ink up, they roll up onto the roller. They can be torn down before printing.
Things to think about:
1. Imagery must be toner based photocopies. Inkjet prints will not work with these processes. If you have an inkjet image or text, photocopy it at Kinko's or elsewhere.
2. Images and text will reverse when transferred. If that is a problem, photocopy the image or text onto a transparency, flip it over and photocopy again so the image and text read backwards on the paper. Then when it transfers, the words or image will read correctly. Imagery can be flipped in the computer and photocopied to read backwards to transfer the right way.
3. It is good to have several copies of the same thing in case the first one does not work.
4. Be experimental. Use the attributes of the photocopy machine to blow things up, shrink down, layer imagery with the transparencies.
5. Linear imagery works well for the color inked printed photocopy. You can also degenerate images by continually re-photocopying them. They become more grainy black and white. Use the text setting on the photocopy machine, preferably not the photo setting as the toner is not as dark. (Photo setting may work for some things.) Experiment!
6. You may want to keep the size of images moderate to small so all people will have time to print. We have two etching presses and we will try to use the letterpress as well. Images can be printed and then lighter or ghost printings can be made with residual ink. So you could repeat imagery or do more than one book structure.
7. Think about the colors you may want to use. We will have several inking stations set up around the room for people to share. We have a lot of rollers and brayers but bring your own if you have some. The oil base colors can be mixed, white or black added or made more transparent. People have done this process with oil paints.
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