Labor Day(s)

This was a three day weekend for most people.
But not for the fine folks at Tamarind.
Labor Day Weekend = Three Days of Labor
Here's how it broke down:

Saturday

After my late night of working and Sponge Dancing, I went into the studio around 9am to meet Alex. We were able to complete the editions on our stones, despite the fact that we probably shouldn't have.

I say we probably shouldn't have pulled our editions because after proofing our stones, they both looked pretty crappy. Not super crappy, but not perfect either. And unless the artist intends it to be so, you should never knowingly pull an edition that has something wrong with it. But we were tired... oh so tired of these stones. I personally tried to "fix" mine four times. The problem with my stone was that it didn't really like the way I counter-etched it. Some stones are more accepting than others and can take a stronger counter-etch. But mine kind of rejected it. So when I tried to add back on to stone, in some areas, it started coming off. So in my beautiful black border I had these white spots and lines. It started to break down the more I printed it. It was sad.

Alex had similar problems but we were both able to get our edition to be consistent... even if it was consistently crappy. We finished with those editions around 4pm. Alex had company coming in from Houston and I had a date with the Saint Louis Cardinals so it worked out well. (And the Cardinals won for me 11-3, which made the day even better.)

Sunday

Alex's friend stuck around ABQ until lunchtime on Sunday which meant I was able to get a few things done in the morning. I decided that it would be a good time to do laundry and I carried my stuff down the block and a half to the nearby laundromat. I always enjoy being at places other than home and Tamarind.

I folded my things and got home in time to catch the Cardinals squaring off again versus the Cincinnati Reds. Alex called me to meet up at the studio around 2pm. I didn't have time to finish watching the game but got to see Rick Ankiel hit me another home run. (The Cards ended up winning that one 3-2.) After our morning off, neither Alex nor I were in any mood to print. We had hoped to edition at least one of our plates, but our plates thought otherwise. We started with Alex's plate and were unable to get a good print for some reason. We think it had something to do with the press set-up, but we're not sure. It took us several hours to finally get a good print and by the time we proofed her plate, it was nearly 5pm.

This project is made a bit more difficult by the fact that Rodney wants us to proof these things in three different types of black ink. We're to use a Black Shop Mix (semi-greasy), Daniel Smith Classic Black (sorta-stiff), and Crayon Black (super-stiff) to see which one works best for our stone and plate. It wouldn't be so bad except that in between each type of ink, you have to clean the roller and the ink slab and your plate or stone. It's a lot of extra work... but it is helping us to get familiar with the differences between the inks and what situations it might be good to use them in.

By 6pm, we were ready to get out of there. Patrick invited us back to his place for another barbecue. The food was delicious and again, it was nice to be away from the square blockage of my house and Tamarind. We even got treated to a fireworks show from the nearby minor league baseball field.

Monday

At 9am this morning, we were back at it again in the studio. I got there a few minutes before Alexandra and had my plate on the press and ready to go. Upon arrival, Alex proposed that we only edition my plate. She wanted to wait to do hers until Tuesday (even though it was suggested that we should have these done this weekend). So we got my plate finished around lunchtime with just a few minor issues.

I learned that when you have a solid flat area with a lot of ink (like the black borders), it's good to pull the paper off the stone or plate from a center point on one edge of the paper, rather than from the corner. For the first few prints I was getting a light area on my border and I couldn't figure out why. I tried changing up my rolling methods and adding more ink. But that didn't make a difference. Turns out it was something as simple as they way I was peeling it off. I won't make that mistake again twice.

After cleaning up, I went home and watched yet another Cardinals game. This time it was a 11-0 pounding from the Pittsburgh Pirates. It was very painful to watch. Fortunately, the Brewers and the Cubs also lost their games today, so it's like it didn't even happen.

In the afternoon, Alex took me to Wal-Mart with her so that I could do some grocery shopping. I'd been running out of things to eat, so I'm glad that I went. In addition to items for a half dozen meals, I also got a colander (yay!) and a blender. Now I can drain things and blend things. I'm very happy.