Shona Branigan

october 2020

 

I am delighted to be part of this project and have been given 3 rounds from the Ash Tree.

The large round is from near the base and I am looking forward to taming and printing this piece of wood. Also 2 smaller but perfectly formed rounds one of which I have now worked on and printed. 

Now that I have the rounds and can see their potential, I will return one of the smaller rounds to the project schools once I have made it into a printable surface.

I will create a printing package which will include ink, roller, paper, bone folder so that the children will be able to create quality prints for themselves. I will create an instruction leaflet and also film the process of printing so that the teachers know exactly how to do it.

 
 

Here is the process of sanding, burning, wire brushing, and shellacking the surface of the wood which makes it into a relief printable surface.

Once it is as clean as possible I seal the surface with shellac. I use traditional linseed oil printing inks and clean off from the wood with turps so a sealed surface is a good plan.

I use a hand held blow torch which lightly burns the surface of the wood burning away softer wood and creating a raised surface.

Now the wood is ready to ink which is applied with a quality roller.

The next step is to progressively wire brush all of the burned wood away so none of the precious detail is obscured.

I use heritage rag paper and apply pressure with a bone folder which is a hand held bookbinders tool. With a small tool and great paper I can apply enough pressure to create a finely detailed print.

28th October 2020 - update

Out of 3 rounds, I have printed one of the small ones and the large one and will do the second small one as soon as it stops raining! as I need to prep the wood outside. The wood has printed really well- very pleased.

I will post to you 3 prints- one from each piece of wood.

I will also post to you one of the small rounds made ready for printing. I will organise a printing pack of equipment, paper, ink, roller etc so that children can print it themselves as its very easy to do. I will do an instruction sheet but also create a small video showing the printing and upload to youtube. I have a number of small videos of the wood prep process as well to upload to youtube which I hope to do soon.

April 2021 - The printing process

Starting to process the full round of the Andover Ash to make it printable

Checking how well the sanding has gone and deciding to do some more

One of the smaller rounds from the Andover Ash tree has been burned to raise the surface, I now need to wire brush until every speck of burned wood is removed

The first part of making the wood printable: sand away all unwanted cut marks

Burning the wood to make a raised surface

The finished result!

  • I have printed all 3 rounds now including the base piece. I have 3 prints one from each round parcelled and ready to post to the project.

  • I have the printing kit ready too for schools- which includes:

Round of wood

Ink

Roller

Paper

Bone folder for pressing it

Instructions (emailed)

  • I can also make a short video of the ash rounds and me printing a small piece to tie it all together for the teachers and schools to refer to.