Hey all, Lauren from studio #12 here. I've been getting ready for Philadelphia Open Studio Tours at IRS in (South/Olde/East?) Kensington/Fishtown - working on new art and trying to come up with a cool give-away for our studio trick-or-treating - so, this past weekend, my friend Farrar and I got together to test out this lo-tech lithography process she found on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2w0IFm7JOY The video-maker, Emilion, calls it Kitchen Litho, and it's a really cool way to do lithography without a stone or press. The setup/materials list is as follows: Cola, soap, veggie oil, aluminum foil (and something to tape it to, like an old plate), tape (obv.), some brushes, water, sponges, and hair dryer. For printing, you'll need paper, a medium-viscosity oil-based ink, a brayer, water, a sponge, and a spoon.
We wrapped our foil around some unmounted linoleum and went to town with our soap drawings (using the dull side of the foil).
Following the video relatively closely, we used a hair dryer to dry up the excess water from the soap, and then, in a plastic tray, poured cola over the plates. I'm guessing the acid in the cola reacts with the exposed foil to "etch" the plate. Water rinses off the excess cola, and the plate is wiped with a damp sponge, then buffed with oil to remove the soap and provide a sort of lacquer finish.
We tried a couple different inks, since Emilion suggests etching ink in his handbook, but the etching ink was a little too stiff in our opinion. We switched to oil-based relief ink, and that seemed to work better when rolling up the plate with the inked brayer and wiping off the excess ink with the wet sponge. (I don't have any pictures of this part - but I can definitely recommend wearing gloves! Or put newsprint down to trap the excess ink - there was a ton of it.) It took several inkings to get the plate looking like it would be ready to print, but, unfortunately, our proofs were not as beautiful as Emilion's:
Oh well, I guess practice makes perfect. Farrar and I are definitely going to try this again and hopefully work out all the kinks.
In the meantime, my POST giveaway will be a surprise. But I can say it will be awesome - so come by my studio on Saturday or Sunday to check it out.
