22/12/25 The issue with working with collography is it looks like shit. It just looks like shit if you are not so surpremely careful, skilled, lucky. Truly wrangling the hog in the mud pit with this one. I got the akua mag mix instead of magnesium carbonate powder true, because... I couldn't get the powder. Ladies I travelled across the country and made a very nice man in the specialized shop run all over his storage for it. None. I got mag mix which I guess is fine. I'm afraid of the dreaded akua oily halos.
Didn't opt for a colored ink, though I really want a red one. I'm not buying more inks before I figure out registration, but I suppose that having a colored ink would... motivate me to figure out registration. NO! Just got to get back to the textures in b/w. I have magnesium now.
I'm really interested in printing with pigment/watercolor/gouache actually, hybridizing with mokuhanga, the japanese tradition. I know the theory of japanese printing, but IMO it seems unsuited for a collography plate. THEN I found an indication of Kiyoshi Saito doing some collographs? Got library books home to research this subject. I'll clue you in later.
Once again I have thrown myself upon the Youtubes to see how others have invented the wheel. Found a video of watercolor collography process. Spellbound by the sick frottage drawing she makes in the process of printing. Sceptical, though. Maybe for flat planes of exposed cardboard. Doesn't that take so much watercolor also? But she is printing a fucking cat so I salute her.
16/12/25 Finished with the printing of cards 24/20, the second eye is starting to peel off the plate now.
15/12/25 Print 21/20, the ballpoint pen indentation sceatches holding up surprisingly well.
14/12/25 Printing along.. 7/20 cards printed. Plate starting to show signs of degradation. I forgot how satisfying it is to see the sea of prints in an edition spread out. Wouldn't be doing this many if it wasn't for a purpose, probably.
Added 14min later: print 8/20, one eye just fell off.
13/12/25 Debating buying more inks, colored (red, if I had to choose, then blue+white(opaque), then yellow for the primaries as I love to mix). But then I might also instead go the mokuhanga direction (use pigments /watercolor and rice slurry) I just don't see the trashplates holding up to the moisture well, and I think you'd need a proper reduction matrix with height difference as well... Hrrmm but I've got some interesting sosaku-hanga books home from the library, it lists materials for each print, and they're using gouache a lot? Not too interested in hand coloring, perhaps I'll change my mind.
Then, also, after the Christmas cards I do want to go back to messing with registration, which needs to work before multiplate printing (and thus color) even comes into it. Much to do.
13/12/25 Wanted to talk about my inspirations here yesterday but was hit with a deathly ennui. It happens. It is my "arts disease" long term disability.
13/12/25 No real desire to make this a "tutorial space", but nonetheless perhaps someone is interested in my setup, so:
- I use a "craft press" -> actually this it is an a4 die cutting press. You need to jank it around for the right pressure but they're a fraction of the price of a proper press. And I'm just not going to hand print intaglio LOL. Get something with a pressure dial for QoL.
- My matrix is old milk/juice/bean cartons made out of tetra pak (paper with polyethyelene and sometimes aluminium coating). When I started back in 2021, it wasn't yet recyclable here, but now it goes into the plastic recycling, so my repurposing of the material is less dire. Lots of tutorials on using this as a print matrix around.
- I use a dry ballpoint pen with cat tape on it for markmaking. For black zones the plastic/alu layer is removed with a knife.
- Akua carbon black ink. I also have a Caligo safe wash relief black but that is hell to wipe (obviously).
- Back when I used the HellToWipe caligo ink I did way more collographic effects that don't seem to work with my softer akua. Still hoping to integrate different kinds of tape on the matrix for midtones again..
- With what do I wipe the plate? No point in telling you, just learn intaglio. (More polite version ->) I think it is very helpful to be familiar (even experienced) with the traditional print techniques and materials before going trashy. There's a lot of thought and technique in e-g- plate wiping that transfers, and I use mokuhanga/woodblock reduction technique in my intaglio work.
13/12/25 I think I have the plate and first print of this year's card. Can't share it here yet obviously as it is unreleased. I'm not satisfied. I want to make one hundred prints and designs, honing my skill and this concept, instead, this must be the first of its line, preserved in people's homes as a reminder of how it all started.
But you either accept the process or never make anything again. And if I wanted to not be at the start of my experiements, I should perhaps not begin them this close to production date! Besides I looked at it again with an "estranged eyeball" and they'll love it. It's pretty cute.
12/12/25 I want a tool that makes those fine fine engraved lines like on "Kleine katze" 
up above.
12/12/25 More at peace with the iformity of the "editions", it is just a reflection of life, decay, decay
11/12/25 Remembered the Erased de Koonig Drawing and pondered a print, on cotton rack, washed with soap and wrung out, perhaps then ironed, ghostly. Several color inks, even, unevenly erased. Yes, yes..
11/12/25 Pulled a couple prints I am pleased with already. I'm troubled by the iformity (the un-uniformity) of the prints, if they are supposed to be "editions". But that's how it is with this trash I am using! It degrades fast and that is how it is.
It has been nice to experiment but I do need to get going with the seasonal greeting!
9/12/25 Making friends with the AKUA, although I still cannot wipe the plate completely without it pulling the ink from the scratched deep lines.. Looking for magnesium carbonate but it is hard to source..
7/12/25 My online research informs me that this ink does loosen up over time, which explains why it is so soft perhaps (apart from it being a soft ink). I bought this new ink a year ago... hrrrm the hunt for magnesium carbonate starts (I do not want mag mix).
5/12/25 Great sucess with deformalizing the process, less planning, getting into the swing of things, just scratching down a tree, inking it up, printing it out, going again and getting the hand thinking instead of just the brain. Iterate, iterate, iterate..
If this is not the point of working with trash (tetra pak as matrix), then WHAT
is the point !
