Jigmake Full Version
Oleta Blaylock
The problem: registration. Put simply, registration means making sure the paper and the inked surface meet exactly the same way with each new layer of ink in a multi-color print job. The comic book image and old Russian matchboxes above show what misregistration looks like. They were made using offset printing, while my jig is for woodcut and linocut printing, but the problem is the same: the paper and the inked plate are not properly lined up. You can see it in my horribly misaligned robot, which is a woodcut that was made without using my jig.
I have no problem admitting that all of these shortcomings are mostly due to operator error. I don't have a dedicated studio where I can leave things set up, and (more importantly) I know myself. At some point I'm going to get distracted or rushed and a step is going to get skipped or something is going to be flipped. Perhaps I'm going to have to move everything to another room while I take on some other task. In other words, if a system's main source of precision is the user, it's probably not the right system for me. I also have a habit of thinking bigger than the relatively small prints that I usually see people using these methods for.
I love printmaking. I'd love to have a nice press and a studio, but I don't and probably never will. That doesn't mean I don't want to produce quality prints. I found myself making a multi-color print earlier this year and realized I didn't have any confidence that I could achieve proper registration. So I built myself some confidence out of plywood and a couple pencil pieces whittled down to precisely 9/32 of an inch in diameter. (Prototype #1, which was used for the 3-color American Eel print.)
(Compare Robot #1 and Robot #4 to see how even with the jig things can go off track. I have no idea how it got misaligned, but it did. Still, it's better than the robot that was printed using pencil marks on the block and the paper. I swear I did not intentionally print the black so much higher than it was supposed to be just to make my case for the jig. I really thought I had it lined up!
*Explaining key blocks is outside the scope of this Instructable, but this one by JavierL90 covers it very well. Where it has you lift the key image to the side, with my jig you'd keep it on the pins and lift it toward the top while switching blocks.
Cut a slot in your main piece of plywood. It has to be wide enough for the bolt/screw to fit through and move back and forth without binding. The slot should not extend all the way to either corner (see Fig. 1) . I made mine 45, but it might not be the best choice. Time will tell how it works out for me. It may depend on the sizes of prints you make. Later versions of this jig might have 2 (or more?) slots to accommodate more print sizes and shapes.
You can see in my photos that I used a router (not as well as I intended*) to make the slot. I was going to just cut 2-3 passes with my circular saw but all of my batteries died and my corded circular saw started throwing sparks and smoking the last time I used it. I switched to my router, but since the smallest straight bit I have is 1/4-inch, the slot is wider than it needs to be for the screw I was planning to use. It works just fine.
I chose to make a channel on the underside so the washer and screw head could move without protruding. You could achieve the same outcome by making a second piece of plywood identical to the first one but with a wider slot cut through it (a little wider than your washer). That was my original plan.
*It started raining right as I was about to step out into the sunshine to build this on a nice big work surface. I ended up having to do all my cutting, drilling and routing under the big umbrella of the table on my back porch. Water was dripping on my back but I managed to keep the wood and tools dry. It meant I made some bad cuts due to insufficiently supported materials and I sometimes rushed due to a weather-induced bad attitude.
Note of lesson learned: I recommend putting the holes about an inch back from the edge of the top piece. This gives room for the tabs to be well-taped to the paper without them reaching over the inked area of the block. On my original prototype, I had them too far back and wasted some paper. I overcompensated on this second prototype.
I will also say that if they really do fit your punched holes snugly, you definitely do not need to make them tall as a safety measure (because you're worried about the tab slipping up and off of them during printing).
But a word of warning: If the tabs are very snug on the pins, the pins must fit very tightly into the holes in the wood. If they are not, they will pull out when you lift the tabs each time you remove a piece of paper after printing. This is not a theoretical concern. It happened to me many times while using prototype #1 (the one with whittled pencils as pins).
Make tabs as mentioned elsewhere by finding plastic that is tough enough that it won't stretch or tear, but that is not so stiff it won't flex without cracking. Look for notebooks with plastic covers or plastic folders, envelopes, etc. If you are a drummer with old drum heads sitting around, they ought to be perfect.
Note: For small prints like this, taping only on the back is probably sufficiently stable. For larger prints, or ones with more colors that will be pushed onto and pulled off of the pins many times, use more tape and/or tape on the front as well.
(For this print I just used some scrap paper. Ordinarily it would be sized appropriately for the block and I would worry more about making sure it was lined up so the image would be straight and centered.)
If you prefer, you can make tabs with just one hole. You'll have to use at least two of them on every piece of paper to get stability. If you go this route a 3-hole punch is not necessary and the spacing of your pins is less critical.
If you get ink on parts of the block that are not meant to print (such as the open area outside the border of the robot print), or on the jig itself, you can end up getting marks in areas of the image you want empty. On one of the 4 robots I forgot to move the mask aside and got black ink outside the image.
The mask is simply a piece of transparent plastic (I used printable transparencies meant for overhead projectors) with a window cut out for the image portion of the block. I set it on top of the block (while it was locked into the jig) and drew around the image area with a permanent marker, then cut that out. I also snipped the transparency from the holes to the edge to make it easier to get on and off repeatedly. To keep it from blowing away or sliding around on the table I put a piece of blue tape on the edge to act as a hinge.
After drawing the image on the block, make a rough copy of it on something transparent. If an ink layer completely obscures the original drawing you can use this to remind you what is what. You can make it as detailed or vague as you want. I knew I'd be able to remember what was yellow, so I only marked the black and red.
The robot print I made is what's called a reduction woodcut. That means you print a color then carve out everywhere that you want that color to remain. You print another color, carve again, print again, and so on. They usually start with the lightest color and end with the darkest. Some artists do reductions with dozens of layers of ink. With my jig and this small, soft block I was able to carve without removing it from the jig. That might not always work as the pressure of carving could slowly move or loosen the locked "square."
This robot is an extremely simple example of reduction printing. Ludicrously simple. To see what the technique can really do, check out -rise-of-color-reduction-prints and then look for more prints by artists like Siemen Dijkstra, Grieje Postma, William H. Hays, Dave Lefner, and many others. Follow #reductionwoodcut on Instagram to find more artists working in this format. (I was going to start linking accounts, but there are too many great ones. Just go browse the hashtag and follow some artists.)
Note: My block was not perfectly square, so the left edge is not meeting the side fence. This does not matter as long as it is locked in tightly and will not move. Test yours by trying to make it move.
Another Note: If using separate blocks for each color (like I did for the American Eel print shown earlier), simply make sure they are all identical in size and shape. Lock the first one into the jig, print it, then remove it and insert the next one WITHOUT MOVING THE "SQUARE."
Even with the jig, one of my 4 prints was slightly off. I don't know what I did or what moved, but it happened. I do know it had to be operator error, since no part of the jig moved. This jig works very well, but it's not magic. There will still be errors. If comic book printers and newspapers with presses costing many thousands of dollars can have registration issues, can a sub-$25 jig hope to eliminate human imperfections? (Hint: no.)
This sheds a bit of light on the matter:
(from _5.html )
The Irish Jig
The Scottish Version of the Irish Jig is another caricature dance depicting an Irish washerwoman who is angry with her erring husband. The costume worn for this dance is either a red or emerald green skirt and bodice and a full white petticoat, with a white blouse, with a white apron. Red or green jig shoes are worn and there is much stamping and facial grimacing in this dance. In the male version, the dancer wears a red or green tailcoat with a waistcoat of the opposite colour, brown knee britches of corduroy, with a paddy hat and he carries a shillelagh, which is a club made from the forked branch of a tree.
Bourne first proposed the film to BBC Scotland commissioning editor Ewan Angus in 2009 after hearing that the 40th World Championships were to be held in Glasgow. After realising further funding would be required, Bourne negotiated a deal with Creative Scotland and the BBC which secured a short theatrical release for the project followed by reversion of the TV rights to BBC2.[2]
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