Printing Shifting Baseline

Our first large format landscape piece is about how rowan is recorded -- its seasons and history. The type was handset in 12pt Fournier (with a few words in italics). There are just shy of 500 words, and approximately 3000 characters when the non-printing spaces are included.

As we have for previous works, the text from the large was reformatted and printed as a broadsheet as well. This makes the text accessible in a smaller format. For Recording the Shifting Baseline, the broadsheet was printed first. The title was added with 10line wood grot. (Somehow, I didn't manage to get a photo of the lockup before reformatting the text to its longer orientation.) The broadsheets were printed on the 1910 treadle press onto 5 Seasons 90gsm paper, and with Hawthorn's letterpress brown ink. The studio conditions were good (18C), and the ink management was decent. As always, the combination of wood and metal type was a bit troublesome for the platen press, and the wood type is a bit "salty" (speckled).

For the large pieces, the text was reformatted (the typo removed), and laid out on our 1952 Soldans press. The large is printed onto handmade watercolour paper that was made by Barcham Green in 1981. It is nearly uniform in depth, so the impression of the type varies a little with each impression, depending on the depth of the sheet at each point.

Finally, the ink work was completed. The oak ink is from 2025 harvest (the wasps would have hatched in 2024); the rowan ink is from 2026. Both were foraged within five miles of Princetown.

In order, this is how the ink work was completed:

1. On the top 2/3 of the sheet, a layer of oak gall ink was added (no modifiers).
2. On the bottom 2/3 of the sheet, a layer of rowan ink was added.
3. On the top 2/3 of the sheet, a layer of iron gall ink was added (oak gall + iron II sulphate).
4. Across the intersection:
   1. a solution of tin chloride - clears the iron gall ink; makes the rowan ink bright orange; can add a "crackle" finish (inconsistent)
   2. a solution of baking soda - makes the iron gall ink purpleish
5. Mostly on the rowan: iron II sulphate was applied dry
6. Mostly on the iron gall ink (some onto rowan as well): citric acid was applied dry

The finished edition includes eleven pieces (several with ink imperfections from the press). All are unique.

The text is adapted from Recording the Shifting Baseline.