mLee Fine Art

Chin colle set up
Originally uploaded by m.Lee.

I have been doing this process a lot lately and have been getting a lot of questions about it. Instead of explaining it quickly over and over I am goin to explain it in debth here and then point any curious people here. I realize that plenty of my printmaking readers not only understand chin colle, but they know more about it than I do. Any additional information to add would be wonderful.

In preparation I bought some powdered wheat paste that I put in a cheese container covered with a nylon sock so that it sifts out finely. I have a spray bottle filled with water set on the finest mist. I went shopping and found some wonderful sheets of multi-colored paper that are perfect for chin colle. I start the process by laying down a piece of paper that I want to print on and a strip of colored paper that is smaller than it. The block has already been inked up and is waiting on the press. I dust the powdered glue onto the colored paper until it is covered like in the picture, then I carefully move it to the inked block glue side up. That is when I mist down the white paper. Once it is slightly wet I pick it up and place it on the block on top of the colored paper and make sure everything is layed out right. I put down newsprint, cardboard and my printing blanket and run them all through the press. When I pull the paper from the block ever so gently I am left with something like this. The bond is tight and other layers can be printed the normal way once the paper has dried. That sums up the process of chinc colle, it is a ton of extra work but I really think it can add a lot to certain prints.