DRY CREEK ART PRESS
1456 S Broadway
Denver, CO 80210
303 956-2994
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DRY CREEK ART PRESS |
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1456 S Broadway |
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Woodblocks of the Flint Hills |
MAKING PAPER FOR THE FRONT SHEET |
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The raw Kozo fibers before being cooked. |
Beating the fiber for 1 1/2 hours |
Chiti or bark flecks are removed from the fibers. |
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The raw fiber is soaked for 24 hours and then cooked in a soda ash solution for 4-5 hours. |
Patricia Branstead of Kozo Fine Arts directed the beating of the kozo fibers. The half pound bundles were beat for 1 1/2 hours, breaking the fibers apart without cutting the length of the fiber. The length of the fiber give the paper its strength. |
During the beating, small chiti or bark chips are pulled from the fiber bundle. Some chiti can be left in the pulp which will show up as small flecks in the completed paper. |
| The fibers before and after beating. | Testing the fibers. | And now, the fiber pulp is ready to be made into paper. |
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| The bunble on the right is before beating and the stalks are still visible. After beating ,the left bundle has a much smoother consistancy. |
A pinch of the pulp is aggetated in distilled water to see if the fibers have separated during the beating. A milky solution means the pulp is ready for the next step. |
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| THE WOODBLOCKS IN PROGRESS | ||
| Printing on the Chandler &Price Press | The printed pages | The Vandercook Proofing Press set up for printing. |
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| Perry Loughridge printing the vignette images on the 1895 C&P Platen Press. Even though the press inks the block automatically, the paper must be manually pulled and placed on the paper guides without pinching a finger in the press. | One color at a time is printed and then allowed to dry for 12 to 18 hours. Shown are the pages with the vignette or spot illustrations. The poems have yet to be printed. | The large images for the book are printed on the Vandercook Flat Bed Press. The paper is positioned on the Tympan and the block inked before the roller is cranked across, applying pressure to the block. The block must be manually inked for each color run on each print. |
| THE PRINTS IN PROGRESS | ||
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BARN SHADOWS After some six color runs, the image begins to take shape. There will another two to three colors before the image is complete. |
SUNRISE After six color runs, the landscape is starting to take shape. This was on a prairie road west of Mattfield Green. It was the last time I saw the sun that day. |
SUNSET AND COWS This has five color runs with four or five to go. |
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VULTURES After three color runs, the sky is taking shape. Now, I begin work on the trees and foregrouns. I have drawn directly onto the block the shadow areas that will define the tree foreground shapes. . |
THE LIBRARY This is one of the sopt illustrations and measures 3" x 3". There will two more colors printed in order to complete the image. |
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| THE WOODBLOCKS | ||