I volunteered for this year's Jailbird fundraising for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

(Go to http://www2.mda.org/goto/JonTaylor to donate)

I think everything that could go wrong with our car and our computer happened in the last two weeks so I am a bit late getting started. For this fundraising anyone interested can get an un-framed proof of some lino-cuts I started in Maui a couple of years ago, another plate cut earlier in the year to make a double print and a recently cut factory image made last week. For everyone donating $30 dollars you can get a single print, anyone donating $60 dollars or more will get two prints. There are several prints that have images from two plates that will be counted as a single while they last. All proofs are made with extremely high quality components: inks are Charbonnel etching inks and the proofs are printed on a tabletop Takach etching press on Arches Rives BFK paper. These will be un-framed and un-trimmed. There will be a date on the back and a signature on the front. In printmaking terms these pieces are all unique prints, so there will be no numbering system. Similar prints were on sale at a recent show and sold for $100 each.

This first image is of the current plates being used for the fundraising. The Beach 1 plate to the left was the first plate I cut in Hawaii a couple of years ago. I had another sister plate that was like fronds overlapping that I could never get to print as an underlay for the beach scene. The second plate cut earlier this year, Beach 2, was to be a better aligned background for the first beach scene, but although it was better, I never really liked the combination, although a couple of proofs were alright, a bit more detail will be added to this second plate and it will be used as a single. The last plate, Factory, was a spin off of the factory theme that evolved from the PRINT PAINT FLOW show at Johnston Architects this year. This plate may have a couple of colors, but will probably have a background color that is overprinted with a darker ink. A new plate with gliders over a valley landscape also has some recall to paintings from the PRINT PAINT FLOW show, it was cut specifically for this fundraiser. The new Glider plate and proofs of all plates can be seen at the end of the post below.

Inks are prepared and rolled on a glass surface over a support painted white.

Here is a proof that was just pulled off the plate after printing. There is a registration guide that is drawn on acetate with a Sharpie. This technique is important when trying to get a series of proofs to look the same on similar sized pieces of paper and when registering two or more plates on the same piece of paper.

A series of proofs with different inkings and plates, since these are all experiments in inking and number of plates, they are treated as unique prints.

Here is a variety of proofs

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