| WRTuthill |  |
www.wrtuthill.com |
| P.O. Box 981 | info@wrtuthill.com | |
| Great Falls, VA 22066 |
The studio includes a working printmaking shop with an antique Fuchs & Lang lithographic press of late 1800s vintage. All lithographs are pulled by hand on the manually operated press. My traditional stone lithographic images are created by essentially the same labor-intensive process used over a hundred years ago. This is the reason for the quality and richness of the images. Each and every stone lithograph I create goes though the following process.
Grind The Stone: First, I prepare the stone on which to draw. The surface of the stone is ground smooth with carborundum grits, sandpaper without the paper. Water acts as a lubricant and a second stone acts as a weight and grinding surface.
Draw The Image: Next, I draw on the stone with lithographic crayons. The crayons leave greasy marks on the stone to create the image. Lampblack in the crayons shows where I've drawn.
Etch The Image: Once the drawing is complete, I prepare the image for printing by etching it with gum arabic. After the etch has set, the drawing is removed with lithotine, replaced with asphalthum and the etch is removed with water.
Ink The Image: Ink is applied to the image with a roller. The roller picks up ink from the ink slab and deposits ink on the greasy image on the stone. The wet, non-image areas repel ink.
Print The Image: The fully inked image is cranked through the press forcing the ink from the stone onto the paper. The paper is peeled from the stone to reveal the final image.