Sunday, January 30, 2011

Atlantic salmon printing



Weekends really need  to be longer, as I try to stuff so much into them, especially art, and this weekend has been no different.
Salmon prepped with ink and my hand to show scale

I've finally pulled out a very large salmon to print.  This salmon is about 3 feet long and weighs approximately 15lbs.  It was a donation luckily, otherwise it may have broken the bank to purchase a fish that big.  With large fish there are challenges, mostly of where to thaw it, clean it and print it.   The bathtub worked for the first two and I have a 4 foot folding table that works perfectly for printing and wet mounting.
 Salmon print hung to dry.  This sheet of unryu paper is 25" x 37"

I've done a number of prints of the whole fish as well as front and rear halves. Finding places to hang them to dry is my current problem.  I will set up a line in another room where I can peg prints while they dry.  The oil based inks take several days to cure completely before I can start adding the eye or any other colour.

7 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

Jeanette, when one works, weekends simply fly by! On Sunday nights, I used to hate Sunday nights when my to-do list showed as many items not done than things accomplished.
Well, with the printing of this gorgeous and huge salmon, you certainly accomplished quite something this weekend!

Lydie said...

I discovered Gyotaku with your blog, I find it very beautiful. It reminds me of trace fossils, but with colors. I guess after inking, they are unfit to eat ...

olivia said...

Jeannette , I am so happy to find fishes again in your blog. Great work and color !

Jeanette Jobson said...

So true Christiane, they fly by. And yes, printing this big guy was satisfying. Now to wait til they're dry and add an eye or more.

Lydie, gyotaku is endlessly interesting and the plain prints are very much like fossils.

Yes, you can eat them after they've been inked. It depends on how much and how long you've printed. The ink doesn't seep into the flesh and the water soluble oil based inks wash off easily. I usually freeze the fish again to reprint, as they're not as easy to come by as one would think.

Thanks Olivia. I always return to the fishes... :) I started out printing blue then added red ink over it so it comes out a sort of purple/blue that's quite effective.

Susan said...

Hi Jeanette, this is a fascinating process and thank you for showing it. I agree that the prints look lke fossils and I find them so compeling - I simply love your fish prints.

Jennifer Rose said...

what a neat looking print :D love the colour

Unknown said...

This is a really interesting post. Must be heavy trying to print a fish so large.

Like the dog sketch above too.