Aquarelle Printing Workshop

At the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts we found the only existing workshop for chinese aquarelle printing and with it, the unique working desks and tools.
The technique has nothing to do with japanese print technology as the professor said when he introduced us to his workshop. The image to be printed is cut into wood with a special knife, and for each color like, in screen printing, a single image is made. The printing plate of wood is fixed with some tar like gum, which is heated up in a little box buy a lightbulb to make it smooth. Once the board is fixed on the printing table and the tar is cold, ink is applied with a special brush. Paper sheets are fixed in a wooden vise on the right hand of the table so they are fixed in position. Each paper is turned over single on the printing plate. A piece of wood stringed with material is used to press the paper onto the printing platte. After that the sheet is removed and hangs down trough a hole in the desk to dry.
In that way hundreds of similar prints can be made with several layers in different colors. Some lines on the prints are easily recognizable as printed lines. Other once have a very similar characteristic to brush stroke of aquarell paintings which gives the print a certain kind of lifelines and this is the special character of his print method.
(Klaas Hübner)



(video sebastian siechold)