TSB
General => General Discussion and ??? => Topic started by: Frog on August 15, 2019, 12:10:08 PM
-
Going through a drawer in my art desk/lightable and found these puppies
-
Going through a drawer in my art desk/lightable and found these puppies
We loved the Silver Genie pens, so much better than etching with a needle cutter (at least that's what I used).
Steve
I'll bet there are more than a few wondering what the hell that is...
-
I was going thru a drawer the other day and found a roll of rubylith.
Does this mean we're old.......... ;)
-
I was going thru a drawer the other day and found a roll of rubylith.
Does this mean we're old.......... ;)
I have a big box of it out back. I can't bring myself to toss it since it's tucked nicely down the side of the expo unit. It looks like it's still sold...maybe an art school or some local artist would want it.
-
I remember them when i worked at a screen supplier many moons ago. I recall that they were like erasers on old stats I think?
-
I remember them when i worked at a screen supplier many moons ago. I recall that they were like erasers on old stats I think?
Woah, I NEVER knew such a thing existed. We always scraped the crap off with an xacto blade. I would have loved these things.
-
I seen guys with swivel exactos that could cut out detail unimaginable today, sign printers mostly.
-
I seen guys with swivel exactos that could cut out detail unimaginable today, sign printers mostly.
Actually, with a little learned and practiced technique of relaxing my grip, I could usually rival them with a standard fixed #11 blade
-
Rubylith has great edge quality. The key we found is to develop a great cutting technique in one direction with a steady arm and hand and then spin the art underneath to use that same precise motion on all cuts. Easy to repair mistakes with opaque ink and a #2 Rapidograph on the back side. Save that Rubylith, it is so hard to find nowadays. Being able to cut arched block lettering or Times New Roman was sheer magic back then that we can all do now with warp in Illustrator in a split second. We made our own cutters out of old #2 Red Sable touch up brushes by breaking off a bit of a straight edge razor blade and sliding it into a slot on the wooden end of the brush and gluing it in after lashing it with dacron fishing line(before swivel knives and monofilament mesh were invented!). Allowed for much easier smooth tight curves since you could spin the thin wooden brush handle. Great tool for the screen room. You can lay a rectangle over a top of screens to prevent light contamination, block out one end of the screen to do different exposure times if needed on fine copy, put over lights or windows to make screen room safe or use a large rectangle in a step test. Love the stuff.
-
Rubylith has great edge quality. The key we found is to develop a great cutting technique in one direction with a steady arm and hand and then spin the art underneath to use that same precise motion on all cuts. Easy to repair mistakes with opaque ink and a #2 Rapidograph on the back side. Save that Rubylith, it is so hard to find nowadays. Being able to cut arched block lettering or Times New Roman was sheer magic back then that we can all do now with warp in Illustrator in a split second. We made our own cutters out of old #2 Red Sable touch up brushes by breaking off a bit of a straight edge razor blade and sliding it into a slot on the wooden end of the brush and gluing it in after lashing it with dacron fishing line(before swivel knives and monofilament mesh were invented!). Allowed for much easier smooth tight curves since you could spin the thin wooden brush handle. Great tool for the screen room. You can lay a rectangle over a top of screens to prevent light contamination, block out one end of the screen to do different exposure times if needed on fine copy, put over lights or windows to make screen room safe or use a large rectangle in a step test. Love the stuff.
many of us in prehistoric times getting into "Silk Screening" later to be named "Screen Process Printing" first made our stencils with indirect film, cut similarly to rubylith, but, no in-between photo step. Once cut, applied directly to the screen (still actual silk)
These were either lacquer soluable films for use with water based inks, or water soluable for solvent based (or even plastisol).
Sold be Ulano, my first lacquer films were wax paper backed, which worked as a great indicator and learning tool because to retain a sharp edge, one barely kissed their cut through the lacquer. No bright white lines should show on the undewrside, and heaven forbid cutting all the way through the wax paper as well! These were then applied similarly as capilary film, but using lacquer thinner or proprietary "adhesion liquid" Even that had a learning curve!
-
My how times have changed. Stat cam and film processor, rubylith or amberlith, halftone sheets from the art supply store. Wood frames hand stretched and stapled. Pulled my first squeegee 31 years ago.
-
Check the book out "History of Screen Printing. RH had a bit to do with getting it republished. BTW I need old fashioned grease pencils and such to hand draw on screens if anyone is in the know
-
Not sure if these are what you are looking for Tony: https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030 (https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030) I have used them in the past to draw directly on the screen. For those who have never tried this it is an amazing way to make a screen. You draw directly on the screen and achieve incredible tonals, coat with white glue and the wax crayon resists the glue. Been awhile since I've done this. The hard part is you can never make another screen like it again.
-
Not sure if these are what you are looking for Tony: https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030 (https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030) I have used them in the past to draw directly on the screen. For those who have never tried this it is an amazing way to make a screen. You draw directly on the screen and achieve incredible tonals, coat with white glue and the wax crayon resists the glue. Been awhile since I've done this. The hard part is you can never make another screen like it again.
The true meaning of custom.... :)
-
Not sure if these are what you are looking for Tony: https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030 (https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030) I have used them in the past to draw directly on the screen. For those who have never tried this it is an amazing way to make a screen. You draw directly on the screen and achieve incredible tonals, coat with white glue and the wax crayon resists the glue. Been awhile since I've done this. The hard part is you can never make another screen like it again.
My first screen printing in college had us also learn the Tusche Resist method of stencil.
https://books.google.com/books?id=WjbDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=tusche+resist&source=bl&ots=Li-OI4ipuL&sig=ACfU3U1FTSpCOXJMgoTBKJOITMeqoGySuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE5873-ofkAhUGHDQIHWdXDFQQ6AEwBXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=tusche%20resist&f=false (https://books.google.com/books?id=WjbDAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=tusche+resist&source=bl&ots=Li-OI4ipuL&sig=ACfU3U1FTSpCOXJMgoTBKJOITMeqoGySuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE5873-ofkAhUGHDQIHWdXDFQQ6AEwBXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=tusche%20resist&f=false)
-
who remembers Photo strip
-
who remembers Photo strip
Is that the one-letter-at-a-time photographic type setter shot from rolled negatives of alphabets?
-
Yep, we had one of those, one of the later versions, Fox seems to ring a bell as a model or a brand. One day, one of my friends with a Mac Plus, and application that was all code, had me come over to "see this!" Perfectly arched text in 90 seconds, holy sh!t! I've used everything listed so far. When my partner and I opened our shop in '92, we were printing a lot of election signs on a Filbar. A couple of years later we bought a Roland CAMM-1 plotter (which we just retired this very week) to cut our films out or Rubylith, and Amberlith if they were out of stock on our roll size...
Steve
-
Not sure if these are what you are looking for Tony: https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030 (https://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/finelineDisplay.php?id=292030) I have used them in the past to draw directly on the screen. For those who have never tried this it is an amazing way to make a screen. You draw directly on the screen and achieve incredible tonals, coat with white glue and the wax crayon resists the glue. Been awhile since I've done this. The hard part is you can never make another screen like it again.
The true meaning of custom.... :)
Thanks Al lot of options there any suggestions?
-
Spot color separations were always a 2-step process.
Step 1: use the gigantic camera to make a film positive (shoot negative, flip in developer, dry, reshoot)
2. Cut/weed rubylith for each color then reexpose against positive for butt reg negative (spot color positive)
Who remembers buying sheets of adhesive-backed halftone?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Spot color separations were always a 2-step process.
Step 1: use the gigantic camera to make a film positive (shoot negative, flip in developer, dry, reshoot)
2. Cut/weed rubylith for each color then reexpose against positive for butt reg negative (spot color positive)
Who remembers buying sheets of adhesive-backed halftone?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You mean ?
-
no the orange stuff( similar to amber lith) that they would use the water with. We used it in like 1991. I cannot find any info on it anywhere.
-
no the orange stuff( similar to amber lith) that they would use the water with. We used it in like 1991. I cannot find any info on it anywhere.
A stencil material? Perhaps an indirect method, first shot and developed, then applied to the screen?
-
All good times.
Did anyone else have the Vertical Arch program back around '89?
It would set your text on arch, like what illy or corel does now but it was a separate program.
We used Pagemaker and Freehand at the time.
You could grab the handle on a vector point and it would take a while to catch up on the Mac SE's we were using.
-
no the orange stuff( similar to amber lith) that they would use the water with. We used it in like 1991. I cannot find any info on it anywhere.
Yeah!
I wanted to reply, but the type thing threw me. Orange film with a clear liner.
Burn art, wash out orange like emulsion, dry, burn screen from what's left over with orange hardened material.
Good for reversals and things. We used regularly in the late 80's.
Kind of like the current "indirect" film method
http://autotype.macdermid.com/products/57-httpswwwmacdermidconnectcomfive_star (http://autotype.macdermid.com/products/57-httpswwwmacdermidconnectcomfive_star)
-
Spot color separations were always a 2-step process.
Step 1: use the gigantic camera to make a film positive (shoot negative, flip in developer, dry, reshoot)
2. Cut/weed rubylith for each color then reexpose against positive for butt reg negative (spot color positive)
Who remembers buying sheets of adhesive-backed halftone?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
All day every day for quite some time... until Fotostrip (or was is PhotoStrip?) came around, it was rubylith you cut photographically. Make the film positive, put it in the screen exposure unit with a sheet of this stuff, and burn like a screen. Then wash out those key lines with a hose. It was very handy.
Steve
We had an 18 x 22 NuArc Horizontal then, 9' bed...
-
YEA, That's the stuff. It was like a revolution at the time
-
When I started in the biz I did screens and worked in a darkroom doing camera shots!
-
When I started in the biz I did screens and worked in a darkroom doing camera shots!
Exactly. That Foto strip stuff changed all that. Then came computer programs.. That was a long time ago. WOW
-
I think that , besides color separations, the biggest change in ease came with half tones.
btw, twice in my career I had a job running the camera, and both times was let go just as they brought color separation in-house, rather than being able to really up my game.
Now, of course, in the computer age, all a moot point.
-
no the orange stuff( similar to amber lith) that they would use the water with. We used it in like 1991. I cannot find any info on it anywhere.
was that the Ulano that you sandwiched between your film positive and exposed,rinsed then were able to weed out the area you didn't need , it was a butt print but was way faster than hand cutting ruby.
-
My wife and i have been in graphics from the 80' she and a few co workers had to laugh at the new hire who found this great thing called a Loop that really helped in seeing print quality, he was totally amazed.
-
no the orange stuff( similar to amber lith) that they would use the water with. We used it in like 1991. I cannot find any info on it anywhere.
was that the Ulano that you sandwiched between your film positive and exposed,rinsed then were able to weed out the area you didn't need , it was a butt print but was way faster than hand cutting ruby.
Thats it
-
I did a ton of work to learn to do halftones with a Caprock halftone screen. From a Kodak book, I learned about the highlight bump exposure, then the main exposure, followed by the shadow exposure, which was a darkroom safelight with a yellow bulb, on a stand. We had a horizontal camera, and the vacuum back opened to the right. So after the first two exposures, we'd open the door so it was 90° to the wall, move the yellow lamp into place, and make yet a third exposure, which would open the shadows with very little effect on the midtones or highlights. Arcane enough? I really can't thank Adobe enough for publishing Photoshop.
Regarding Autotype's PhotoStrip, if I remember correctly, you put the positive on the backing side and shot through the back. Any of you older guys remember that?
Steve
-
Spot color separations were always a 2-step process.
Step 1: use the gigantic camera to make a film positive (shoot negative, flip in developer, dry, reshoot)
2. Cut/weed rubylith for each color then reexpose against positive for butt reg negative (spot color positive)
Who remembers buying sheets of adhesive-backed halftone?
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You mean ?
Hahaha. Yuuuup!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
Just moved my office a couple of weeks ago and finally threw away my halftone sheets and old ChartPac lettering. Usually all of one specific character was all used up and we still kept the sheets hoping we would use other letters that were left. Did a lot of hand-cut Rubylith and even Ulano lacquer film. Lots of fun to spend hours cutting a film and hoping against all hope you don't screw up adhering it to the multi-filament screen. Had a Nuarc VV-1418 vertical. Used less space that a horizontal.
-
Great thread! I remember my dad cutting the film and applying with water. After we finished the print, we would soak them in bleach and he would send me to the carwash to spray out the stencil. Every once in a great occasion, he would need films printed from the local paper and they would charge him like $15 each back in the late 70's.
-
I did a little water based hand-cut film. Reminds me of a funny story... A young girl came into my dad's shop and couldn't figure what she did wrong. She took a mail-order (there was no "online" then) course on silkscreening. They gave her some water based hand-cut film and supplied her with a couple colors of ink. Her screens almost instantly broke down. Turns out they sent her water based ink also. Duh!