With the final week of our residency in front of us, we both individually and methodically responded to the final prints in the collaboration. Each of us left our most challenging contributions to the last few days in the studio, leaving as much time as possible to let the right response surface.
As Guillaume kept printing, I turned my attentions to ensuring we could adopt a technique in order to get the finished prints to dry flat in the bespoke drying area at Kala. It took a few attempts of experimenting with dampness and timescale, with the help of the technical advisor in the studio. Because of the nature of the prints being a combination of silkscreen printed acrylic ink on paper alongside mulberry paper collaged with nori paste, the base paper reacted to the moisture by cockling and warping. We were desperate that this did not detract from the finished prints, so spent a day exploring options of how to get them to dry flat.
I sprayed the reverse of each print with a light mist of water and placed the prints on a bed of corrugated cardboard sandwiched between acid free board and newsprint. The sophisticated drying system at Kala meant that the 160 finished prints were dried slowly with an electric blower gently distributing air into a cloth bag and down the channels in the corrugated cardboard over a period of days. This made the prints emerge completely flat. Due to the sheer amount of prints, this process took six days to complete.
