Living Prints® Lithograph On-line
Graining the stone
When I first arrived at the lithograph workshop, there were
two sounds that I think I will always remember: classical music
and the sound of two stones. The music went with the sound of
the stones as a man was "graining" a lithograph stone
with another stone. These are extraordinary stones, an expensive,
fine grade of limestone that came from the land where the classical
music composer lived--in the country we now call Germany, the
area known as Bavaria. Bavarian limestone is the best there is
for making true stone lithographic fine art prints.
I can clearly recall the time; in fact, I made a videotape
of it! Below is a still image of the man graining the stone. The
video is old and the lighting was bad in that studio. I am sorry
for the bad quality of these images. I will try to find better
ones in my videos made in some other printmaking studio. This
one is from Japan.
Two stones--one on the bottom that is going to be for drawing
and one (with hand-holds on it) on top which grains it by swirling,
back and forth, round and round, with silicon carbide, a sandy
grinding compound and water mixed in between. The result: A perfectly
flat-finished slab of stone, with a fine tooth like the finest
drawing paper.
The still images above were taken from a travel videotape,
about which you can read now, titled Sabbatical!
The Travel Tapes. If you have a question, contact Professor Ritchie.
©1999 Bill H. Ritchie, Jr. ritchie@seanet.com