Wavy prints can be avoided by doing some simple preparations.

You finally got to the point where your prints are coming out beautifully — with rich solid blacks and wide range of tones. Heaven!

There’s only one problem: The print is not flat! In fact it’s got some warping that’s pretty severe.

The good news: There is a solution to this horrible problem. The bad news: It involves more work! But don’t worry, it’s actually going to improve the quality of your prints in many ways, assuming smooth, continuous tone is important to your printmaking. These tips will allow you to ensure your prints are perfectly flat AND will have the added benefit of receiving the ink better and in a more uniform manner. This translates into more smooth, continous tone for your prints.

To avoid wavy prints with your intaglio printmaking, you can do 3 things:

 1) Calendar the paper along with the grain, prior to printing. The grain is indicated by looking under raking light at magnification, or knowing which way the watermark faces with respect to the grain.

2) Make sure you’re printing with the grain of the paper, as well as calendaring it with the grain, prior to printing.

3) Flatten the prints while still damp, in between blotter and boards using this procedure

Happy printmaking!

Snapdragon 2 – monotype by Jon Lybrook