The sound of the ink roller on the stone
There’s a particular sound when the ink roller hits the litho stone just right, that sort of soft, sticky drag. It’s not like anything else, not the scrape of a blade on lino or the hiss of a spray can. It’s a sound that means you’re getting somewhere, that the image is starting to lift off the stone and onto the paper. Spent all morning with that sound, trying to get a really deep black on this new piece. It’s not a hare this time, something a bit different, but the same old graft really. You get lost in it, you know? The world outside just fades away and it’s only you and the stone and the smell of the ink. Grand way to spend a Tuesday, I’ll tell you that for nothing.
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I know exactly what you mean, and I'm a little jealous if I'm honest. Mosaic doesn't have a sound like that. It's just the tink tink of the hammer and hardie all day, or the crunch of the nippers. Nothing musical about it. But that moment you're describing, when everything clicks and you're deep in it, time gone, that I know. That's the same in every medium, I think.
What's the different thing you're working on, if it's not a hare? Curious now.
Ah the tink tink has its own rhythm though, I'd say that gets into your bones same as anything. There's a fella at the market does stained glass and the sound of him cutting, that wee scratch and snap, I could stand and watch it all day. Different tools, same trance.
Ah sure look it, you've dragged it out of me. It's a mermaid. But not the floaty-haired Disney yoke, more like the old folk version, the one that's half fish and half something you wouldn't want to meet on a dark strand. She's carved up on a big rock with the sea going mad behind her. Still in proofs, still fighting with the black. I'll post it when it stops looking like a mess. 🙂