The chine collé process

“Chine collé” is a techique in printing. It is the name given to the process whereby you stick bits of thin paper on the print.

Here are some of my chine collé prints.The black and white is an intaglio print: an etching.  The coloured parts are not printed ink, but are bits of paper stuck on. The paper is so thin, and so strongly adhered, that it looks like part of the printed image. At least, that’s the idea.

Towers West, chine collé

Skyline (sold)

Towers East, chine collé

Towers East

It’s also possible to print the whole image as chine collé, like this one:

You see the 10cmx15cm image is a sort of blue/grey colour? That’s because there’s a 10cmx15cm blue/grey piece of paper, the same size as the image, stuck on.

Here’s how it’s done. Hover your cursor over the pictures to see the captions.

First get the bits of paper ready and glued.

Cut the bits of paper to the right size

Leave them to dry a bit

Glue papers on the top side

Then ink the plate.

Here’s the etched copper plate

Squeeze the ink onto the glass

Pick up the ink

I use this rubber thing to spread the ink

The rubber thing to put the ink on is bendy

Put ink on

Wipe the ink off

Plate in process of wiping

Plate wiped off and ready to print

The bits of paper now need to go on the top of the plate, glued side up. This is the tricky bit. The bits of paper curl up, blow around, and don’t want to lie straight. I use tweezers. The bits of paper want to stick to the tweezers.

Now I carry this whole assembly, cautiously and slowly, over to the press. Sometimes the bits of paper blow off at this point.

Now it is ready for printing.
Here’s the print process. The print paper goes on top. It stick to the glue, which was on top of the bits of paper.

Assembly on the print bed

Put the paper on top

Put the blankets

Turn the wheel

Use gloves to protect the paper and the wheel from inky fingers

Here it is going through

Here it is under the blanket

Roll back the blanket

Now is the moment of truth:

Carefully lift the print paper. Did it stick?

Yes, it stuck

Both sides OK?

Yes it looks OK

It worked this time.

Good. Now it goes on the drying rack and I repeat the process. Each print takes about 20-30 minutes.