TECHNIQUES Xylography

The word xylography comes from the Greek word ’xylon’ which means wood and ‘grafos’ which means engraving. When we talk about a xylography or a xylographic engraving we are therefore referring to an engraving done on a piece of wood.

Xylography consists of cutting out parts of the wood and leaving the rest, in relief, to correspond to the actual design required. This surface is then covered in ink and used as a kind of stamp when it is ready to be printed. Xylography and linoleum cuts are the main types of relief engraving. In order to do a xylographic engraving you need to have a block of wood and the necessary tools: gouges and burins.

In addition, sugar and tracing paper are needed for transferring the original design onto the plate and for the inking process, ink, a spatula, a roller and a surface for mixing the ink. For the printing, it is necessary to have paper and a press or any other tool for applying pressure. Various types of wood can be used and different results will be obtained depending on the strength and density of each.

The engraving can basically be carried out in two ways: either following the direction of the grain or cutting at a perpendicular angle. In the former case- following the grain of the wood- the cut is made plankwise (a fil). The woods used for this are poplar, plane, fir, cherry, pear, or walnut and the tools: gouges. In the latter -engraving in a perpendicular direction-the wood is cut cross-grained (a testa or contrafil). Here, stronger woods like box and tools such as gouges and burins are normally used. These tools are similar to those used for engraving on metal, as the wood is much harder to engrave when it is cut cross-grained. Xylography a testa produces a more detailed and accurate type of engraving than xylography a fil.

HISTORY

Xylography is the oldest system of engraving that we know. It was already used in the East in the seventh century, mainly for printing on cloth. In Europe it was introduced later and the first examples we have are from the fourteenth century: playing cards, religious prints and calendars.

Once paper was introduced in the fifteenth century, xylography rapidly began to spread and while it was still mainly used for reproducing images, it was also now applied to the reproduction of texts also. Xylography spread most dramatically in the fifteenth century, particularly in Germany, where the outstanding artist was Albrecht Dürer. The work of Lucas Cranach is also important and in the sixteenth century that of Hans Holbein.

In the seventeenth century, wood engraving entered a period of decline and was slowly replaced by metal engraving. However, in the following century, due to the spread of the xylography a testa of Thomas Bewick, this technique underwent a fresh revival. This new method of cutting wood produced work of great precision and as a result, in the nineteenth century, it was mainly used for illustrating books and periodicals. It thus no longer fulfilled a purely utilitarian function.

With the emergence of photography and photomechanical systems of reproduction, artists such as Paul Gauguin, Eduard Munch and members of the German expressionist group 'Die Brücke' found, in xylography, an extraordinary means of creativity and expression.

PROCEDURES

1. Preparing the plate

Once the most suitable type of wood has been selected, the block of wood that is to be engraved must be cut off. The size will depend on the eventual measurements of the engraving to be done. Depending on the size it may not be possible to use just one piece of wood and instead several pieces will have to be joined together.

In order to obtain an engraving of really high quality, it is vital that the wood should be the same thickness throughout and that the surface should be absolutely smooth with no knots or seams. If this is not so, the wood must be filed down to avoid problems when the printing is carried out. Finally, the wood is soaked in oil in order to fill the pores and it is left to dry.

2. Producing the design

There are two ways to create the design that is to be engraved on the wood: it can be drawn directly onto the wood or it can be done on paper and then transferred to the wood. In the latter case, it is advisable to do the design on a sheet of paper, make a tracing of it, and then turn the tracing round before placing it on the wood. A sheet of carbon paper is then placed on top of this and the original design gone over using a hard-pointed pencil.

3. Cutting

When the design has been transferred to the wood, the actual engraving can begin, cutting out those parts which are not intended to show when the piece is printed. Different tools are used, depending on the type of wood and the direction in which it is cut. As mentioned above, gouges are used if the wood is soft.

But if the wood is hard and the engraving done a testa, then gouges and burins similar to those used for metal engravings are used instead. Many different shapes of incision are possible depending on the types of tools used. A gouge with a very open shape is ideal, for example, for cutting away large surfaces while a burin is more suitable for making delicate lines.

During the engraving, the artist usually leans the block of wood against a leather cushion so that he/she can turn it in both directions without moving his/her hands and the cutting can be done more accurately. The tools used must be held correctly and always be well sharpened.

4. Printing

Manual or mechanical pressure must be applied when printing the plate. If the pressure is manual, rollers, pads, spoons etc can be used. This technique is employed when trial copies are being made and only a limited amount of prints can be produced in this way. When a greater number of copies is needed, the pressure is applied mechanically using typographic presses.

One of the advantages of this technique is that the pressure can be applied evenly over the whole surface of the wood. Before the printing is begun, the surface of the wood must be inked. In the past, ink pads or balls were used for this but nowadays there are special rollers which spread the ink more evenly. Next, the inked plate is placed on the horizontal surface of the press, which is called a platina. The sheet of paper on which the image will be printed is gently placed on the wood in one swift movement.

A sheet of cardboard or felt are put on top of this paper in order to protect the reverse side and to ensure that the pressure from the press is applied evenly. Pressure is then applied. Once the design has been printed, the cardboard or felt are removed and the sheet of paper lifted up from one corner. Both the type of ink and the paper will determine the final quality of the work. When the original design had been printed on a piece of paper the process is complete.

From now on, we simply need to use the same xylographic plate and to repeat the inking and printing processes in order to obtain a large quantity of identical prints.

Once the printing process is completed, the artist usually signs and numbers each print by hand. The numbering is used to indicate the quantity and the order in which the copies have been made. Thus, when we see a print with the number 1/75 written on it, we know that this is the first of a series of 75 prints. In addition, the artist reserves a few copies called Artist's Samples (Prova d'Artista), for his personal collection. These copies, identified with the initials P.A., usually represent about 10% of the whole series and are not usually for commercial use.

COLOUR XYLOGRAPHY

In order to produce a xylography using various different colours a different plate must be engraved for each of the colours required and they must then be printed on top of each other. We must remember that when printed, two colours superimposed on top of each other will create a third colour. The high quality of a coloured engraving therefore depends on the accurate superposition of its coloured surfaces. To ensure that the colours only overlap where required, a system of different graded tones is used.