Melissa Meyer arrived at Oehme Graphics on Monday with a pile of watercolors painted on vellum ready to print! This is Melissa’s fifth project with Sue, which became quickly apparent to Julia as she witnessed the fluidity and ease of their collaborative working style. The first order of business was to rearrange the tables so that Melissa had a huge space on which to paint and then arrange her vellums to see which pieces would look the best together. Sue had picked her up at the airport at 12 and printing was underway by 2, after a wonderful lunch by Julia!
This photo is of Melissa’s images getting fan blasted to speed up the drying process. The vellums cannot be printed until the watercolor paint is completely dry. The cotton rag paper we print them on is “unsized,” meaning that there is no binder in the fibers and makes it almost spongelike when wet. The sheets are first dipped in water and then calendared, which means that we run the wet paper through the press by itself to even out the wetness and to get rid of excess water. Then, when we place the paper over the vellum on the press, the dampness of the paper releases the dry watercolor and makes the image come off cleanly as intended.
It is inspiring to watch Melissa work, as she works with such studied and clear intention.
Many of Melissa’s prints have multiple layers of her vellums printed on top of one another. She utilizes the “ghost” of each vellum as well, usually getting at least two runs through the press out of each watercolor.
The second run always comes out softer and fainter, making them perfect for backgrounds to build up light and depth.
The above two images are prints of Melissa’s made on the first day she was here. All of Melissa’s images will be available on our website by the last week of May, or call us if you need images earlier.
Check back soon for more about Melissa’s project and to see more prints.
The sun is finally shinning today in Steamboat, wishing all a happy spring!