Monday, May 20, 2013

Cherry Ply



About 4-5 years ago I found a pretty nice slab of local Italian Cherry and had the local lumberyard cut it into thinner planks.
I didn't take into consideration the width of the blade; and I was trying to economize by getting as many planks as possible from the thick board....I ended up with planks that were only about 1 cm thick. I've used them as is-- even carved on both sides--but they're prone to warping and I was hesitant to try anything larger than my yearly zodiac cards.

I found a local carpenter however who has been intrigued by my woodblocks and as he has an enormous hydraulic, hot-water press---used to laminate doors, tables, etc.-- he offered to laminate these onto some plywood. He insisted however I use marine plywood ( I told him I wanted a water-resistant glue...).

So I found a piece of local marine plywood (Okoume)--not cheap either --and he took my cherry planks and had me come by and pick them up a week later.
He trimmed them to be flat sided and I had him cut the smaller ones to 30cm length....These are the remnants--the ends that were left-- they're about 22 by 27cm by 2.4 cm thick.
 

Cherry/Okoume: About 2.5cm thick, the cherry alone is 1cm.                          

I don't think warping will be an issue
Cherry side

The Okoume side

Not sure if the Okoume will be useable but I'll try; it's soft, has a very pronounced grain and looks like it will want to flake off.

These will be part of the Trash bag print I'm working on.
I think I'll need a total of 6 plates....I think 3 cherry and the 3 backs will make up the others.


2 comments:

  1. Your spirit of adventure and exploration of materials is always fun to watch! I'm eager to see how these blocks work out.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Lisa.
      My spirit of adventure stems from being someplace where getting ready-made materials is difficult, while raw materials (pigments, glues, dyes, wood, etc.) are abundant.
      So I'm trying to make use of what is local/nearby (and therefore also cheaper);
      Shipping to Italy is very expensive and the 21% sales tax on everything adds a pretty big percentage onto materials fees.

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