Verbal Expression Part 3: Testing Day
A busy day in the print room of Gorey School of Art yesterday. 5 plates to test, various papers/materials, and two colours. Here’s the summary on an Instagram reel. Below is the write-up of what happened and what I learned.
Key Findings from Testing:




- Material of Plates: I made the closed zip plate (image 1) with leatherette and the remaining plates with suede and we agreed the suede was more lip-like.
- Colour: the darker red (crimson) worked better than the paler red in image 3 which we agreed looked too fake.
- I decided at the last minute to print the O ad H together in one print because it was a single image to depict the ‘no filter’ concept (image 2). I was chuffed that I remembered to reverse the order on the press as if not, it would have come out as HO! Ok for a Christmas card but not here.
- Paper / Material: I test on newsprint, sugar paper, cartridge paper, and calico (see image 1). We agreed the white of the cartridge paper just didn’t work so we ruled that out of further testing preferring the skin tone colours of the other options. My personal favourite is the calico output. James suggested trying out more papers and finding fancier ones for the final output. Also agreed the lips are better in red rather than black.
- Crossed Zip: Think the external zip looks better than the internal one perhaps because of its execution as suggested by Sheila my studio roommate. Yes, I’ll agree I made it haphazardly but I do think the thick zip outside the lips is more forbidding and reminds me of ‘no go zone’ style ticker tape at crime scenes because to overshare or say too much is indeed a crime of social etiquette, tee hee.
Implementing the Findings from Testing:

- As always I like to go big or go home so I decided to make my plates bigger for the real thing. The closed and crossed zips are now 12″ wide and the O and H plates are slightly narrower (9.5 and 10) owing to the shape the mouth is making.
- All plates are made with suede
- I had forgotten to make and test a footer arrow to depict the continuum concept so here is an Instagram reel of its production. All 55″ width.
- We went with the external criss-cross zip for the final plate.
- All plates you’ll agree are neater and more accurate owing to the better process I had identified in the previous post.
- Taking James’ advice, I visited the treasure trove that is Liberties Papers in Terenure when in Dublin later in the week. So much beautiful paper to choose from but given the scale and skin tone colour of my desired print, I was reduced to a choice of one: a very fine Japanese paper (Tokuatsu 55gsm). All will be revealed next week.
To be continued…..