Pancake day is coming up, so if you need an excuse to print from pancakes this could be it.
February is pancake month, with Pancake day on the calendar.
Pancakes are a light-hearted delicious food, with a history of fun and games, like pancake tossing and pancake races. There’s a fair amount of drama in the cooking process, even if you don’t run along tossing them as you go.
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t like pancakes, whether you call them pikelets, crepes, blinis, dosa or pofferjis. Just reading the recipes gets your taste buds tingling.
I hope you will feel inspired to have ago at this most delicious way of making printing plates. Be sure to have some lemons and sugar handy and eat the ones you don’t print from!
Usually on pancake days I will be the one in the kitchen over a smoky pan with dripping batter all around, while everyone else is round the table squeezing lemons and guzzling pancakes, or else queueing up for seconds offering their sticky plates up like Oliver Twist.
I don’t mind being the pancake cook because each pancake is a revelation; the way the batter swirls and bubbles, creating different patterns, reflecting the pouring action. The batter meets the hot metal pan so quickly that you can observe the instant transformation of the ingredients with heat and movement in the pan.
Every time I flip a pancake over I wonder at the unique patterns in each one. For many years I have thought this could make a great print with its satisfying round shape and the liquid turning to solid, a bit like the formation of the earth.
When I mentioned my idea of printing from pancakes the withering looks and dismissive comments (‘why? – are you mad?’) almost put me off. However, now with the ‘starting points’ theme in mind for blog posts, I feel a pancake could be a great starting point, with the question ‘how could I print that?’ to set you off on another printing adventure.
I used a runny mixture so the pancakes are quite thin with lots of holes. I tried buckwheat flour with water, quite good as it is robust, and also strong flour in a pancake mix with egg which held up well to printing.
By pouring a dribble of batter in first and letting it cook a bit, then adding more batter to fill the gaps you can get an element of control over the patterns.
Once you’ve made your self a collection of small pancakes leave the honey and lemons behind and get ready to print.
Viscosity mono printing
When it comes to printing, the pancakes are quite fragile, if you roll over one with ink, it sticks to the roller and bits fall off. I think it could be worth trying to print pancakes with a gellli plate, but this time I decided to try viscosity printing.
Viscosity mono printing is an exciting process and you can use it on other things which may seem difficult or too delicate to print like feathers, hair and skin – see the blog post ‘print your face’ for more on this.
Viscosity printing works because of the interaction between runny ink and stiff ink. I have a description of it in this post, and I also run regular viscosity printing courses. It can be tricky but don’t let that stop you having a go.
Make a viscosity print from a pancake
For this you need a very thin film of oil on the interesting side of the pancake. Spread some baby oil on a piece of acetate and gently lay the pancake on this, apply a little bit of pressure to the back of the pancake, and this should do the trick.
Next you need to transfer the oily impression onto a clean sheet of acetate. To do this I laid the pancake, (oiled side up) on the table and lowered a clean acetate plate onto it, being careful not to let it slip around. Again some gentle pressure helps.
Now you have an invisible oily image on your acetate.
Charge up a roller (widest one possible) with oil based printing ink and roll it only once over the acetate which has the pancake oil impression on it.
The roller will leave ink on the acetate wherever there is no oil, the oily areas will remain clear of ink.
As if by magic an image of the pancake surface appears in the ink on the plate!
This picture shows two plates, the oily pancake was pressed onto both of them, and one rolled in blue ink, the other in red ink.
Print the inked up plate on paper. This is your pancake print! You can use a printing press, or alternatively lay thin smooth paper over the inked up plate and rub the back of the paper to transfer the image.
Here I printed the red plate first, and then printed the blue one on top of it. The white areas are where there was oil on the plate.
I think the double print gives the image more life and movement.
Continue using the oily pancake to create more viscosity effects. At first it is a good idea to clean the oil off the plate and the rollers each time in order to get a clear impression. Be aware that any accidental patches of oil on the plate, eg fingerprints, will show as white areas.
Once you get going you can relax a bit and play around with overprinting different colours on one print. If you lay the oily pancake back on the plate you have just printed and roll over the oily impression again with another colour you get some interesting results like the image above.
Here are some examples of my pancake printing experiments
I think pancakes are actually a great subject for print-making experimentation because you can’t take them, or yourself, too seriously, so the only thing to do is have some fun……
Just make sure you save some of the batter for pancakes to eat after your printing session….
9 thoughts on “Prints from Pancakes”
Wow! Whacky but fun … going to give this a go!
Brilliant idea…
Dear Emily your blogs are always a revelation. I wonder at how you come up with something new and inspiring each month. I am definitely going to try printing with pancakes as it looks such fun to do with interesting results. Happy pancake day!
thanks Sarah – hope you also have a happy pancake day.
I love this idea❤️ You could print a whole series of galaxies on a huge sheet of paper. Or use as part of another print, or a background for a drypoint – the possibilities are endless!
They also remind me of unique fingerprints – no two pancakes the same! Looking forward to playing with this.
I’m always looking for ideas without a press – although I have a lovely one it’s nice to give my art group ladies some ideas to use at home.
Can’t beat a bit of kitchen table printmaking!
hope you all have fun with it Sarah – do send photos if you have a go.
Wonderful!! And since my mother always made quite large pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, I think it is pancake day??, and we always ate them with lemon and sugar, I have such fond memories. In Canada here, we have pancakes with maple syrup which is also delicious, but I have such a happy taste memory of the other.
My printing days are over now–I’ve had to narrow my focus unfortunately. I so enjoyed the excitement of trying different printing methods and still am very interested in where your curiosity takes you. I also forward your messages to a friend who has recently taken up that art. So thank you for everything you do!
Very best wishes,
Judith Ketcheson, via email
This was definitely the best email of the week! Such a fun post. Thanks Emily, for the reminder that there’s art in everything. I look forward to your posts and really appreciate your creativity and sense of fun (and your generosity in sharing it).
All the best from another Canadian fan.
Thanks for your comments Sue – hope you have your maple syrup ready for pancake day!