Paper reliefs: Flockprints

Flockprints are a medieval printing technique dated in the second half of the fifteenth century. Flockprints are one of the range techniques used in that period to create the so called paper reliefs. Flockprints can be made with or without the addition of tin foil. The addition of materials at this kind of reliefs is used to imitate the appearance, texture and tangibility of a fabric. This printing technique includes the addition of organic material (wool flocks). The wool is prepared before it can be used in the print. The colour of the wool on the flock prints could vary from red, green and blue. 

preparing the wool

The wool is boiled with the ashes of birch wood. The ashes were grind in a mortar. The grind ashes were put with the wool in a cooking pan. Then all of it was covered with water. It was cooked. After that the water was poured away in a pot. This process was repeated at least two or three times. You can add colour during the cooking process so the wool absorbs it. Then the wool mass was squeezed out and left to dry. When you take a piece of the wool between your fingers and you can cut it with your nails, it's enough cooked. After that the wool was grind in a mortar and cut in fine pieces. Then the wool was grind again. The process was repeated until wool powder was formed. The wool powder can be used for making the flock print.

For printing the images as flock prints, the flock print was executed in reconstructions with or without tin foil and with gray and red wool.

cooking of the wool

1 ashes of burned birchwood 2 grinded ashes 3 adding the ashes by the wool 4 adding water to the wool and ashes in the cooking pot 5 boiling of the wool 6 squeezing out the water out of the cooked wool 7 cooked wool left to dry 8 take the wool between two fingers and when you can cut it with your nails its ok

grinding the wool in a mortar

1 grinding the cooked wool 2 grinder wool in the mortar 3 wool powder 4 different phases of grinder wool in different bowls

Flock print Leopard and bull without tin foil

The image was carved in wood. An oil-resin varnish was applied on the wooden mould. The oil-resin varnish could be pigmented if desired. It was prepared after a recipe in the Nüremberg Kunstbuch. The paper was pressed on this layer. Then it was taken from the mould and sprinkled with wool powder through a sieve. After the full print was covered with wool, the print was shaken of to get rid off the wool on places it doesn't have to stick.

1 support:paper 2 oil-resin varnish layer 3 wool

1 wooden mould 2 oil-resin varnish layer 3 pressing the paper on the wooden mould 4 backside of the paper during the pressing 5 applying the wool powder by sprinkling it on top of the sticky layer

1 wooden mould 2 preparing oil-resin varnish 3 cooking of the wool with red pigment 4 red oil-resin varnish layer 5 pressing on the paper to the sticky mould 6 backside of the paper

7 sprinkling the wool through the sieve on the print 8 the flock print 9 flock prints with different colour wools next to each other

Flock print:Saint George and the dragon with tin foil (Saint George and the dragon 1450-1475)

Another mould was made in wood. The paper was also prepared for this reconstruction. It was covered with a oil-resin varnish layer on which a tin foil was applied.The texture was applied to the print by hammering a cardboard that was wrapped with torsed threads that were placed next to each other. This way an imprint of the threads was left in the tin foil. The tin foil wasn't gilded. It was instead covered with a yellow colored glaze to imitate gold. The mould was again brushed in with the oil resin varnish layer and the prepared paper was pressed to it. After that, the paper was taken off and sprinkled with wool powder through a sieve. When all the layers are fully dried, the wool that didn't stick to the adhesive was removed. 

1 support:paper 2 oil-resin varnish layer 3 tin foil 4 yellow glaze 5 red inkt 6 wool

1 hammering the threads on the tin foil 2 detail of the texture 3 colored yellow glaze to imitate the gold 4 applying the yellow colored glaze in different layers 5 applying another layer of yellow colored glaze 6 applying an oil-resin varnish layer on the wooden mould 7 red oil-resin varnish layer that is applied on the wooden mould 8 applying the textured tin foil with yellow colored glaze 9 pressing on the tin foil to the mould with the hands 10 after taking the textured tin foil of the mould 11 sprinkling the powdered wool on to the sticky layer 12 flock print fully covered with wool 12 final result of the textured flock print