
Kitchen Litho
Kitchen Litho was conceived by French Artist Emilie Aizier. It is a simplification of her earlier lithography experiments using sheet aluminium plates and phosphoric acid. Aluminium foil is much cheaper than using aluminium and carbonated soda drinks are, it turns out, a weak solution of phosphoric acid!
Emilie’s experiments and early web postings in 2011 and the publication of her book in 2012 have spawned a whole series of advocates and followers. Aside from notes in websites and blogs there are now also a number of You Tube videos demonstrating the technique. Most of these follow the process described by Emillie but some add additional steps. Some advocate the preparation of the aluminium foil surface with fine sandpaper however in the main the accounts achieve successful prints following Emillie’s method.
The original book by Emilie truly captures the spirit of Kitchen Litho and emphasises experimentation rather than providing a prescriptive methodology. This is after all the spirit from which the printing technique was born.
Recently there have been two other publications on the technique published in 2016 and 2017. Paper-works* have yet to get our hands on these to review them.
In 2015 and 2016 Emilie Aizier promoted an annual open online competition and exhibition of works employing the kitchen litho method. This has now become a biennial event. The next submission date is the 31st December 2018 .More details are available from www.atelier-kitchen-print.org
Bibliography
“Kitchen Litho” by Emilie Aizier published 2012, 70 pages. Obtainable form Emilie’s website
“Aluminium Foil Lithography” , Spark Box Studio, by Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping published 2016 (?), 57 pages – downloadable pdf only.
‘Kitchen Lithography: Hand Printing at Home: From Buttons and Bags to Postcards and Pillowcases’ ,by Laura Sofie Hantke and Lucas Grassmann, Princeton Architectural Press, published 2017, 120 pages.
Website and blog articles
Kitchen Litho by Emilie Aizier http://www.nontoxicprint.com/kitchenlitho.htm
Kitchen Litho by Printzeal http://printzeal.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/kitchen-litho.html
Aluminium Foil Etching by C S Poppenga http://poppenga.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/aluminum-foil-etching.html
My attempt at Kitchen Lithography by Lori Dean Dyment http://ldeandyment-soiwasthinking.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/my-attempt-at-kitchen-lithography.html
Kitchen Lithography http://www.nzprintmakers.com/2011/09/kitchen-lithography.html
Kitchen Litho by Barbara Hudin, http://www.barbarahudin.com
Read about paper-works* first experiments with Kitchen Litho.
Facebook
There is a group page on Facebook for those interested in the technique https://www.facebook.com/groups/kitchen.litho/