Topic: OT: Manhole Cover Prints

[Ed Wenn]

Team, apologies for the off-topic post (and the huge image), but I think that a lot of you will appreciate the aesthetics involved and the spirit in which it's being done. This is amazing.

https://raubdruckerin.de/

[Francois]

Some people live in cities where the manhole covers are much nicer than the ones we have here.
But this is really nice.
I can just imagine the looks I would get if I was rolling some ink on the covers around here!

[Bryan]

Those are nice Ed.  I remember seeing charcole rubbings of Seattle manhole covers years ago.  Seattle got the idea of putting art on the covers from Florence, Italy.

http://www.seattle.gov/light/neighborhoods/nh4_art.htm

[Ed Wenn]

One of the reasons that I was so attracted by this idea is that I've long been fascinated by manhole-covers-from-around-world. All over Europe especially there are some gorgeous designs to be seen if you look down.

And although my favourites so far are found in Oslo, someone's even made a book out of London's manhole covers: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/overlooked-beauty-londons-manhole-covers/

I think I'll be giving this process a go in the very near future 

[Nigel]

One of the reasons that I was so attracted by this idea is that I've long been fascinated by manhole-covers-from-around-world. All over Europe especially there are some gorgeous designs to be seen if you look down.

And although my favourites so far are found in Oslo, someone's even made a book out of London's manhole covers: https://www.wired.com/2016/03/overlooked-beauty-londons-manhole-covers/

I think I'll be giving this process a go in the very near future 

They are brilliant. I'd love to have a go at that - I can feel a project developing!

[Ed Wenn]

I found a little time on Friday and Sunday to try out some of these manhole cover prints. I had all the gear to hand as I occasionally print various bits and pieces with the kids and we have a fairly interesting manhole cover on the pavement right outside our house, so it was more a question of dodging the rain than anything else.

As with any process of this sort, you learn a lot the first time you do it, but the skill required to get decent results is pretty low, so it’s a great mixture of instantly rewarding and can-do-better.

I have already ordered a small number of blank t-shirts and scoped out my next manhole cover 

[Francois]

Now that's fun

I'm wondering what type of ink you used?
I'm currently using for my lino prints a washable oil based ink that's pretty thick but sadly dries lightning fast. This makes the ink hard to control. I'm thinking of adding a bit of water to the ink to make it flow a bit better but I'm not sure... I guess the best way to know is to try it....

[Indofunk]

I love that 90% of the manhole covers in NYC proudly state "Made in India" (where my heritage is from), and the rest of the 10% are "Made in Neenah, WI" (I lived in Madison for a couple of years) I would love to wear a Made in India manhole tshirt (although, technically I was made in the USA, maybe I could give the tshirt to my parents)

[Francois]

I just love it when things seem out of place like that. For about a year we've had a cover that somehow came from all the way from the other end of the province in front of our house. Then one day while we were out the public works decided to change it for a generic model with no markings. Now for some reason our street is much less exotic