Oh NO!

When I got back from Boston on Saturday, I was happy to find that my ink order had arrived because I was eager to continue printing my edition.

Even though I had intended to get started tomorrow morning, I couldn't resist pulling a proof this evening to make sure everything was to my liking. Boy was I in for a disappointment.

Origninal Paynes Gray on left, new one on right.

I had started my edition using a small container of Paynes Gray that I had purchased from Rostow & Jung, before Akua was sold to Speedball. The color was perfect right out of the jar and I had assumed that when I reordered the same Paynes Gray from Speedball, it would match the original. Not so!

From the beginning, I have always been a big advocate of Akua ink; a great product that always gave me consistent results. This was the first time I had used Akua purchased from Speedball and to be perfectly honest, it didn't seem the same as the original.

Difference between the two grays.

I felt that it was more difficult to wipe off of the plate and seemed gummier and stickier than the original. As you can see, there's a big difference between the Rostow & Jung Paynes Gray and the Speedball Paynes Gray. This is a huge problem because I had already printed more than a third of an edition of 35.

The best thing I can do at the moment is step away for the night and see what I can do in the morning to try and resolve the issue.