Adventures In The Printroom

Imagine a university printmaking room. There's one of those large rectangular sinks for washing items of all sizes. Below that a number of plastic and metal trays are stored.

Having made a number of prints and dabbled in marbling for the first time (having somehow never done it at primary school as most people do), I began the inevitable cleaning session. There were rollers, wood- and lino-cuts, palette knives and stone slabs to be cleaned, and I'm getting faster at it, but was bound to take about half an hour.

So to start at the sink I shoved a metal tray back underneath... and smashed the glass filter that takes the acid out of the waste. The floor was watery; the stand full of filter crystals and the air full of a rancid smell.

The sink has been sealed off and the maintenance people should be seeing to it urgently... but I feel very silly indeed and am now a little flustered, what with the plumber here and an Italian lesson to go to (and a power cut this morning).

That's the end of my woes. On the plus side, I might get to sell some of today's work by the end of the month.