I SOLD MY PRESS

In preparation for my coming longarm, I put my Ettan press for sale on craigslist to create more room in my studio.

A wonderful man came and bought it this morning.

It kind of breaks my heart...

This means it's the end of an era - I won't be making prints like that again.

And I hate letting go of such a beautiful, finely crafted piece of machinery.

Goodbye, I will miss you.  I hope you are happier in your new home where hopefully you'll actually be making art instead of collecting dust.

He also got the custom made cart my talented husband made for it.

DIFFERENT ACRYLIC PLATE

I finally started printing my Year of the Goat (Sheep) print from last year, well this year - 2015.  It's time to start thinking about next year's Year of the Monkey print, so I thought I'd better do this year's first.

I had already had the image scratched onto an acrylic plate.  I'd used some thinner acrylic then I'd ever used before.  If I remember right, it was all they had at the hardware store at the time.

Before I wiped the ink off - don't want to spoil the surprise!

It seemed to be okay, until I started running it through the press.

Sorry for the blurry image.

Sorry this one is blurry too.

As you can see in the pictures, after about only 25 prints, the edges are starting to deteriorate and break up.

I stopped for the day.  I hope it still prints next time I start up again.

PRINTING THE YEAR OF THE HORSE PRINT

I cut some paper and set everything up and printed about eight of the 'color' plate with Akua Carbon Black. Good thing I decided to check the registration with the 'line' plate, which turned out to be good, because it was the inks that weren't going to work.  I used Akua Mars Black, thinking it would be significantly darker and stand out over the Carbon Black, but it didn't.

I added a little Akua Titanium White to the Carbon Black and tried again.  It looked so great I was doing a little happy dance.

I took a picture of the first "Rupert".

Are you peeking?

I didn't have time to finish them all today.  I got only 8 made and this is a busy week.  I don't know when I'll get around to finishing the rest.  I was hoping I'd get them in the mail by this Friday, Chinese New Year, but it's not looking like that will happen.  But soon.

THAT TIME OF YEAR

Yes, it's time to start on my annual Christmas Card, so making quilts and other things will have to wait.

My biggest hurdle is always the image.  I see such clever things out there, and I think, why didn't I do that?

So, this year I'm going to blatantly steal someone else's idea.

The image I'm using is drawn by me, but it is a direct ripoff of Viza Arlington's image, which you can see at this page on her blog, VIZart.blogspot.com.  Viza is a very talented and creative artist, I love her work.  She also has an Etsy shop, where you can buy her little snowman print.  

I'm using an acrylic plate.  I've done a few zinc plate etchings, but this is a first time with acrylic.  It was really quite simple, and I like that you can paste your image on the back and just trace it, something you can't do with zinc.  I also like using an etching needle because when you make a line on the plate, you get a line of ink on the print.  It's just like drawing.

Last night I made some initial prints and made some adjustments and changes to the plate.

This morning I cut the paper, and after lunch I got about half of them printed.

The plate on the left waiting to be inked up.

I don't use my press very often, this is it an Ettan 24" - very nice.

I place the inked plate into a little cut out in a template on the press bed.

The template has lines on where to place the paper.

The press has several blankets which go over the plate and paper.  When the wheel is cranked the bed moves under the roller and the blankets push the paper down into the lines etched into the plate where the ink is waiting to be picked up.

Here's my stack for the day.  Half way done with the printing of the image.

I originally planned to hand color them with watercolors, but I'm really liking them just like this. 

But, then again, color can really makes things sing....

I don't know....

Stay tuned.

FIRE - FIRST DAY PRINTING

I finalized my drawing for my last Classical Element, 'Fire' on Sunday and carved the key block. Yesterday, I transfered the keyblock carving to two more blank lino-blocks. I decided on the colors this morning and carved the first color block.

Today, I finally got ink on paper and just finished the first run.

I set my Zune to play just 'rock', turned up the stereo and set about the repetitive job of inking the block and running the papers through the press. It's mindless but fun. The hardest part is to keep from completely zoning out and not repeating each step exactly the same.

I must reiterate: I love Akua inks, I love my Ettan press and I love the registration system I learned from PrintMakerGuy on Wetcanvas, Andrew Gott.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.

I'm going back up to the studio now to carve the next color block.

See ya soon!

DAY THREE - AIR PRINT

Here's the third color, I had to do a little adjusting to get it go line up right.

I just love this color! It's Akua intaglio ink Scarlet Red and Yellow Ochre mixed together. I'm using the same basic colors through the four different prints in this series. And yes, that's a cheap-o Speedball brayer. Use and abuse and toss it out and get a new one when it's used up.

And here's my Ettan press showing my easy to make three-hole-punch registration system using a 99 cent three-hole-punch made to fit into a three-ring binder and lots of blue masking tape.

CLASSIC ELEMENTS - EARTH

This is the first in the CLASSICAL ELEMENTS Exchange through Four Oceans Press.
After giving this a lot of thought, I've decided to go with the Elements as we encounter them in our lives now. Our modern society leaves small opportunity for direct interaction with our elements. Here is my take on Earth - the only time we get near it is in the potted plants in our homes.

This is a lino-cut, four plates- the black line (key block), the flesh of the hands, the green plants and the terracotta pots. I used the pin registration I learned from Andrew on Wetcanvas.com. It worked great!

Here is a picture of my wonderful press, an Ettan 24" and the stand my husband, Darrell built for it.