La Ceiba Grafica is a lithography and printmaking complex, located in an old hacienda, in Coatepec (near Xalapa, where Jalapenos come from). They make all their own lithography supplies. I made a small lithography print while I was there:
La Ceiba Grafica makes their own wooden litho presses
View of the back patio
They use marble stones,
which they mine locally
I choose a gesture drawing,
which I had sketched the night before,
at their open life drawing session on Wednesday nights
My transferred drawing
I drew with litho pencils,
which they had made at the studio
I also used the tusche
they made at the studio
My stone on one of their
homemade wooden litho presses
I inked the image up darker than I drew it
The final print,
made on their homemade cotton paper
(which they made from discarded cotton towels
from local hotels)
They scraped the walls of a local breadmaking kitchen,
to get the black pigment,
which they used to make litho pencils
and printmaking ink
I went to the Anthropology Museum in nearby Xalapa, housing many original Olmec heads:
Very impressive museum
Prehispanic printmaking,
using clay rollers
to print seals
Awesome miniature printmaking,
on Amate paper
Print show in a pulqueria!
The most appropriate print venue.
Zamer (from Mexico City)
was showing his print masterpieces
at "La Otra" pulqueria in Xalapa
