Currently I am exploring Portable Printmaking options to travel anywhere and make small prints. Even better when we create plates on the spot and and print original images. I am aspiring to "quick turnaround" in order to jumpstart the creative itch to get the art flowing.
TORTILLA PRESS
The TORTILLA PRESS makes prints quickly, and is light and easy to carry around. We have been making "8 x 8 inch" prints on the street, during the figure drawing sessions, and in other studios:
Note: After pressing on the Tortilla Press, we do run a small glass baren from Iron Frog Press over the print. This probably helps the Akua Carbon Black ink dry (as it "dries" by absorption into the paper)
I have been handing out "6 x 6 inch" linoleum squares and inviting a few other artists to carve with me at coffee houses and micro-breweries:
I cutting goes more quickly than I imagined. I carved the "6 x 6 inch" linoleum below in less than two hours:
I made a linoleum "grab-and-go" carving kit
for "6 x 6 inch" linoleum squares,
that fits in the little blue lunch case
at the top of the photo
DRYPOINT
Intaglio
Takach Press sells small plastic sheets, like these PETG rectangles. I believe artists could scratch into this plastic and make drypoint prints.
One of the problems is that intaglio/drypoint requires more pressure than we can apply with the Tortilla Press. However in Uruapan, Mexico they used one of these small craft machines to make drypoint prints.
- On Amazon: Sizzix Big Shot Plus 660340 Manual Die Cutting & Embossing Machine for Arts & Crafts, Scrapbooking & Cardmaking, 9” Opening
Another problem is with the clear plastic, as it's hard to see the lines you scratch into it. However there has to be a way to paint the plastic first with a dark color (acrylic paint?) and then gouge into it with an awl. This kind of drypoint might be the easiest way to create an intaglio plate (say drawing the figure in a life sketch session).
Lastly intaglio printmaking is too messy to print quickly on the street, because one has to first ink, and then and wipe the plate before printing it. Printing the drypoint plate is not as easy and fast as making linoleum relief prints with the Tortilla Press.
Other Press Options
- We are using the glass baren from Iron Frog Press to make prints by hand
- Woodzilla presses -- we would need the A4 sized press
- Provisional Press posted plans online for people to make their own LETTERPRESS PRESS on a laser cutter.
- Open Press Project -- 3D printed press
- Pocket Press for drypoint printmaking
- Printmaking: Caster Printing Drypoint and Monotype Plates
- Slama Press Ball Graphic Press
Printfoam
Printfoam seems like a quick and easy way to create an image for relief printmaking. However can we get a nice print from it?
- Printfoam by Inovart, 12 x 18 inches at Dick Blick
- I think one might be able to use picnic Styrofoam plates as well
Cricut
The Cricut looks like it will cut stencils from cardstock, which could then be used creatively as masks in relief and silk screen printmaking:
- Which materials can I cut with a Cricut Joy
- I wonder if I could cut, or at least draw, one of my vectorized images with the Cricut
- Example of SVG files sold on Etsy ready to cut on the Cricut, by Roman Poljak
- I wonder if we could use the Cricut to engrave into plastic , for making a drypoint plate for intaglio printmaking (or even into linoleum for making relief prints)
Laserpecker
The portable Laserpecker laser cutter singed the linoleum square just enough to discolor it, thus transferring the image, so I could cut the linoleum image out by hand:
We took a portrait photo, converted it to a vector image, and then transferred it from the smartphone to the Laserpecker via Bluetooth. It took over an hour to discolor the "6 x 6 inch" linoleum; however I believe we could reduce that time by using a simpler vector image:
- Adric at Quelab coated a linoleum square in Ammonium Chloride as that might help the pocket laser cutter burn deeper, or something
If we could quickly laser cut stencils out of newsprint, we could use those shapes as masks and make relief and silk screen prints.
UPDATE: Laserpecker 2 looks a lot more powerful and useful:
The Laserpecker 2 is available on Amazon for $1,200. The work area is 100 x 100 mm (almost 4 x 4 inches).
Transferring Images
I made a quick Google search to find these options below, though I haven't tried any of them:
Other Ideas
More printmaking possibilities on YouTube:
BUCKET EXHIBITIONS
Again, I can frame the small "8 x 8 inch" prints and carry ten of them in a bucket cooler. Ten good prints is a good pop-up show, especially Oaxaca-style with a bottle of mezcal. This is my BUCKET EXHIBITIONS concept:
Summary
MANIFESTO
21st Century
We should answer the moment with 21st Century techniques as well as themes. Albrecht Dürer was a master printer, but he never had access to a Circut, laser cutter, laptop or a cell phone. I can see using these tools to make prints after creating images with AI (artificial intelligence). We could then weave the print into other realities, using AR (augmented reality). Moreover we can always blog and self-publish catalogs of the prints. There has got to be a way to integrate prints with Holograms as well.
PRINTS NEED TO BE SEEN!!!
What other reason is there for creating multiples? The press is only the womb...life only begins when the print leaves the studio.
SANTA FE
July Exhibition and Print Market
We are looking forward to showing the BUCKET EXHIBITION in Santa Fe in July in the Axle Contemporary mobile art van. On July 10th Tim Jag is putting together a print market -- PRINT MATTERS FESTIVAL -- in the Santa Fe Rail Yards, 10 AM - 4 PM. The Axle art van will be parked next to the print market, and I will be live printing with a Tortilla Press. However it would be fun to also bring a Skateboard Press, and maybe some of these other machines and presses, to leave the best impression possible on Santa Fe.
Streamlining the Print Pipeline
Again the bigger goal is to streamline the printmaking process -- creating a plate, printing, and exhibiting -- even collapsing the whole printing pipeline down to one afternoon. The concept here goes beyond the Santa Fe print market.
This is a way to kickstart the creative itch and encourage a little local artistic interaction and dialog. Moreover a small print is not an ends, but can be the foundation for a larger print, or even painting and sculpture.
WORMHOLE
Exhibitions
Then we can swap a curated set of prints with Mexico -- creating wormholes in space with prints -- to bridge distant places together with reciprocal pop-up exhibitions, say in Santa Fe and Oaxaca, or El Paso and Guadalajara. The artwork can only benefit by being exhibited and contrasted with the flavor of out-of-town prints, from further away the better.
The "8 x 8 inch" prints that we are producing and exhibiting mail nicely over long distances. It is more expensive, harder, and less immediate to share larger prints over long distances. The longer reach might be what separates the BUCKET EXHIBITIONS idea from the SGCI conventions and more regional print markets.
However the IPE (International Print Exchange) is already pioneering this kind of 21st Century Wormhole from England -- next submission deadline is August 31st, 2022 (5.5 x 5.5 inch paper size).
Steal these Ideas!
It would be even better if others collected "8 x 8 inch" prints and showed them from their Print Buckets. There is nothing original in this idea of generating and showing prints. I am only trying to massage the process to make it as easy as possible for anyone to arrange reciprocal exhibitions. It would be even more powerful if others had their own pop-up exhibitions. Imagine if two people carried their Print Buckets to a halfway spot, to have an even bigger pop-up exhibition of "8 x 8 inch" prints.
Figure Drawing
Printmaking seem to be the next baby step up from figure drawing, especially if there were a quick and easy way to create prints. I go to a lot figure drawing groups and enjoy the different approaches and styles of others. All too often we just tuck the drawings under the bed after we go home, and no one ever sees the work again. That is a shame as the figure artists have usually invested a lot of time polishing up their sketching skills. It would be a pleasure to showcase those visions and skills in small, but more formal, printmaking pop-up exhibitions.
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