PORTABLE PRESS

The FISKARS FUSE Creativity System for Die -cutting promises to be the easiest portable press for making 8x8 inch prints. We saw this press at the SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA 2024, as Mark Zepezauer was printing with it:

SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA 2024 -- Vendors: PART 1

Mark Zepezauer of Sonoran Desert Rhino

prints with this press in Tucson

The best thing is that the press folds up and has a handle, for carrying it around to print on location (though it is not light):

Tessellation Catch-Up

The FISKARS FUSE folds up,

and comes with a handle for carrying around

However the FISKARS FUSE was originally made more for hobby die cutting -- and thus one needs to fashion a press bed in order to pull 8x8 inch relief prints from it.

(YouTube): Relief printing with Fiskars Fuse

The above video recommends a 3/4 inch thick board as a press bed, which I found to be too thick.  Therefore I cut down a 5/8ths inch piece of particle board from Lowes to make a 24 inch long press bed (from a 24x24 inch square board):

FISKARS FUSE with a 5/8ths inch thick press bed --

with linoleum, paper, cardboard

The press bed still is not thick enough.  We need an additional sheet of acetate or acrylic to protect the board (and make registration marks).  Any additional slack could be taken care of with a blanket, or piece of gasket to put over the paper and linocut.

• Would a HDPE board - - 5/8th inch thick x 12 inch x 24 inches -- work the best?
• Amazon

PROOFING PRESS

Essentially the FUSE works like a letterpress. Ellie came into a Showcard proofing press recently, which should pull 8x8 inch prints perfectly.  This press is small enough to take on location, however it is too heavy for one person to move by herself:

Vandercook No. 0

MOKUHANGA

We also need to experiment with MOKUHANGA relief printmaking. My friend Toru Sugita is going back to Japan to work further with this technique, as he explains in the video below:

Toru Sugita Mokuhanga Collaboration

 2025 Go Fund Me

I met Toru back in San Francisco in the 90s. The last time I saw him though was in Oaxaca in 2016/17, when he was printing with Taller Grafica Libre in Zaachila:

Toru Sugita at Taller Grafica Libre of Oaxaca

Toru Sugita

when I encountered him printing in Oaxaca

At that time Toru also exhibited in Oaxaca, and the celebrated artist Maestro Shinzaburo Takeda came to his opening on December 29, 2016:

Toru Sugita at Taller Grafica Libre of Oaxaca

Toru Sugita, Maestro Shinzaburo Takeda,

Misayo Tsutsui and Fumiyo Yoshikawa (artist and Toru's wife)

A more detailed look into the Taller Grafica Libre studio in Zaachila, Oaxaca:

Taller Grafica Libre invites Toru Sugita

A more detailed look

at Toru printing in Oaxaca