The FISKARS FUSE Creativity System for Die -cutting promises to be the easiest portable press for making 8x8 inch prints.
UPDATE (March 29, 2025): I used the FISKARS portable press at Quelab, and it printed quite nicely:
PORTABLE PRESS
The FISKARS FUSE, press bed system,
and box of accessories --
ready to take and print on location
We saw this press at the SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA 2024, as Mark Zepezauer was printing with it:
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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):
However the FISKARS FUSE was originally made more for hobby die cutting -- and thus one needs to fashion a press bed in order to pull 8x8 inch relief prints from it.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?
UPDATE (March 12, 2025):
I bought some scraps at Port Plastics which worked pretty well for the press bed:
- 1/2 inch HDP E, 8 x12 inches (textured)
- 1/4 inch acrylic, 12 x 30 inches (smooth)
Inking a linocut
Paper over the linocut
1/4 acrylic sheet
on the bottom
1/2 inch HDPE plastic piece
on the top
Linocut and print
I think the texture from the thick top block showed up on the print:
Something was uneven about the prints,
and I think the texture showed up
Perhaps the solution is to get a 1/2 thick HDPE bed for the bottom, and a 1/4 acrylic sheet for the top.
I also bought 1/4 inch gasket sheet from GPE (Gasket, Packing and Seal Supply), which promised to work on the 5/8 inch thick particle board:
The 1/4 inch thick gasket sheet
THE SOLUTION
I bought custom cut HDPE plastic press bed from Port Plastics (for just over $20) -- 1/2 thick, 12x24 inches. Then I scored and cut down a piece of acrylic scrap, 1/4 inch thick, 12x12 inches, to put over the linocut and paper before running it through the press. This press bed system seems to work pretty well, as I tried it out at Quelab on March 19, 2025:
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:
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:
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:
At that time Toru also exhibited in Oaxaca, and the celebrated artist Maestro Shinzaburo Takeda came to his opening on December 29, 2016:
The FISKARS FUSE works
with the new press bed system
Now I have everything reduced to a minimum, which I can take and pull prints on location:
PORTABLE PRESS
The FISKARS FUSE, press bed,
and plastic box with accessories
PROOFING PRESS
MOKUHANGA
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:
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