Tortilla Press Trial

We tried out the TORTILLA PRESS at Henry Morales' studio on July 2nd, in preparation for the Art Walk in downtown Albuquerque on August 6th.  We are going to make prints on the street and needed to go through a dress rehearsal.

Master printer Henry Morales

in his Albuquerque studio

Inking Alejandra Mares' linocut

straight outta Guadalajara

Alejandra Mares

(Guadalajara)

Xavier Moreno

(Guadalajara)

Plate stops adhered with duct tape,

to keep the linoleum from moving

when inking

Henry Morales

(Albuquerque)

My linoleum plate and salty tortilla print

(Krrrl)

We also printed the linoleum plates on Henry's small letterpress.  The pressure on this press is a lot stronger, so the prints were darker and crisper.  Also it seems that the Akua ink was less wet, as it had been pushed deeper into the paper with the higher pressure.

The over-inked "clouds" on the right

actually made my print look better

MATERIALS

For this trial, everything fit in three boxes:

Akua carbon black ink, brayer, spatula, glass inking plate, towels, tortilla press:

Grid pattern under a see-thru polycarbonate plate

for registration

8 x 8 inch

cheap but dignified Walmart frame

We used Masa paper from Takach, but Rives Lightweight white made prints that looked a lot nicer.

LASERCUT LINOLEUM

I laser cut a couple of 7 x 7 inch linoleum plates at Quelab hackerspace in Albuquerque.  The linoleum plates sold at Takach Press are safe for laser cutting  (Safety Data Sheet).

• Laser cutting instructions at Quelab

The first laser cut linoleum was an image from John Tollett:

Laser cutter in action

cutting John Tollett's image into linoleum

The second laser cut linoleum was an image from Rex Barron: