5-Oct-99 Stamp press
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I built a little blockprinting press last night. And Sunday. The occasion was a postcard swap I signed up for, Christiane Eichler's architecture swap. I've carved a block of the Jackson Homestead on a 3 x 5 inch chunk of NASCO printmaking material, and I needed to print about 30 copies of it. That sounded like too much work to print by hand. I took a 9 x 18 piece of scrap 3/4 inch plywood and cut it into 6 x 9 and 9 x 12 pieces. I found two old strap hinges and cut some matte board shims so the pieces of plywood will stay farther apart than the thickness of the print block when they are folded together, and hinged the plywood together. I had a length of scrap stair rail that I mounted on top as a hefty handle. The piËce de rÈsistance is two little brass clips to hold the print paper, made of 0.010 brass left over from model train stuff.
The durn thing works OK. I cranked out 51 prints, using some old water base blockprinting ink. Some of the prints are wimpy and splotchy, but there are more good ones than I could have printed in the same time, even allowing for the time to build the press -- which will be good for more projects, too. There's lots more to do to make swapworthy cards, but the big prints are done. Now I'm looking forward to trying some reduction block prints with that press. If I tack some strips of wood to the base to hold the blocks, and fit the print stock carefully in position under the clips, I should be able to get consistent registration, don't you think?
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