Dragons are difficult to print....

They chew on your rollers and lick up all your ink. I'm STILL working on my dragon book. Whose idea was it to print two separate paragraphs of type on each page in two seperate colors AND have block images!!! Hopefully, I'll get my shipment of Soysolv II in by friday so I can keep going. I ran out after 2 years which is saying alot. I got 4 bottles of the stuff then. It's biodegradable and cleans my rollers up well. I tried Simple Green and it was horrible. It left ink residue everywhere. The ink that I could clean off with paper towels would be similar to what I could scrape off by hand anyway so there's no way I can plug on with just Simple Green. Lithotine is the cleaner of choice for most printmakers but disposing of the chemicals is a pain in the butt and the HazMat fee is an extra 20.00 that I don't have. The good news is that I only have one more page of major text to print and then I just have to print the title page and colophon and a few other things. Then we get on to binding.....LOL, this book will be nice when it's finally done but it sure is labor intensive. Such is the love of typesetters, blockcutters, and bookbinders everywhere.

Ride'm Ferret!

I've finished printing a butt load of christmas cards and some other cards and I'm realizing that I need to stamp at least my press name and contact on the back of them. I am going to break down and buy a cast rubber stamp for this rather than carve one of my own because that minutia is just rediculous. I've found a site that will accomodate a custom image and I've been agonizing as to what to do. I've decided that the Distinct Mink icon is just going to have to wait.
Not many people know what the deal is with Pistoles Press and in fact most nonprinters don't understand the title "Press" anyhow. My publishing press is called Pistoles Press in memory of my beloved ferret Pistol. When he was a bad boy, his name was Pistoles Frijoles.....yeah, gun beans. Well, pistoles is not even spanish for gun but for an antiquated system of coinage in Spain...but that's the beside the point. Whenever there was an upturned plant or ripped open bag of produce with little needle tooth bruises all over the apples, it wasn't Pistol's fault. It was the infamous Pistoles Frijoles! The thing that cracks me up the most is that he percieved that if he stayed stone still in the middle of the crime scene right after the act, he was invisible. As soon as I would yell "PISTOLES FRIJOLES!!!!!!" he'd spin rubber to get under the couch or bed. He was a real inspiration, however, as he would go after animals ten sometimes twenty times his size (he scared the shit out of my roommate for a while there) and would always be ready to play and get into something. Even though he was a runt, he was a true ferret's ferret and was always up for attack! His tenacity was a real inspiration and that's why I went back to an earlier image that had been floating around in my head. I had drawn a weasel with ink guns in a gun holster belt but it didn't have the dynamic energy I wanted. Anyone who's taken the time to painstakenly carve a nice block or set a page of type, then have to load it into the press and do all the make ready, counting the numerous proofs to make sure the registration and pressure is right and that the ink is the right color/consistancy, knows that feeling of finally cranking out the prints. That's the type of thrill I wanted to have in my logo. After wrangling everthing into place, the bucking bronco can't throw you once you're running that edition out! I decided to anthropomorphize the legs of the press into cow hooves and I think the tracks for the rollers mimic bull horns. Who else thinks the hat looks like a toilet seat? Any suggestions? Can you tell the weasel is happy?

Red Squid

So, I've completed a series of 80 prints featuring my squid in a red theme. I've completed the color printing in another set of grayish squid that I want to print silver spots on. I have to carve the block for that one and will probably print that one up on a transparent white base. Yay, squids!

Salsa the Octopus

So, here is the long awaited end to my friend the octopus which I started upon opening this blog. I went through a period of picking around the painting off and on for a while. It's been months since I last worked on it but last night I just felt the urge to pull it out and work a little and before I knew it, tah-dah! I think I finished it at about 1:00AM. I've already picked out a frame for it that is gold and intricate so that it will have a sort of museum quality feel. I'm stuck on the mat so far. I'm glad to see it done and it was a real treat to work on. The detail work was like piecing together an intricate jigsaw puzzle. I wanted the end effect to be that of an illuminated manuscript illustration or a story panel from the ottoman period; sparkling with rich detail. I don't know if the scan shows this well enough but I lined each sucker with a grass green mica ink I found at the local art store. Somehow, "Salsa the Octopus" sounds stupid for the gravity I want the work to hold but that's the only thing that pops into my mind at the moment. I'm open for suggestion!

Squiddles!

Now we're back to where we started. I finally got that damn jig rigged up to pull proofs from and I'm really excited about what came off! I made a bunch of proofs and I'll be carving the color block tomorrow. I want to do two editions of Squiddles so far. The first one I want to be a pink skinned squid with a red key block. Next I want to print the skin the same peachy color as as featured above and then do a key block in charcoaly silver. Yay!

My aching back....

Well, here's a little picture of what the studio looks like now. My sister, her husband, my husband, and two other friends helped me move in this weekend and I'm pooped. Technically, it's been more than a weekend as we packed things up on Saturday, moved studio stuff and both presses on Sunday, came back for a large table and my stereo system on Monday, and I still haven't set everything up by Tuesday. It's a working process. The studio space is wonderful! I've got three large windows, two of which open up to let in a nice breeze. The space is twice as big as my old studio and since it has a cement floor and is in the basement, I have no worries on weight constrictions. I went out and bought a papasan chair at Pier One and I will personally vouch that once you get in it, you won't want to get up.
I don't think it would qualify as a dirty job by some of the ones I've seen on the popular TV show but I was sidetracked unpacking by the Vandercook. I just noticed that the action was a little stiff and no wonder, the teeth on the tracks were caked full of some crap. Now, mind I've never used this machine yet, I've only been able to purchase it and store it due to lack of space. I got in there with WD-40 and loosened up the grime with nylon and brass brushes. It looked like for the most part ink, dirt, and crud that has accumulated over the years. Very nasty!

I'll post more pictures as things progress. Now that I'm in a good studio space, progress will definately happen!!!!!!!!!YAY!!!!!!

Moving into McGuffey

I wish I had a picture to show for it but in all the hustle we didn't have time. Yesterday was moving day for me to the McGuffey Art Center in downtown Charlottesville, VA. I am excited, relieved, and stressed out all in one instance. Lately, I've developed the habit of falling asleep at 8:00 PM and waking up at 3:00 AM as the update ticker will indicate. The only way to not go nuts is to get up and do something to wear myself down again.
I had some real great friends help me move again yesterday. They go around to auction and deal in antiques so they are used to manuevering clumsy and heavy objects. I think I dissappointed my friend Peter with the Vandercook press move as he said he was expecting this massive monster with all sorts of crap hanging off of it. I told him that when you didn't have any help that it feels like a massive monster. All went well this time around and my sister and her husband helped me with the Pilot press and other furniture in the studio. I wasn't able to fit my beat up old table in the truck yesterday and I have to go get that tomorrow because it's on their porch still and I'm sure they're not impressed with that! I was afraid about room in my new McGuffey studio but when everything gets in it's proper place I'm sure I'll have room to spare. It is such a great space! I've got a few windows that I can open and get natural light! This is going to be so much fun! I feel like a real professional too with my presses standing ready in the middle of the room. In our rush, we aligned the Vandercook's tympan crank wrong and I'll have to enlist a few strong friends to help line it up again but I'm sure we'll be cranking out prints in no time.
Yeah, that Z in the wood blocks is oriented totally wrong. What did I tell you about artists and day jobs?
I hope to have some neato pictures soon!