Sunday, July 3, 2011

Mini Halfwood Press


I bought a Mini Halfwood etching press a while back, and am really loving it. The bed of this little press is 6" x 16." I'm planning to use it to make miniature books, so it's just the right size for me. I've had huge fun using it, and I must confess I've gotten embarrassingly attached to the little beast -- almost to the point of giving it a name. I haven't done it yet. But.

Printmaker Bill Ritchie invented the Mini Halfwood, as well as other tabletop presses. He says on his website that he wanted his presses to have the feel of a sailing ship interior, and his presses are wonderfully elegant looking, as well as functional.


I've been playing around with different tools to see what kind of drypoint marks they make. Above is one of my scribblings, printed on the Mini Halfwood using Arches 88 paper. I've found that some of my bookbinding awls make interesting lines.

Below, I printed the same plate on handmade paper:



6 comments:

V said...

Ohh, that's abosolutely lovely. It's both beautiful and practical, which makes it super!

Gretel said...

LUSTING after your little press, how handy and prefectly sized - wonderful!

Velma Bolyard said...

the press is , er, cute! anyway, i look forward to seeing more experiments...looks great.

Velma Bolyard said...

the press is , er, cute! anyway, i look forward to seeing more experiments...looks great.

Carol said...

I haven't looked at the website yet but I'm very envious of your beautiful little press. I suppose I'm really on the wrong side of the world to get one from him but there's no harm in wishing.

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