Adventure making aAdventure making a Rembrandt Pressprintmakingworld.com/emeralda/pp/ppprod/equip/press/WWRP/... · 2018. 11. 13. · printing plates Rembrandt produced 290 etchings

Perf

ect P

ress

Divi

sion Em

eraldaW

orks

www.emeralda.com

MINI

HA

LFWOOD PRESS

Model 6

Made in USA Seattle

- WA

Em

eral

daReg

ion

©2004 Bill Ritchie

XIG

UA

TO

U PRESENTATIO

NS

Ric Mil ler

AP

RIN

TM

AKING WORLD COLLABORATIVE

PRO

JEC

T

www.printmakingworld.com

Adventure making aAdventure making aDIY-WeeWoodieDIY-WeeWoodieRembrandt PressRembrandt Press

How Rembrandt‛s Ghostshowed Issy PrintmakingHow Rembrandt‛s Ghostshowed Issy Printmaking

Suggested printmaking block design

Perfect Press division ofEmeralda Works500 Aloha #105

Seattle WA 98109

Detail from an etching,self-portrait by RembrandtThe model shown above ismade of all natural woodand made one at a timeby skiled makers. Yourpurchase may show variations because of thisbut are true to the planfor making WeeWoodieRembrandt Press.

© 2014 Bill Ritchie

InsideLearn facts and factoids

about Rembrandt, his life and times and how

his prints made him world famous before his paintings did, and learn

about etching presses in the novel by the author of this story about Issy.

Inside:What you need to know about making a WeeWoodie Rembrandt Press for fun and games to play.

Now you can assemble a model Rembrandt Press that really works

2

When Issy was 12, she was adopted by an elderly couple who managed a hotel in Florianopolis, Brazil. Her adoptive parents, named Dusty and Amor, were expats from Seattle, in North America. They maintained homes in both coun-tries. Therefore it was Issy’s good fortune to travel - spending six months in each hemisphere as her adoptive parents followed the sun. Issy was good at art, which was a lucky thing because Dusty had been an art professor long ago.

Issy’s stories are always interest-ing. From the time she first learned about printmaking from Dusty, she had the uncanny ability to imagine herself in studies with many of the artists of past centuries who made it pos-sible for printing to be a medium for fine art. She learned from artists like Rembrandt, Picasso, Goya, and Piranesi in the western world, and Hiroshigi and Hokusai in the East. Thus began the stories about Issy’s adventures start-ing when she was just a kid.

Over the years, we follow her, grown-up now - a world-traveling, press-packing Millennial who circles the globe showing mini etching presses. She is a PrintmakingWorld emissary; she visits artists far away from Brazil and the USA. Before taking up this life, she went to schools in America and Europe and took on a teaching position at a university in Hawaii. She makes annual visits back to Brazil to visit her parents and to report her findings for her family’s enterprise - that of a printing press factory which specializes in small, “green” printing presses for artists all over the whole wide printmaking world.

About the Author: Bill Ritchie, formerly a professor of art at the University of Washington, thinks printmaking should be taught and learned, practiced, researched in the context of global community service. He tired of 20th Century teaching and started Emeralda Works—blending tra-ditional printmaking and digital arts, producing games combining curriculum, database, a printing press, digital game-based interfaces and online magazines. He and his wife, Lynda, live and work at their Mini Art Gallery in Seattle, Washington, USA.

Issy, illustration by Nellie Sunderland

Aboutby Bill Ritchie

About by Bill Ritchie

3

How Rembrandt’s Ghost showed Issy printmaking

RembrandtHarmenszoon van Rijn

He was born July 15, 1606 and died on October 4, 1669 in his home, the Blue Crown, in Am-sterdam, The Netherlands. He was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmak-ers in European art and the most important in Dutch history.

4

WeeWoodie Rembrandt Press Owner’s Manual

Rembrandt’s PressIt was taller than a man and built of heavy wooden beams with iron bolts and strapping. It took two strong men to turn the wheel. A replica is in the Rembrandtshuis Museum in Amsterdam and people who visit there may see demonstrations of Rembrandt’s press in use for printing an etched copper plate.


5

6


There was also a chart with all the parts - which came in handy.


7

Issy found a badge that fit a hole, and a paper with backward printing.


Step 1: Place one of the side pieces on the edge of the base plate and insert the screws, center it, make a starter and insert screws.

Step 2: Do the same for the other side. You may leave the screws slightly loose until you have all the screws in for final alignment.

Step 3: Align the bed plate support, bow or stern, so that it is 1/8” below the top edge of the side piece runner.

Step 4: Insert the second bed plate support, also aligning it 1/8” below the top edge of the rail. This keeps the bed travel straight.

Step 5: Insert the crown piece, make starters and insert the screws. Remember to leave them slightly loose for later alignment.

Step 6: Put in the bottom roller and insert the retainer pins on both ends of the bot-tom roller.8


Step 7: Put in the top roller. Step 8: Insert the retainer pins on both ends of the top roller.

Step 9: Press on the driving wheel. Step 10: Insert the retainer pins on the driv-ing wheel square hub.

Step 11: Place the moving press bed on the bed support so it slides between the 1/8” rails.

Step 12: Align each part and then tighten the screws - not too tight or you may tear out the wood. Insert the crown badge.

9

10


Rembrandt’s Houses

Young Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam from Leiden, and over his lifetime he lived in several houses. The best one is the Rembrandtshuis Mu-seum today. In his last years he lived and died in a rented apartment, the Blue Crown, in a poorer part of Amsterdam, across from an amusement park, the Nieuwe Doolhof.

The WeeWoodie Rembrandt Press is almost 8 inches tall, over 10 inches long and about 5 inches wide. The bed has a space for a 3 X 4 inch by eighth-inch thick printing plate. You could print hand-carved unmounted linoleum, woodblock or collagraph, or a plastic plate, or machine-cut witb a CNC router (like the one that was in the pile in the beginning), or by laser engraver, or printed on a 3D printer.

Rembrandt’s InksIn the Western world of his day, both printers and paint-ers hand-made ink and paint by grinding (mulling) together oil and pigment. Most print-making ink is oil-based today. However, water-based ink is widely available and is a wel-come alternative because these are washable and non-toxic. Some water based inks are as rich as the oil-based inks.

Rembrandt picked up the last piece - a

relief printing plate. “This is

not my kind of print-ing but it

is the kind that is good for printng

cards and I’ll show you how.”


11

Psst! The relief printing plate used in these pictures was made in a machine called a CNC router, controlled by a computer. The design is for making Collectible Trading Cards. More CTC designs are being planned for the Wee-Woodie Rembrandt Press.

12


With the plate inked, now it goes on the movable press bed in the space. The space, called a “chase,” was used by Gutenberg.

The paper comes next. Notice that the felt and the gripper were already under the top roll-er and folded back, so they stay in place.

With the paper in place, care-fully let down the felt - or felts if more than one felt is needed to get enough pressure.

The gripper goes on top of the felts and helps the top roller pull everything through.


Rembrandt’s Papers

One of the oldest paper-mak-ing companies in Amsterdam was Van Gelder Zonen, and it is possible that Rembrandt used their papers for his prints and drawings. Paper was made of linen in those days and Rembrandt’s prints on them have lasted for centuries.

13

Rembrandt’s printing plates

Rembrandt produced 290 etchings until he had to sell his printing-press. One collec-tion in the USA has 75 plates. None of the etchings is larger than 21 by 18 inches; many are of postcard size or less - even as small as a stamp.

When Rembrandt had the plate, paper, felt and grip-per all in place, then he turned the driving wheel . . .

. . . and the press bed, the plate, the paper -- every-thing -- all were squeezed between the two rollers.

14


RegistrationYou get two black images for a Rembrandt’s Ghost CTC so you can use the printing plate to make it in two colors. Cut along the lines.

15

Measure 7/8” from the raised edge of the printing plate and draw a line on the press bed.

Put a strip of masking tape on the line - that will help when you put the paper edge to the line.

Ink the plate and set it in. Position the paper at the edge.


16

Carefully lower the felt and gripper, you can hold the paper so it won’t be moved.

After turning it through, it looks like there was not enough pres-sure and the ink is too light.

Ink the plate again, and this time put in a piece of thin card board to get more pressure.

The second proof is better, but there are some light spots.

A good trick to know is to rub the paper with a wood-en spoon on the light spots.

Not bad, or, as Rembrandt said that they say in Amsterdam, “Niet slecht!”


17

Rembrandt’s Prints

The Old Masters’ printing method is called “intaglio,” but an older method called “relief” printing is the way to use the Rembrandt model press. A handy tool for it is the brayer - a roller with a handle.


18

Issy’s great cloud notionIssy’s great cloud notion

Cut out the part of the laser print you want and trim off the black edges because everything you can still see will transfer.

Line it up and tack in two or three places with bits of masking tape away from the design and words to have room with the iron tip.

Bearing down with the tip and edges of the hot iron, work over the design to melt the laser toner so it trans-fers to the wood.

You can lift the edge to see your progress. If it sticks too hard, warm it again and the toner softens. Try not to move the design or it blurs.

The bits of masking tape in two or three places will hold the design unmoving and in register while you check your progress.

If you mess up, you can sand it off, vacuum the black dust so the wood is clean and repeat. Download replace-ment at [email protected]

Set the iron on high, cotton or linen set-ting and be careful!

Be very careful using the iron - this is not

for kids alone.

Set the iron on high, linen setting and use

extreme care.

Use care -the iron can

give serious burns.

16

Perfect Press is a division ofEmeralda Works500 Aloha #105Seattle WA 98109www.printmakingworld.comAll rights reserved 19

In 1652, on a back street in Old Amsterdam, a paper mill is working into the night as Rem-brandt van Rijn, a regular customer of this establishment, makes one of his orders for fine etching order. The 7-year old son of the owner, Arent de Gelder, goes with his fa-ther to deliver the finished paper. A casual gesture by the famous Rembrandt—a gift of an etching to the boy—changes the youngster’s life. On October 31, 2012, when Professor Mac collapses in his printmaking studio and when he comes to he is a very disoriented. There must have been some magic in the old copper etching plate he was cleaning because, in the few minutes that he was passed out, he experienced a week-long, trouble-filled quest in Rembrandt’s time and place: 1660, Amsterdam. Mac’s time-travel journey starts badly as a stow-away on a putrid dung boat along with his printmaking chest. He has a deadly liaison with a wicked procuress, and, posing as a scholar, he meets up with Rembrandt van Rijn. The famed Dutch artist, down on his luck and desperate for money, thinks Mac can help him make a comeback and so he covets Mac’s mini etching press. The rest is history!

Rembrandt’s Ghost in the New Machine- a novel by Bill RitchieRembrandt’s Ghost in the New Machine

Scan for the 440-page paperback or Kindle eBook on amazon.com

Story of the WeeWoodie Rembrandt PressIt was conceived in 2010 by Bill Ritchie, a printmaking professor who saw the replica 17th Century etching press at the Rembrandtshuis Mu-seum in Amsterdam. The idea of making a wooden model of Rembrandt’s press was part of a project in which Rembrandt’s important contributions to fine art printmaking would be the basis for art appreciation, history and technology using a game-in-a-toy method. The first model consisted of fifty parts and was hard to make. He enjoined a Boeing engineer, Ric Miller, to simplify the design so it could be partly machine-made. Miller converted Bill’s model into a new design suitable for Computer Numeri-cally Controlled router systems (CNC). Working together, they made the DIY version so that makers everywhere may get printmaking experience.

Halfwood Presses of the Line

Perfect Press division of Emeralda Works / 500 Aloha #105 / Seattle WA / 98109 www.printmakingworld.com

Mini Etching Press is the newest of the line, economical, 6-inch wide bed with the features

of the other Halfwoods. Introduced at $995.00, assembled, with options for custom design and materials, plus a DIY Kit version for $699* fob

Seattle. Weighs about 12 lbs.

Halfwood Presses have been the product of Bill Ritchie’s designs and made by artisan press maker and steel wright in Seattle since 2004.

The prize-winning Pram Halfwood Press - 6-inch wide bed - shown with its USB cable and an optional accessory box - the truly portable, beautiful etching press owned worldwide. Still

available for $1,500* fob Seattle. Silver Medal winner of the 2013 A’Design Award, in Milan.

Weighs about 14 pounds.

The Frigate Halfwood Press, a personal press, 7.5-inch wide bed priced at $2,000* fob Seattle,

shown with a device for online learning (the device, not included, is connective with a USB

extension cable). Weights about 30 lbs.

The Galleon Halfwood Press, a medium-sized, portable press with a 9-inch wide bed, weighs

50 lbs and is priced at $2,500* fob Seattle. The Galleon shares the features of the other

Halfwoods.

The Mariner Halfwood Press, largest of the line, of-fered for $4,500* fob Seattle. Twelve-inch wide, rack driven-bed, linked pressure screws and onboard USB flash memory drive like other Halfwoods.

*All prices are subject to change without notice.

Documents

Adventure making aAdventure making a Rembrandt Pressprintmakingworld.com/emeralda/pp/ppprod/equip/press/WWRP/... · 2018. 11. 13. · printing plates Rembrandt produced 290 etchings