Best Day of My Life

Monday and Tuesday were snoozers compared to today, so I'm not going to dwell on them for long.

Monday
Helped Alex edition Patrick's print. Watched baseball with Patrick (actually rooting for the Brewers against the Cardinals because it hurts the Cubs). Went into the studio around 9pm and stayed until 1am editioning the SNAP!!! print.

Tuesday
So tired. Had to be at Tamarind early to sponge for Brandon on the pro-side. It was a Jim Dine print but just a boring background flat so I was falling asleep. Had class with Marge. Learned about Contract work versus Publishing. Got our Workshop Proposal assignment for the end of the semester. Watched baseball, worked on proposal, went to bed early (10:30pm).

Wednesday
Best Day of My Life! I know that doesn't say much for the rest of my life... but it really was a great day. We finally got to go visit Takach Press Corporation which is located on the SW side of Albuquerque.



Make sure to click below. TONS of juicy pictures behind the cut!


For those of you not familiar with Takach Press, it is a family run company located in Albuquerque that builds printmaking presses, rollers and other miscellaneous printmaking equipment. They also supply inks, papers, drying racks, flat files, you name it. As their name implies, they are known for their lithography and etching presses. I'm not really sure how many other companies in the United States are currently making printing presses, but everyone I know that has either purchased a press or wants to purchase a press wants a Takach Press.

We arrived at Takach around 10:30 and were greeted by Dave Sr. Dave started the business back in the 70's when he was working as an Engineer at the University of New Mexico. According to the legend, he was approached by a couple of guys from Tamarind who wanted to build their own press. The press went over so well that soon other printmakers were asking Mr. Takach to build them presses. And before you knew it, he had quite a bustling business for himself and his family. Here's Dave Sr. with Dave Jr., discussing important business matters, I'm sure.



After introductions, we first looked at a couple of presses that were being assembled. Here is an etching press without the bed on it. To the left, you can see a smaller etching press with a captain's wheel instead of a crank.



At Takach they have most of the components of the presses made beforehand and then they are assembled as they are ordered. There were lots and lots of parts laying around:





Our next stop was the ball graining room where we watched Tamarind Professional Printer and Takach Employee Aaron Bass demonstrate how they grain aluminum plates for use in lithography. Again, for those of you non-printmakers, ball graining takes a smooth sheet of aluminum and puts a rough grain or tooth on it so that it can be drawn on with a litho crayon or used similarly to a litho stone. These are the types of plates we have been using in our projects so far this year.

Here is Dave Sr. next to the giant bed. The only thing I can think to describe it as is a huge billiards table on hydraulics with rubber lining it instead of felt. In this picture, you can see the ball bearings on the right side. The plates are the silver rectangles and the rubber bed is the red part.



I got pretty good video of the machine in action. You'll see that the machine is turned on and the ball bearings start to roll across the bed and agitate over the plates. At the end of the clip, you see Aaron pouring in water and aluminum grit to help with the graining process.

During the process, Aaron started throwing some sort of powder over the bed. I'm not sure what it was, but it looked good.



About fifteen minutes later, we came back and watched Aaron unload the plates from the bed. The machine tilted up and he scooped the ball bearings out of the way. Then he removed the plates and fed them onto a conveyor cleaning and drying system. According to Mr. Takach, as far as he knows, they're they only company currently making ball grained plates in the United States.



The next stop was the machine shop where we watched Dave's son, Keith, machine the rust off of a steel cylinder used on the presses. Here are some of the cylinders in their natural ugly state:



And here is Keith making them beautiful. Look closely and on the right of the drum you can see how shiny and sparkly it is.



We stopped into the wood shop area where we learned about the Takach Press beds and how they are assembled and sanded down to be ridiculously level. This is the sanding unit they devised. You see a bare press bed on the unit. The sander moves back and forth over the wood of the press bed and takes off a little bit at a time. Eventually, they mount some sort of aluminum and composite top layer to the wood.



On our way back through the shop we visited with a welder who was working on welding the inner-parts of an upper-drum for a press.



Another interesting thing at the welding station was the jig that they use to create the signature Takach press legs. The jig enables them to get the press legs welded together quickly and in the same configuration each time.



Our next stop was in the roller room to visit with Dave's son-in-law Joe. Joe and his son build the sweet Takach rollers and brayers that we all love to use. I think Mick is trying to slip one of those pretty brayers in his pocket.



Joe explained that the rollers are actually hollow metal tubes with rubber around the outside. Most of the weight from the roller comes from the rubber. Here are various sizes of the tubes waiting to be assembled into rollers and brayers:





And here are some with the rubber attached:



There was lots of other fun stuff laying around, but nothing quite as pretty as all the cans of ink just waiting to be shipped out to little printers all over the country:



After the tour, the Takach family was nice enough to treat us all to a delicious home-cooked meal. Dave Sr's wife, Helen and their daughter Peggy did all of the cooking and it was fantastic! Patrick sure did enjoy it anyway:



Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, we were given free t-shirts.

Okay! Okay! I'll buy a press from you. Geez. Twist my arm.

Seriously though, good marketing considering probably at least half of our group will drop $10-20K on one of their presses in the next five years.

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Weekend Fun

After printing Saturday, a group of us made a trip to the New Mexico State Fair (just about five minutes away).

This was the last weekend for the fair and it was pretty crowded. Our first stop was at a bank of black and white photo booths. Somehow we all managed to squeeze in and you can almost see everyone if we turn our heads just right. This was by far the best part of the evening:



After that, it was mostly a lot of us pushing our way through the crowds:



And also being yelled at by crazy carnies who wanted Patrick to try his hand at their rip-off games.



None of us were really feeling up for rides... but we did stop to watch a few. Here's Alex looking heavenly as always:



And here's what she was gawking at... GENESIS:



We tried our hand at a couple of games... mostly the kind where you are in a race with a dozen people and roll a ball into a hole to try to advance your racer. All four of us struck out the first time and the second time Alex was triumphant. Unfortunately, the guy running the game totally conned us. At first he said the winner got choice of any prize, but after Alex won he told her she could only have a stuffed cow. Apparently, since not all the seats were filled, she was no longer eligible to get her choice. We ended up paying the guy off so that we could take home a Pink Unicorn.



Sunday

This morning I slept in and then Patrick and I drove way out to the NE side to watch the Packers game. We were going to watch it at his house but for some reason the CBS station in Albuquerque was showing Paid Programming instead of one of the four football games that other cities were showing. Luckily, we found a Packer Bar that turned out to be quite the hotspot. Even better, the Packers beat the Chargers today to put themselves at 3-0. Here we are rocking the green and gold:

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Chorus After Chorus

Alex was sponging on the Pro-Side on Friday, so Patrick helped me proof her stone. I thought it was going to be fairly easy, but I ended up having some trouble with it. It seemed to be etched decently. Here is what her drawing looked like:



And this is a close up of one section, showing the stone before and after it was etched. The image on the left is the stone with only drawing materials on it. Alex used crayon to draw the bodies, then filled the clothes in with tusche and added rubbing crayon some on the faces and around the bodies. After the stone is etched the first time, we wash out the drawing materials and roll it up in printing ink. The image on the right is what it looked like after being rolled up. If it was etched properly, it should look pretty much the same except a little darker. In this case, you'll notice the greasy tusche got completely black (which is what Alex was hoping for, I think). We lost a little bit of the detail with the rubbing crayon in the background, but overall it's still mostly there.



So when I went to print the image for the first time, I was having a lot of trouble getting the flat black parts on the bodies and the bottom banner to roll up dark. I wasted several sheets of paper before Rodney came over and put me to shame with his filthy selective rolling techniques. I think he also cheated a little bit by using a much better quality of paper to proof on. We increased the pressure on the press and modified my ink so that it was super soft. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to get an Approval to Print for Alex by the end of the day.

On Saturday, we met in the afternoon to proof Patrick's stone and finish the edition of Alex's print. Here is what Patrick's drawing looked like as Alex was etching it:



Alex seems to have the miracle stone and she got a good proof with relatively little effort. My editioning went good for the most part. My first print on good paper was a little lean but I was able to get the rest of them (almost) exactly the same. Now we just have to finish printing Patrick's stone on Monday.

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Romancing the Stone

Apparently, no matter how much explaining I do, some people still don't understand what I'm doing at Tamarind. I figured I'd try throwing in some video clips to supplement my explanations. Sorry, I don't have a way to edit them right now.

Anytime we go to print a stone or a plate, there are several steps we have to take. At this point, the stone has had it's first and second etches applied, is rolled up with ink, and stored under a thin, buffed-in layer of gum arabic. (See picture above for reference.)

The first thing we do is apply a fresh layer of gum arabic and buff it in. After it dries, we take lithotine or some sort of other solvent and remove all of the ink that it was rolled up in. The gum layer is not affected by this and will protect the non image areas from grease. In this first clip, Valpuri has already poured the lithotine on and is in the process of wiping out the ink.



After the ink is removed, we replace it with a thin coat of asphaltum, which serves as a printing base. Here you see Valpuri applying asphaltum to the image area, then buffing it in with a rag until there is a thin even coat.



Once the asphaltum dries and sets, the stone is ready to be washed out with water. The water will remove the previously applied gum from the non image areas and will leave the thin layer of asphaltum as a printing base in the image areas. You'll notice that Valpuri will first clean out the borders and then commit the image area. After it is relatively clear, she grabs the inking roller and rolls quickly, simultaneously snapping out the remaining asphaltum and inking the image.



With the stone satisfactorily inked, we're ready to pull a print on newsprint. Usually, we'll pull at least three or four newsprints, slowly adjusting our inking and pressure until it looks fairly good. This way we don't waste any of our expensive good paper. In this next clip, Valpuri has already placed a piece of newsprint over the inked image. She has also put down a tympan (greased piece of plastic) on top of the newsprint that will protect the paper as it is run through the press. Printing happens in several steps:
1) The press bed is guided to a marked starting point.
2) A lever is pulled down to apply pressure to the stone.
3) A clutch is engaged and a handle cranked to run the stone through the press.
4) At the marked end point, cranking is stopped and the pressure disengaged.
5) The pressbed is then pulled back to it's starting point.
6) The tympan is removed and the newsprint or paper is peeled off the stone.

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Flight of the Conchords

This makes me very happy.



But then again, so does this.

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P-7: Collaboration I

On Monday we got going on our first collaboration project. For now, we are assigned to work with one of our fellow student printers. I will serve as the Printer for Alex's drawing and I will act as an Artist for Valpuri.

The printer's first responsibility is to meet with the Artist and determine what sort of print they plan to make. They provide a stone that is ready to draw on and also provide the materials that the Artist will work with. Now that we have done our crayon and tusche tests, we have a good idea of what sorts of things work best on our stone. In some cases, limitations might be placed (suggested) if the Printer doesn't think they can pull a technique off.

The Printer will also prepare the paper for the project, which in our case includes calendering. The tremendous pressure of the litho press will cause a paper to stretch out a little bit as it is printed. The stretch of the paper can cause problems and inconsistencies with registration and it can help to calender it before you actually print. To calender the paper, we simply run it through the litho press at 2/3 pressure to smooth and stretch it out.

I got my stone ready for Alex before I went to Saint Louis and on Monday, Valpuri finished graining her stone for me. Tuesday I was on sponging duty all day with Brandon, with the exception of my morning class with Marge. I was exhausted after so much standing and sponging, but I returned to the studio yesterday night to work on my drawing.

Rodney urged us to challenge our Printer without stabbing them in the back. Originally, I was just going to do some crayon and maybe a little shop black for the borders. But Valpuri was practically begging me to give her something difficult... and I obliged.

I decided that I wanted to do a picture of me and Britney Spears. To make it more fun, I decided that it was going to be cut and folded into a stand-up print. Here are a few pictures of the drawing on the stone before Valpuri took over.




The paper will actually extend about four inches on the top and bottom from where the drawing stops. I will cut around the heads with an X-Acto blade and then fold it three places to create something similar to a table tent. Here's a diagram:



After consultation with Rodney (and an eight hour day of sponging), Valpuri set to work on putting the first etch on my drawing.

First, she decided what etches would work best for the drawing and mixed them up. For the stone, we start with an ounce of gum arabic and then add drops of nitric acid to strengthen the etch. Some delicate work will only require straight gum arabic, heavier crayon could need up to twenty drops or more. Here Valpuri has mixed up at least three different etches to use on my drawing (probably a 3 drop, 7 drop and a 10 drop). She also has a giant bottle of gum arabic on hand to "cool things down" if she gets carried away.



Next, she put rosin and talc on the image to help protect it from the etches and to draw the gum in closer to the grease particles:



Finally, she set to work on applying the etches to the stone. She had to work quickly and methodically. Being careful to apply the weakest etches to the delicate parts and the hottest etches to the heavy parts.



The reason that my image is difficult is because of the combinations of materials. I have light tusche washes next to medium crayon drawings next to dark black borders. Not only will it be difficult to etch it perfectly, but it will also be a challenge to roll-up with ink. I hope that Valpuri knows I'm not really trying to sabotage her, but rather make her a better printer. Even though she is already the Best Printer in Santa Claus Village.



Alex started drawing on my stone this afternoon and she should have it finished tomorrow. She was a lot easier on me than I was on Valpuri, but I still think it will be challenging. This project requires us to work around the schedules of both our Artist and our Printer. As a result, there's a lot of down-time for me right now. I spent the afternoon at home preparing paper for my SNAP!!! print and in the evening I went into the studio and pulled my first proof of it. I was pretty excited. Hopefully I'll be able to edition it very soon.

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Meet Me in Saint Louieee Louieee

The night before my trip to Saint Louis I couldn't sleep at all. Seriously, I may have gotten an hour or two in the whole night! I was back and forth between my bed and the computer and the futon. Finally I got a solid block of sleep near daylight. My alarms were set for 6:30am and 6:45am, but I didn't hear either one of them. My eyes opened at 7:28am! Just two minutes before my shuttle was supposed to arrive!

Thankfully, I had set out my clothes the night before and piled my stuff together. I ran around my little house throwing on clothes and grabbing the trash to take out. Just as I was about to leave I heard a knock on my window. It was my neighbor, in her robe, informing me that the shuttle guy had knocked on her door. Crap. (I learned today that she was already awake, which makes me feel a bit better.)

Anyway... I made my shuttle and got the airport with plenty of time to spare. I bought a book, Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother, to read on the plane. My flights seemed pretty quick and uneventful. I connected in Kansas City and arrived a few minutes early in Saint Louis.

Carrie picked me up. It was a little weird at first. But look how happy I was to see her and to be back in Saint Louis!



Carrie took me to ArtMart to pick up some Kozo paper for my SNAP!!! print and then we had a quick bite at Saint Louis Bread Company in the loop. My haircut was at 4pm, we got there early and I had an enjoyable haircut and visit with my favorite stylist, Callie. We poked our head in some stores in the Loop and then made our way back home. There was a Balloon Race in Forest Park this weekend and all sorts of crazies were pulled off the highway watching it. I thought it was funny that there were balloons in Saint Louis because that is the big event in Albuquerque. Of course, in Saint Louis there are only about 70 balloons in the race. At the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta there will be around 700 balloons! So crazy.

Here is a picture taken from the car of the balloons over Forest Park:



By the time we got done with my haircut and got home, I was pretty wiped out. We rested a bit and then walked down to Bahn Mi So 1 for a late dinner of Palestrina's Delight and the Best-Spring-Rolls-In-Saint-Louis.

I slept incredibly well that night, and in the morning we went to La Dolce Via for brunch. I had biscuits and gravy which was delicious until I slowed down enough to realize it was made with lamb sausage. I'm not trying to be down on lamb sausage or anything... but when you're not expecting it, it can leave quite a bad taste in the mouth. Here I am trying to do the Katie Spencer photo-face, but really just looking silly:



(P.S. Check out my awesome Cardinals shirt that Carrie got me. So stylish and comfy.)

Just as we were wrapping up our brunch, a gaggle of early-twenty-somethings walked in. I thought I recognized a guy in the group and then realized that it was Alexandra's boyfriend Hayden! Sure enough, Alex strolled through the door a second later. It still amuses me that we ran in to each other there. Of all the places in Saint Louis they could have gone. Crazy Crazy.

Back at the house I worked on printing out the color parts of my SNAP!!! print onto the Kozo paper I'd prepared. My parents drove up from Rolla and arrived at the house around 2pm. We rushed down to Laclede's Landing so that we could beat the football game crowd to the Old Spaghetti Factory (my mom's favorite). Here's a view from the riverfront:



We hung out with my parents for quite a while and ended up back down in the loop for Ben and Jerry's. By the time they left, it was around 7pm! Where does the day go? I worked more on my SNAP!!! prints and then Alexandra called to invite us out for dessert and drinks at Bailey's Chocolate Bar. We were pretty desserted-out from the ice cream so we just stuck with a drink and enjoyed conversation with Alex and her friends.

I still had about 15 more pages to print out when I got home and I was a little disgruntled that I had to spend my last waking hours at home working on a print. There were so many people that I didn't get to see while I was home and I wish I could have found a way to squeeze more in.

5:30am came very early in the morning. We drove out to pick up Alex and Hayden from their hotel and took them to the airport with us. Hayden's flight to NYC wasn't until later in the day and he was flying on a different airline so we parted ways at the security checkpoint. So many goodbyes. So much sadness.



Alex slept pretty much the whole way back... Look at her! Just like a little angel with her head smashed into that tray table:



Celina picked us up at the airport and we dropped off our things and headed straight into the studio. Today we discussed our next project and Alex and I finished printing her last two editions. Tomorrow morning we have class with Marge and then it's on to our first Collaboration!

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