People have been asking us if we have a printing press with us in the Gypsy Wagon, and how do we get so much work done in such a little space? Then we have to ruin their romantic vision by telling them the truth, that we actually don't live in the gypsy wagon full time, that we have a studio in Santa Cruz, CA where we do our printing, papermaking and bookbinding. But actually we do have a sort of printing press with us. It is called a Cuttlebug, a sort of mini etching press made for "crafters".
Santa Fe, NM is a town of Art and Artists. Donna's Great Aunt Mil lived in Santa Fe in the 1930s and one of her friends was an artist named Gustave Baumann. When we knew Aunt Mil she still had a few of his prints hanging in the living room of her house. Donna always admired those prints, so when we were in Santa Fe we visited the Palace of the Governors, where there is a historic print shop that has a display of Baumann's printing shop. It has Baumann's handpress, his pigments and equipment for making ink (now we want to make our own ink too), and examples of his prints. Curator Tom Leech took time to show us additional prints from their archives. Looking at examples of Baumann's reduction woodcuts, in the various states and colors, Donna was inspired to try making a print that looked like one of Baughman's. After leaving Santa Fe, while camping near Navajo Dam, in the Dine-tah (the Navajo's traditional homeland) we pulled out the little press and printed a three color reduction cut print of the surrounding landscape.
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| Donna is getting ready to cut the rubber stamp block |
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| Donna pulling the first print with yellow ink |
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| Peter's view of Donna working while he is laying in bed eating bon bons.... |
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| Inking up for the second color |
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| The image after pulling the second color |
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| Drying the cuts out of the wind |
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| Placing the block for the third color |
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| Removing the block after printing the third color |
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| The finished print. It is about 4 by 6 inches. |
So there you have it. Now we can say that the Wandering Book Artists DO work while on the road.
6 comments:
That is an interesting contraption.
Beautiful piece, Donna, as expected. I's so desert-ty. Hope all is well. We miss you in Tampa.
Great job Donna! I can just see Peter eating those BonBons. You two are great, love the posts. Can't wait to see you at Strawberry!
SWEET!
That's a beautiful print, Donna. The campground looked interesting also.
Dave Peters
Hi there, just found your blog while searching to see if the cuttlebug can be used for printing lino cuts. I wonder if you'd mind sharing how you use it sometime?
Thanks
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