Akua Pin Press

Kozo paper on left, cotton paper on right

This experiment began with a borrowed (thank you Marcia Pasqua at Honolulu Printmakers) Akua Pin Press.

The pin press can accommodate sheets of printing paper up to 19 1/12in wide by length of press bed used. Plate glass is recommended for smooth contact.

For this test:

Printing plate is on 2in x 4"in thin (1mm) plexiglass with both drypoint and masking tape.

Akua Intaglio Ink was used.

Print Plate was placed directly on glass press bed and felt and newsprint served as press blankets.

Dampened hand made kozo (l image) and hand made cotton (r image) paper was used.

Hand made and hand dyed paper was chiné colle applied with methyl cellulose powder.

Assessment:

The environment was more controlled and the ink is slower drying than the speedball acrylic providing more prep time.

When using the felt blanket for the cotton paper print (r) the plate slid on the glass creating a double image. Should have put a drop of water under the plexiglass printing plate for stability. Newsprint only was used for kozo (l) print and remained stable but weak ink transfer.

More practice with press “blanket” options is necessary.

However, a greater variety of print sizes are possible and pin press and plate bed do not require much storage space in small studio. Plate glass bed is delicate and a newly acquired plate was chipped on first set up!