Oldies = Goodies

First things first: we've got a fall sale going. 25% off of everything on pressureprinting.com! But while you're taking advantage of our low low prices, you might also notice some new print thumbnails littering the timeline. And indeed, we've updated the website with a gaggle of projects which were never available for general sale, but which we want to share with the world nonetheless. In rough chronological order:



First: Mark Ryden's 11-color screenprint, Silence. We completed this edition in collaboration with Mark under the auspices of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, who handled the selling and distribution. It was more work than anyone supposed but the results were more than worth it. The textural contrast between the shiny, translucent, aged Japanese paper and the heavy, matte, flat screened inks came off particularly well.



Second, we have a few installments of a project which has become something of an annual ritual around here: Baby Tattooville nametags! We've done them for three years running now, and they're always a blast. Here's how it works: the Baby Tattooville folks send us a strinking image from an amazing artist, we hand-print and generally fancy it up, and ship the resulting stack of paper back to California where they are inscribed by the hand of a professional calligrapher with each attendee's name to become the coolest nametags in the history of mankind. Artists in order of year: James Jean, Shag, and Greg Simkins. None of us have been lucky enough to attend this fantabulous weekend (yet) but we've only heard gushing praise about the event and are happy to play a part.

Next is an edition of giclées we did in collaboration with Chris Berens, exclusively for Jaski Art Gallery, The Kiss. The image is one of simultaneous action and repose, painted (painted!) with an equally paradoxical mix of expressiveness and photographic detail. We did our best to make it more than the average giclée with the debossed mounting on heavy, stiff, deckled stock and the illustrated emboss above the title. Plus: polar bears and manatees. It's a winner.
And finally another edition of giclées, this time produced for the Limited Edition of James Jean's Process Recess, Volume 3. So beautiful. If the painting weren't enough, the ropey foil pattern James drew for us to foil stamp on top takes it to another level. It can be a challenge to integrate something as literally flashy as gold foil into an image, but James handled it with his usual preternatural grace and skill.

None of these are new, really, but they're new to most of you! And while they weren't and aren't available for general sale, we have proofs of most on hand and you are always free to enquire.

Haniwa

What do you get when you mix a skull, a spider, a snail, anthropomorphic teacups, a wooden man in a bowler, and a horse, six feet underground? Our newest print with the one and only Femke Hiemstra!

Femke, (who is right this second releasing her first [great!] book, “Rock Candy,”) furnished us with a wonderful graphite drawing as a starting point for the project. She also sent along some awesome pictures of the drawing in progress, from her first thumbnails:

...to further refinements:

...to finishing touches:

So drawing in hand, we went through a few rounds of intaglio plates and made a flurry of test prints until we had one that captured the darkest darks all the way to the wispy highlights. And then it was time to ink, buff, and edition the plate.

We settled on printing the image in a smoky sepia ink on a stack of handcrafted custom-made Twinrocker paper.

Meanwhile, Brad had the bright idea to emboss an illustrated title and perhaps other various accoutrements into the print, and after talking about it with Femke she produced this:


...which, punched into the paper, ends up looking something like this:

Really, a perfect touch.

So, a couple of mailings to and from the Netherlands to get everything signed and a funny-goggled quality control session later...

...and we had a finished edition. And now we're offering it for sale on pressureprinting.com!


Femke Hiemstra: Haniwa

• Edition: 100 + 10 artist’s proofs, 10 printer’s proofs & 1 bon à tirer


• Print size: 12.75” × 8.75”


• Printed intaglio on custom Twinrocker paper with Charbonnel inks


• Embossed with an illustrated title designed by the artist


• Signed and numbered by the artist


• Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed and numbered certificate of authenticity

Zembo Boy

Today we’re releasing our newest project, “Zembo Boy,” completed in conjunction with the inestimable Ron English.

We’ve been on a bit of an antique portrait frame kick recently, so when Brad first saw Zembo Boy, he couldn’t help but picture the kid looking out from under a piece of beveled glass, encased in an intricately ornate cast black resin frame. So he contacted Ron (for whom we've been lucky enough to do some design work in the [ancient] past) with a proposal for a project built around the image. Mr. English graciously consented and we were well on our way.


The image presented some unique printing challenges—Ron’s imagery has a truly socks-knocking, insane hyper-real aesthetic about it and we wanted to preserve as much of that as we could when translating the large-scale oil painting into a small-scale intaglio print. Similarly, frames like the one employed here were originally made to showcase old-style, tack-sharp daguerreotypes; we went through not a few rounds of plates attempting to be true to our sources, squeezing (literally!) as much fine detail, smooth sheen, and as many bottomless rich darks out of the plate as is possible.


We’ve detailed the casting process we use to make these resin frames before, so I’ll spare you the details and just take an opportunity to reiterate that these frames take an inordinate amount of labor and care to produce, making it extra-important to us that the particulars of the frame and the art within it complement each other. And in that respect, the quirky, vintage, vaguely oriental flavors of both frame and image here are a perfect fit.

Also, here are some more casting pictures, because pictures of toxic black polyurethane resin goo are cool:


In short, we’re pretty excited about this release, and hope you are too.


Ron English: Zembo Boy

• Edition: 100 + 10 Artist’s Proofs, 10 Printer’s Proofs & 1 Bon à tirer


• Print size: 4.875" x 3.375"


• Frame size: 10.125" x 7.25"


• Printed intaglio on Rives Heavyweight printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks


• Hand stained in ink and gouache


• Signed and numbered by the artist


• Framed in a cast-resin, hand-antiqued frame with custom laser cut steel backing plate


• Mounted under curved glass


• Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity

Available now at pressureprinting.com!