It’s been a while since the last entries. I was not idle, I was dealing with the biggest woodcuts I had to do, and since it was a tedious job, there was no time for entries. Recently, however, something happened that is really worth writing about. Looking for an alternative to a heavy stationary printing press, I discovered the Czech miracle SLAMA PRESS on the Internet.
It is a hand press invented by the artist Milos Slame. It is intended to be a fully functional tool for printing graphics not only in relief printing, but also in lithography and etching . I gathered my courage for a long time, after all, PLN 1000 is a lot.
The next day after receiving the parcel, I started to print. Welcome to the review.
As I wrote earlier, the selection of ink and paper is of key importance in graphics. I used a proven set, ink Vanson Ruber Base Plus, universal black, which in my opinion is the best ink for woodcuts and linocuts. Velvet deep black and every little detail. It also doesn’t dry out in the can. An ordinary store-bought Senefelder was enough to print the Lithography.
The speed of printing as well as the quality exceeded my expectations. I just did not expect such good results using a simple tool. Especially with wood engraving and Lithography, which can be really “painful” in print. I use Daler Rowney 250g paper. A4 Bristol Board, Airbrusch, is sold in green blocks. It is acid-free paper, hard, perfectly smooth, suitable for soaking, good quality. On this paper you can see every smallest cut, even if it is 0.2 mm.
With relief printing, there is no need for great pressure, I print calmly and effortlessly. The compression quality in WordPress is hard to get a good look at, but there are pictures.
You can see every smallest cut, the tones are deep and the blacks are saturated.
With such a large weight of paper, it is not possible to manually print such a matrix. Even on a toggle press, I had to apply a lot of pressure to get similar results.
However, the hardest thing for me was to believe in the possibility of printing lithography, metal, etc. with this tool. I dug out mokulito, I use this technique as a sketchbook in the field, I don’t use photography and ordinary drawing, it’s not for me.
However, you need to use a bit more force to get full tones. In the video I use a little more “shwortz.”
Even on my small roller press, I have to make really big clamps and pass it twice to get similar results. The ability to printing lithographs is a big surprise for me.
I made more prints on purpose, I wanted to check the repeatability of the process.
Linocut prints are created very quickly, with minimal effort, compared to litograpfy.
Beautiful black, devoted to every detail.
In conclusion, I am really positively surprised, the ease and quality of prints, when we wonder how it is possible, the solution is simple. Our tool has the same processing power as 50 spoons or bookbinding cubes. The most important thing, however, is the ability to print on really thick papers and obtain the same results as on the press, which in the case of a cube or spoon is simply difficult or even impossible. This is the perfect tool for me as I’ve been looking for a release from a lot of heavy press and being chained to one place for a long time. Slama Press has two more large presses on offer, for which I am already saving money. They are used to print really large formats on 300 gram paper.
In the next post, which will be created in some time, I will check Slam’s capabilities on etching techniques, I invite you now.
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