American Etching Press Sale

This little beauty went to America to a print-maker in Indiana and I learned all about international air freight.

The press took 10 days to arrive at Julie's door in Indiana; 3 of those days it spent at Auckland airport having some red tape sorted and waiting for a suitable plane then over the mighty Pacific Ocean she went.

Another 2 days she spent at LAX sorting some more red tape and them off on the final leg to Indiana.

As it is a hand-made converted antique it did not merit any duties or fees.

The freight charge was a handsome figure as Julie did not want to bother with reassembling a partially dis-assembled press. Partially disassembled in two small crates would have saved her $400.

I used a specialist logistics company called Pack and Send and they did a marvelous job, made everything easy and also I took to them a larger version of this model of etching press partially disassembled to be weighed and measured and got quotes for freight charges to Canada, the US, Great Britain and Europe for future reference.

Air freight for table top presses is no problem, larger, free standing presses will have to travel by sea because of their greater weight but that's another story..

Sending this press to America involved many people, all very helpful and I got to chat on the phone and by email with people working in two New Zealand Government Departments: the Ministry of Culture and Heritage because of the antique provenance of the press, NZ Customs (of course) and a charming DHL employee working out of LAX. I felt that I and my American friend Julie were looked after well and that we live in a nice world. Now I look forward to seeing a photo of  the press set up in Julies new Indiana print studio.

Mobile Mural Studio

Spring is here at last and the 1925 Grocery mural is being painted again after much time off due to inclement weather. The focus now is on stocking the two display windows. Still got all the shadows to do in the interior of the store. This particular mural is a nightmare of detail and seems to be a hundred or so paintings all arranged to make a whole and the work is getting tedious except the close study of Edwardian and 1920's advertizing styles and colours is interesting. Another interesting thing is the local people who stop for a chat as they are walking or driving by.

Cat and Dog Painting

 A memorial to my nemisis and favourite sparring partner, Clyde the Siamese cat (born in the mists of time, died 2012) is painted on the 1925 Grocery mural.. Sally's little fluff-ball of a dog has every right to look slightly perturbed.  Clyde was more than a match for any dog and reigned supreme in his day.

Table Top Etching Presses For Sale

The Winter is a good time to get stuff done and the Etching Press production line has been busy.

Here at Classic Presses all the staff; the boss, the engineer, the painter, the labourer and the marketing chappie all get on well and are all switched on to every aspect of the job.
This is because of a brilliant staff management strategy where all the jobs are done by one person, yours truly. There are certain drawbacks to this strategy like tripping over myself occasionaly and overloading the brain (poor thing) with masses of detail and having triage crises from time to time.
It's all going swimmingly though and there is only the press beds and press bed runners to create now and I shall have a dream come true: 4 presses all sale ready.

Murals and Etching Presses

While the Winter weather has been too cold and wet for working on the 1925 Grocery mural I have been busy with etching press construction, working on  four 1908 Ewbank Mangle conversions. I've made and sold two of these recently and have the process down pat but making four at the same time is a stretch, I've had to number each one and keep all their separate components apart from each other.

The hardest part is making the rollers, I've had no training as an Engineer and am working with a Danish Lathe dating from World War 2. It's a temperamental machine and we have been a long time getting to know each other, the lathe and I. Two sets of rollers are coming along fine and the other two sets of rollers are work ready but do not have the beautiful finish I require.
The people who eventually buy these etching presses from me are artists after all and have artist's eyes and an appreciation of beauty in whatever form it takes. And it is for them I work..
The other tricky job is the press bed runners which I make out of wood, in this case Tawa which is a New Zealand native timber. I bought a selection of 4 inch T G and V Tawa panelling, about a hundred years old, from a local demolition yard for this purpose. I've no training as a joiner either and there is zero room for error in shaping wood to exact shapes. I approach the job as a sculptor, here is a piece of stuff, wood, that I want to make into this shape, like Michaelangelo, the shape is in there, I just have to liberate it.
HA! and if you believe that you'll believe anything! I am always looking for opportunities to practice the great Kiwi art of bullshit. Australians are pretty good at bullshit too but I reckon not on a par with New Zealanders. You will actually find the odd Aussie that will deny that and affirm the opposite but that is just bullshit...

Meanwhile an array of bigger etching presses lay in wait for me, great gorgeous monsters. I shall be needing several more cold and wet Winters to get them all sorted.

Milling on the Farm

 Out at Ruthies Horse Farm we have hired Neville Warner and his portable sawmill to fell and mill 60 plus old pine trees that bordered two of the larger paddocks and turn them into post and rail fencing and other timber sizes for which to build a new hay barn and stables. There is also two huge piles of firewood growing which we can sell next Winter.

 The impetus behind the decision to mill the trees was the worry that the 30 odd big pines bordering the highway would some of them cause expensive and dangerous trouble the next time we had a weather bomb, gale or cyclone by crashing down  across the road.The end result will be a horse stud with beautiful strong wooden fences just inside the original post and wire fences bordering the property and native trees and shrubs planted in between the two fences to serve as windbreaks, bird sanctuaries etc.Several times in the past Ruthie has had her time wasted by canny old country boys coming on to the property and waffling on about how dangerous those old pines were, how useless for milling, only good for firewood and they would take them away for firewood, leave a huge mess and not even charge her for their efforts.It's quite a large investment we are undertaking but very creative, the farm will look so good and also Neville has got at least one other job out of it because the farm borders a highway and all the local world passing by can see the big job in progress and he is a working, visible advertisement for himself. When he is finished here he is moving onto another property to mill some big Redwoods.

Plumbing on the Farm

When one has both hands occupied fixing up the horse's water troughs pipes and one's head is itchy and needs a good scratch it is handy to have a plumbers mate to come along and scratch that itch.

I am lucky to have such a helper and a very good helper he is too, don't even have to ask, he is there and on to it before I even know I need him. Such intuitive empathy is hard to find in human animals.

Painting Murals in Winter

Painting outdoor murals in Winter is a slow process. The work is not vigorous, energetic and getting the blood pumping. The work is contemplative and the physicality of it involves tiny careful movements of the hand with the brush keeping the whole body still and all the while the cold breeze keeps one very cool.

Not cool like an awesome hey look at that fabulous person cool but cool like fuck I am so bloody cold what the hell am I doing here I must be mad.

This particular Mural is a 1925 Grocery store and is fully stocked up with masses of detail, has two different light sources and is a complicated exercise in perspective drawing so the slow and cold pace is OK. The frequent days off doing other things like keeping warm and snug allow me the time needed to think the composition through. The passersby don't seem to mind, they tell me they enjoy looking to see what is new on the mural and seem to enjoy it coming slowly, piece by piece.

Mural Painting: Waihi Junction Stores 1925

The exterior architectural design and colour scheme is done, the interior layout and shopfittings have been designed and drawn up and now I am engaged in the task of stocking my 1925 Grocery with all the essentials of the day as well as some goodies and advertizing.

New Etching Press Demonstration

I sold this press to an old friend of mine, Kim Christensen, who has a photography studio in Auckland.

Photography having moved on from film to computer Kim is bored with his trade's lack of creativity and excitement and decided to try photo gravure print making.

Googling etching presses for sale he found me and came to visit and selected his press from the variety of styles I have and eventually I completed and delivered this press to his Auckland studio.

After making some progress on my current mural commission I made the time to bring to his studio some print making gear and various plates and wood cuts of mine and gave him a brief tutorial so he could get the feel, literally, of the press pressures and use and see the process of cleaning and inking plates, soaking the print making paper and inking the plate and printiing them through the press and study the wonderful and subtle variety of results in a finished print.

The process of photo gravure plate making is not my thing but Kim will sort that out, my main concern was to give him confidence in the use of the press particularly as this model press has no springs to give it any give under extreme pressure and it is possible to do it some harm so strong is it's frame and powerful it's gearing.

We had fun doing this and may just get a print making weekend tutorial happening in Kim's studio some time as he is located in the heart of the city and has a great area to work in and, of course, an etching press.

New Waihi Mural, Waihi Junction Stores, est. 1909

Work begins on a new mural to be painted on the old Blue Dairy store front and verandah on S.H.25, East Waihi. There has been a store here since 1909.

Of the original 1909 store only the verandah remains, rebuilt and relocated. It is very handy for me, nice shade and rain shelter..

I made a study of shop architecture and layout from 1900 - 1920 and designed my own grocery store circa 1909 architectural design and 1925 colours.. 

In Opotiki 3 hours drive away across the Bay of Plenty I found a Grocery Store Museum and was able to photograph all the products from a bygone era in glorious living colour in their original packets, boxes and tins.  With these I shall stock the  store and I have already photographed friends of mine who modeled for me in Vintage mid 20's clothes that I hired for the purpose, to be the store owner and customers.

So far it has been an exercise in research and perspective drawing and seemingly endless preparation.

The real mural is about to begin..

There are only two ways to get to the vast and wonderful Coromandel Peninsular tourist playground, one is through Thames and the other is through Waihi, past this mural. The mural will be seen by tens of thousands of people and as the store front and verandah will be fully sign written many a traveler will be fooled and pull up to buy something and curse me.

My name will live in infamy like the Pearl Harbour attack fleet.

A strange juxtaposition that last sentence but I will leave it in just because...

Kim's Press

 

This etching press is already sold before it was finished. All the metalwork is finished and painted

and ready for final assembly and the fitting of the woodwork. Not much left to do now and work

has been resumed on several other presses of different styles as well.

It has been a busy time with also planning and designing a large mural, no time for days off. 

Designing A Mural

I have a new mural commission and designing it is done at the kitchen table. Not in the studio. The kitchen table just seems friendlier somehow.

The mural is to be painted on a walled over shop front and this will be transformed into a 1920's Grocery Store. More on this soon. Painting the wall begins next Tuesday.

Drawing Horses; Blue, the Beautiful Old Bearded Lady

Blue the 24 year old Clydesdale out at Ruthies Animal Farm is dying, she's got tumours and is listless, in pain and losing weight.  She will be put down next week and buried in the front paddock near the farmhouse.

She is not looking good health-wise but is still so beautiful.

We took a bag of carrots and spent some time with Blue and took a bunch of photos of her.

She enjoyed the visit and we shared some moments which was nice. She likes me. I'm gonna miss her.

Murals, Etching Presses and Duck Refugee Camps

I have been commissioned to paint a mural on a boarded up shop in Waihi. The original shop was built in 1909, was moved and rebuilt in the 40's and all that remains of the original shop is the 1909 cast iron framed verandah over the pavement.
The mural is to be a 1909 grocery with all authentic period architecture and stock and signage on the verandah.
All done with artistic cunning to amuse the passersby. It's a history painting and the research for it has led me many places: to the Waihi Library, to the Alexander Turnbull library in Wellington whose vast photographic resources are available on line, to various local identities who have lived a lifetime in Waihi and finally to an antique Grocery Museum in Opotiki, three hours drive away across the Bay of Plenty. I must go there to photograph in glorious living colour, all the original period cans and boxes and sacks and jars of an Edwardian Antipodean small town Grocery.
The concept drawing I made for this job has passed muster and it's all go on the final working drawing and the painting of the mural. Good money too and me a poor artist sorely in need of a few bob at the moment..
AT THE SAME TIME.. I have sold one of my beautiful etching presses to an old friend of mine, he has paid a deposit after visiting and making his choice of the variety of styles of etching presses I have available.
There remains only a week or so of work to do on this press before it is ready to be picked up and fully paid for. More money for the artist sorely in need etc. etc.
The press comes first and after a couple of days on the concept drawing for the mural I was happily working on the press when down comes the rain.
Two storms in a row, a regular monsoon with the odd gale force wind thrown in and upsetting the delicate process of painting the component parts of the etching press in my rudimentary, breezy, press workshop.
 So I have been doing research on the mural and working on the press when ever it is fine and getting behind on both jobs and stressed out, both jobs being extremely complicated and my poor brain being only as big as it is, normally quite adequate for my purposes but just a tad overloaded right now and all that money (sorely needed, poor artist etc. etc.) located somewhere in the future.
My understanding of Quantum Physics and the many and various Spiritual views of human existence leads me to believe that there is no such thing as the future, nor the past and that there is only now, always has been now and always will be now. Holding that belief and pondering the future has put me in the land of paradox, a great concept to discuss with good friends together with slightly immodest doses of Celtic lubricant but not a good place for a mere human being to live in. Stress comes along together with the Monsoon-like weather.
So this morning, being a rare and unexpected sunny day after a day and night of torrential rain, the dog and I went for a walk down by the river and it is in full and raging flood with all that rain and there on the higher reaches of the river banks I saw all the ducks in scattered groups mourning the loss of their homes and looking like refugees in a crisis.
Fuck paradox and stress! At least I am not a homeless duck and I have a way cool mural to paint and another etching press sold.
And fuck money too, I have enjoyed writing this. :)

Aquatint

An Aquatint etching done the old school way with rosin dust. Eight tones and hours of work; learning learning...

Making Etching Presses

After the family reunion down at Havelock North and all the Christmas and New Year stuff and a weeks work helping my son out on a big job in Auckland it is back to the etching press business.
I got the lathe going and oh my it is SO dangerous!! Exciting and engrossing!! I wonder is it the obvious danger of hanging around a beast like this or is it just the novelty?
Four more press rollers made on the lathe and it's paid for itself and I shall probably be bored
with it though I hope never complacent; I can plainly see several different and devious ways this machine could whip off a finger or two..
Well driving the car is like in Catch 22: I've done way more than my 25 missions and the odds of my survival... Sorry- just a little gallows humour.
I like to ponder death, it helps me enjoy life.
I can just see my guardian angel or some such creature glaring and saying "John! You been pondering death?!!"
"Mate! Do I look like the sort of person who would stoop to pondering? Get over yourself you uppity imaginary creature- lighten up would ya? S'fiction I'm writing here"