Michael Smither

'Poets Bridge', little painting by Michael Smither held in the Brebner collection.
This great painting has been published in Michael's book, 'Michael Smither Painter'.

Michael Smither

The large 'Poets Bridge' print by Michael Smither goes up in the UR office, 181 Upper Cuba Street. We have a little painting from the 'Poets Bridge' series in our collection.
(there is a copy of the painting we own in Michaels Book)

Allan Harnett

Natural stone sculpture by Allan Harnett.

Black Sheep Design

The shower timer is very handy as it counts down backwards and gives a continuous ring for your attention. The negative is trapped under the 5mm glass, on top of the jet plate that has had its cover sheet removed.

Black Sheep Design

The negative is placed onto the jetplate, the clean 5mm glass is placed on top, all on a carry board. The Homeprint Studio lightbox is converted from an old sunbed and can carry many photoemulsion screens for screenprinting or solarplate exposures. The beauty of this system is the UV light flicks into action very quickly and the lamps may be turned on and off with out damaging them. The lamps are also a lot cheaper than the vitalux bulbs.

Black Sheep Design

The little cefmor - brehmer key is used to tighten the furniture against the jet plate block.

Black Sheep Design

The rubber bands are stretched across the paper fingers to help lift off the print after the impression.

Black Sheep Design

The jet plate block is locked into the chase and the inking rollers from the Johne Monopol have run across the block laying an even film of oil based ink.

Black Sheep Design

The paper is laid out on the platen and the gauge pins are adjusted.

Black Sheep Design

Black Sheep Design

John adjusts pressure on the Johne Monopol art platen press.

Black Sheep Design

The first trial proof to see if he negatives were OK and the first washout of the Jet Plate looking for best exposure. I tried 30 second strips from 2 min to 3.30min. They all looked fine but I chose 3.30min for these two images.

Black Sheep Design

Stacey, the Principal of Black Sheep Design, shows the jet plate block and the final print.

Steve and Kelly, American WWOOFers

John made this gluten free loaf of bread in the Bread maker.
Steve was trying a gluten free diet as he had been suffering stomach pains after eating a meal and gluten intolerance runs in his family. This bread was given 10 out of 10 by Steve who thought it was the best he had ever tasted! I would take the credit if only the 'Panasonic Bread Maker' baked the bread and I only followed the recipe on the bag of flour.

Steve and Kelly, American WWOOFers

Allison teaches Kelly and Steve how to make sushi, assemble chicken and fresh vegetables onto a cooked rice base, then roll with the help of seaweed wrapper on a bamboo place mat. Cut into 6 bit sized pieces, dip into sauces and eat! Yum.

Steve and Kelly, American WWOOFers

Kelly shows off her carved plate and a couple of the images she produced. In a very short time Kelly and Steve produced about 100 prints using 2-3-4 colour prints from carving MDF and floor vynol overprinted words with some fonts of 100 year old wood type.

Steve's prints

A mountain of experimental relief prints using waterbased ink, yellowXpress 5000 relief press, variety of colours and weights of paper, carved from MDF and floor vynol.

Steve and Kelly, American WWOOFers

Steve rolls out ink ready for another over print on one of the 5 series of prints he is working on.

Andrew Reilly and his world famous 'bull shit 'paper

Andrew delivers the first batch of artist grade 'bull shit' paper to Homeprint. Only 2 suppliers of this specific paper in new Zealand. The texture is smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other. Around 100 gsm in weight, lightly sized, acid free, ready for printing on.

Cliff Whiting

'Diving for Scallops'
There are a series of eight images (110 mm x 280 mm on Incisioni 190 gsm paper) depicting the gathering of seafood. All taken from Cliff's own food gathering in Te Kaha in his teenage days. These signed and named prints have been printed at Homeprint and are available for
$160 unframed.

Huntley book artists.

Using the yellowXpress 5000, short strokes are used when the pressure comes on to create the most pressure (5000kg).

Huntley book artists.

A Huntley student admires the 2 colour print just pulled from the Imperial Press.

Huntley book artists.

Steve and Kelly help out in the printmaking class, keeping an eye on the ink and cleaning down the plates on change of colour. Barry taking lots of photos for the school web site.

Huntley book artists.

21 young artists from Barry Williams class at Huntley School, Marton, spend the day working at Homeprint producing 2 colour prints from MDF carvings and print the names of their stories with 100 year old wood type.

Steve and Kelly, American WWOOFers

Allison admires the special Thanksgiving food prepared by Steve and Kelly on Thanksgiving Day.
Vegetable tagine, quiche, and pumpkin pie in the oven. Delicious.

Bianca and her gecko print

Bianca has created a 3 colour print from her MDF carving of a gecko. This is called reductive relief printing.

Bianca and her gecko print

Bianca takes to carving and printing like a geck0 sleeps in the sun.

Bianca inks up plate.

Bianca, our latest WWOOFer from Germany, inks up her MDF carving of a gecko. I encourage my students to print many copies of their first carving (try sets of 4 lighter colours first).
Waterbased ink, small soft rubber rollers, inked out on glass using the Imperial Press. Hung to dry on the drying rack in the hallway.

yellowXpress 5000

yellowXpress 5000 hog-tied ready for freight to Christchurch.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

The type (Latin Bold 24 point) has been locked into the pallet chase.
I have used steel and brass furniture near the type to help with the heat transfer.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

The pallet is about to be keyed into the platen of the McKay (circa 1890) goldblocking press.
I waited about 15 minutes for the type to heat up evenly before I started my test prints.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

Sample prints testing the pressure and the heat needed for the gold foil to melt onto the leather.

Nicola Baker commissions gold on leather cover.

Nicola made a great job of making a card template then cutting out the leather to fit the journal.
The next stage for this project is the cobbler to sew the flaps and edges and for Nicola to plait and tie the closure.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

A plate of tempting 'Americans', with lemon icing, baked by Ricarda and Merla (on the left) . The tajine that John cooked was a chicken treat with kumera, pineapple, parsnip, carrot and mashed potato.

Poppies - Iconic Feilding bookshop

Margaret is in the old safe with the new xmas card collection, standing in front of a handprinted poem that she handset at Homeprint.

Poppies - Iconic Feilding bookshop

Raewyn searching for a letterpress title.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Ricarda's sketches and carvings are at the proof stage, ready to be inked up and printed. We realised the lovely little image of the outline of New Zealand was carved as you would see it in a map, BUT, it needs to be in reverse for the relief print to have the correct orientation.
I told Ricarda to keep the little carving and make a new one for the printing plate.
The results of the printings were great. Mementos to share with many other friends and family.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

Merla has sketched ideas on paper, drawn onto MDF, then carved with the Japanese carving tools using a bench hook for safety.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

Ricarda and Merla with the 'Bee Sting Cake', just out of the oven.

Ricarda and Merla, woofers from Germany.

Allison, Merla,and Ricarda enjoy the 'Bee Sting Cake'. Of course I enjoyed it too!

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Ready.'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'OOPS'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Curiosity'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Otama beach with sun.'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'Otama.'

Michael Smither - Relief prints

'A fisherman'

This set of 6 felt tip drawings by Michael Smither have been relief printed by John Brebner using negative transparencies and creating a relief solarplate. The oil based 'green' ink has been rolled onto the plate then the images printed by hand onto Incisioni paper using the Hunters (circa 1905).
I visited Michael in his studio with the images and he signed and numbered them for me.
All 6 prints are available individually from the Homeprint Gallery for $160 each unframed.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

The gallies hold the type as a flat surface, the furniture and small magnets hold the type in lines for clear printing.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Merla pulls on the power lever to lower the platen onto the galley with the inked up type. This operation is very simple and requires very little energy in the printing action, much more energy is required to move the bed in and out under the platen.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

Merla holds up her latest print ready to hang it on the line to dry.

Ricarda and Merla WWOOFers from Germany

The inking up of printers type set in a galley is done, inking up on the diagonal, both ways. In this learners studio I use waterbased ink. Ricara is being very careful!