Pressure Printing RSS

Travis Louie’s “Mr. Stephenson and the Bug”

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 15:09:08 +0000

The two previous editions we’ve published with Travis Louie have been a couple of personal favorites. His work – with its antique, airbrushy, photo-surreal vibes – translates fabulously into intaglio prints, and takes to the embossing, embellishing, and hand-staining we so love to do like a fish to water.

So it is with great pleasure that we’re unveiling our largest print with Travis to date: Mr. Stephenson and the Bug

Our previous prints with Travis have been fairly small in comparison to the original paintings. But the scales involved in this image required something bigger. The presumptive Mr. Stephenson’s face must be legible. And the bug needed to be big.

So instead of feeling like an 8″ × 10″ – approachable, hand-held – this print is 19″ × 21″: poster-sized, impressive, at home on walls.

We’ve been on a bit of an intaglio printing tear recently; printing something a little larger (with such deep, velvety blacks!) proved fun.

Staining something this large proved challenging! Note the number of ointments, dyes, pigments, sponges and brushes in the picture below. Years of experience have added numerous little complications and refinements to our staining process. And after all these years, it still takes my breath away when the first one comes out of the bath. The process breathes such warmth, depth, and life into the prints.

Flatten, dry, chop. We also took the liberty of letterpressing a title into the margin, but were smart enough keep it simple and let Travis’ calligraphic signature steal the show.

Mr. Stephenson and the Bug is available now on pressureprinting.com.

Mr. Stephenson and the Bug - $495.00

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 16:14:35 +0000

Mr. Stephenson and the Bug is a limited edition of forty hand-stained intaglio prints, produced from an original Travis Louie drawing. Each print has been impressed onto Rives fine art printmaking paper in Charbonnel Carbon Black ink and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Travis Louie: Mr. Stephenson and the Bug: Limited edition of 40, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Paper size: 19″ × 21″; Relief printed on Rives BFK White 250 g/m² paper in Carbon Black Charbonnel ink; Hand-stained; Letterpressed title; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on August 11th, 2015

Annie Owens’ “Yee Naaldlooshi (Skinwalker)”

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 15:26:58 +0000

We ❤ Hi-Fructose. We liked issue #1 so much that we took out an ad out in issue #2. Ten years and thirty-six issues later, we’re proud to call editors Annie Owens and Attaboy col labor ators and friends. We couldn’t hold them in higher esteem.

In addition to bringing fantastic art to thousands of people a few times each year via the magazine, Atta and Annie are also amazing artists themselves. When we saw Annie’s skinwalker watercolor on Instagram almost a year ago, we were entranced. And we weren’t alone – when we re-grammed it it garnered more likes than anything we’d posted before, and still has more likes than anything we’ve posted since. Small wonder: the Navajo witch who can transform into any animal she chooses is a being both evil and mysterious, and Annie’s painting embodies that magic.

The watercolor was a part of Antler Gallery’s Unnatural Histories III show; we bought it immediately and begged Annie to let us print an edition. Happily, she assented.

We figured the biggest challenge in printing the image would be nailing the two-color separation. It took a few complex Photoshop operations and test plates to get the pink plate and the black plate just right, but the result is simply gorgeous. Softer than the original, with flatter tones and feathered edges, the print has a smoky beauty all its own.

A joy to print and a joy to behold, Yee Naaldlooshi (Skinwalker) is available now on pressureprinting.com.

Yee Naaldlooshi (Skinwalker) - $250.00

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 15:15:17 +0000

Yee Naaldlooshi (Skinwalker) is a limited edition of forty intaglio prints, printed in two colors and produced from an original watercolor painting. Each print has been impressed onto Pescia fine art printmaking paper in Charbonnel inks and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Annie Owens: Yee Naaldlooshi (Skinwalker): Limited edition of 40, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Paper size: 18 ¼″ × 14″; Intaglio printed on Pescia Soft White 300 g/m² paper with Charbonnel inks; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on July 7th, 2015

COOP’s “Devil Girl Odalisque”

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:06:57 +0000

First came the devil in a ’49 Mercury. Then, a skull; most recently: a motor. What could possibly come next, in our series of very-large-scale relief prints with the inimitable COOP? Could it have been anything other than a Devil Girl Odalisque?

Nope! We’ve had the next print in this series on our minds ever since we published the last one; COOP sent us a few images one lucky day and this one stuck out as the obvious choice.

With the image chosen, it was time to print. In the making of posts of the previous giant COOP prints, we’ve stressed just how difficult large-scale relief printing is. Pressing giant sheets of paper into the gaping crevices of our magnesium plates has caused all sorts of trouble, as the paper warps, creases, and skips over the topology of the plate, causing all sorts of unsightly defects. We’ve tackled these problems in the past with intricate paper-board make-ready which guided the paper softly up and down the plate’s cliffs and valleys. This time around, we found a *far* simpler solution which gives equally impressive results. I’ve been sworn to a bit of secrecy, but I can tell you this: we’re not babying the paper anymore. If anything, it’s under more (and more intelligently distributed!) pressure than ever before.

The results speak for themselves:

Signing trips for COOP prints are always fun, as we get to gawk at his beautiful Los Angeles studio.

This one was especially notable, as we got to meet his beautiful baby boy, too.

Devil Girl Odalisque is available now on pressureprinting.com.

Devil Girl Odalisque - $666.00

Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:06:48 +0000

Devil Girl Odalisque is a limited edition of twenty-five large-scale relief prints, produced from an original COOP drawing. Each print has been impressed onto Arches fine art printmaking paper in black ink and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

COOP: Devil Girl Odalisque: Limited edition of 25, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Paper size: 30″ × 42″; Relief printed on Aches 88 - White 350g/m² paper in black ink; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on June 23rd, 2015

Renée French’s Sea Monsters

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 14:57:01 +0000

The roots of the trio of Sea Monsters prints we’re releasing today go way back — all the way back. Thirteen years ago when we were talking to Dave Cooper about the project that would become Unnature and the company that would become Pressure Printing, Dave kept bringing up one artist in particular as somebody to watch: Renée French.

She’s been on our radar ever since. We’ve followed her award-winning comics career (and, more recently, her awesome Instagram!) from afar but it took seeing her work up close to finally approach her about collaborating. The three images above began life as a trio of graphite drawings on velum, shown at the Dubious Expedition show at Leanna Lin’s Wonderland last November. After seeing these exquisite, fuzzy, foggy, and frankly, very funny pencil renderings up close, we couldn’t resist buying two of them and approaching Renée about printing editions of all three. She obliged!

Here’s the point in the post where I normally talk about how the project presented us with unique, unforeseen technical challenges that we overcame through experimentation and perseverance. I’m happy — overjoyed! — to tell you that these editions printed like a dream. Except for an ill-advised, quickly-abandoned attempt to emboss the creatures’ eyes (trust us, this sounds cooler than it looked), the printing proceeded as smoothly and beautifully as we always hope it will.

Etch, ink, wipe, print, dry, sign, pack and now — sell. Renée’s trio of separately-sold Sea Monsters prints (The Clenching of Sirenia, The Scary Porpoise, and The Freckled Menzies) are available now on pressureprinting.com.

The Clenching Sirenia - $50.00

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:35:33 +0000

The Clenching Sirenia — one image from Renée French’s trio of Sea Monsters — is a limited edition of forty intaglio prints, produced from original graphite drawings. Each print has been impressed onto Pescia Soft White fine art printmaking paper in Charbonnel ink and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Renée French: The Clenching Sirenia: Limited edition of 40, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Image size: 3 ½″ × 3 ½″; Plate size: 4 ½″ × 4 ½″; Paper size: 11″ × 10″; Intaglio printed on Pescia Soft White 300 g/m² paper; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on April 7th, 2015

The Freckled Menzies - $50.00

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:32:58 +0000

The Freckled Menzies — one image from Renée French’s trio of Sea Monsters — is a limited edition of forty intaglio prints, produced from original graphite drawings. Each print has been impressed onto Pescia Soft White fine art printmaking paper in Charbonnel ink and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Renée French: The Freckled Menzies: Limited edition of 40, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Image size: 3 ½″ × 3 ½″; Plate size: 4 ½″ × 4 ½″; Paper size: 11″ × 10″; Intaglio printed on Pescia Soft White 300 g/m² paper; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on April 7th, 2015

The Scary Porpoise - $50.00

Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:28:32 +0000

The Scary Porpoise — one image from Renée French’s trio of Sea Monsters — is a limited edition of forty intaglio prints, produced from original graphite drawings. Each print has been impressed onto Pescia Soft White fine art printmaking paper in Charbonnel ink and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Renée French: The Scary Porpoise: Limited edition of 40, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Image size: 3 ½″ × 3 ½″; Plate size: 4 ½″ × 4 ½″; Paper size: 11″ × 10″; Intaglio printed on Pescia Soft White 300 g/m² paper; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on April 7th, 2015

Marion Peck’s “Two Witches Meeting on a Road”

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 20:37:47 +0000

As managers of Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, we’re blessed to know Marion not only as fans, but also as colleagues and best of all, friends. Whilst wearing our Porterhouse hats, we’ve produced and sold Marion’s books, postcard sets, posters and giclées. But never a fine art print – until now. The right images didn’t come along until last year, when Marion painted a quartet of witchy images in ochre and white.

It was Marion who suggested that we turn Two Witches Meeting on a Road into a fine art print. With its not-quite-monochromatic palette and soft, subtle gradations, we knew it was perfect for intaglio.

Mixing and matching plates to mimic the two tones of the original turned out to be a bit trickier than we’d bargained for. After numerous, increasingly complicated attempts at separating the original image into two plates, we settled on a simple solution: use the same plate, twice, but ink it differently!

Hand-inking and hand-wiping an intaglio plate is a meticulous process — more art than science. Usually we try very hard to ink and wipe plates evenly in order to reproduce the original image as faithfully as possible. But for this edition, we took advantage of the flexibility that hand-wiping provides in order to achieve the two-toned effect that we desired. A little more bright red-orange here, a bit lighter on the blackened sepia there, and the finished print took on the subtle tonal charms of the original.

We embossed the prints with a Pressure Printing chop on one side and a Porterhouse bee on the other, then added a crisply letterpressed title and hand-stained the paper in order to give it depth, warmth, and texture.

Finally, we flew the edition to California and back for signing and numbering. And voilà — our first fine art edition with Marion. Hopefully it won’t be the last!

Two Witches Meeting on a Road is available exclusively from porterhouseart.com.

Two Witches Meeting on a Road - $500.00

Wed, 18 Mar 2015 01:17:57 +0000

Two Witches Meeting on a Road, by Marion Peck, is a limited edition, signed and numbered two-color etching on archival Revere Suede printmaking paper. The print was produced for and is being exclusively sold by Porterhouse Fine Art Editions. It is available now on porterhouseart.com.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Marion Peck: Two Witches Meeting on a Road: Edition of 40, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Paper size: 12 ⅝ʺ × 15ʺ; Image size: 8 ⅝ʺ × 11 ½ʺ; Intaglio printed in two colors on Revere Suede Warm White 250g/m² paper with Charbonnel inks; Embossed printer’s and publisher’s chops; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on March 17th, 2015

Aron Wiesenfeld’s “Vigil”

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 17:40:00 +0000

vigil: |ˈvijəl|; noun; A period of keeping awake during the time usually spent asleep, especially to keep watch or pray.

These images are quiet and still. Something has happened, or will. Not recently; not soon.

We’ve wanted to do a print with Aron for ages, and have been tossing project proposals back and forth with him for years. All of those discussions finally settled upon a pair of images that Aron sent us one happy day — two out of a series of eight “Vigil” drawings that he has completed over the last few years. They were perfect. We were off!

We asked Aron to share something of his process, and he sent along an initial sketch and two pieces of inspiration so fitting that they made me go “of course!”: an Atget and a Caravaggio.

Aron’s original drawings were completed on rough, toothy paper. At first, we were convinced that we should print the images on something similarly toothy. The intaglio process involves a tremendous amount of pressure, and the idea of a smooth, debossed image sunk into a thick, rough sheet which echoed the grit of the originals entranced us all.

But after a long bout of experimentation (and three rounds of proofs sent back and forth to Aron) we ended up printing the edition on Revere Silk — the smoothest paper we tried. The shades in Aron’s drawing are extremely subtle, and no matter what we tried we couldn’t get the intricate, scratchy textures imparted by the original drawing’s surface to reproduce on a similarly rough printing paper. On rougher paper, a thousand subtle, scratchy grays collapsed into a uniform tone, but Revere Silk paper was able to capture every detail. Revere Silk won the day.

Once we had a stack of fifty-five perfect prints, we sent them off to Aron for signing and numbering:

And cancelled the plates so that the edition can never be reprinted:

With that, the project was finished. These prints were a long time coming; collaborating with Aron has been something we’ve worked towards for years and we’re overjoyed to be able to offer up the fruits of those long labors. Vigil goes on sale this Thursday, February 12th at 9:00 AM MST on pressureprinting.com.

Vigil - $350.00

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 17:37:15 +0000

Vigil is a limited edition of forty-five intaglio-printed diptychs, produced from original Aron Wiesenfeld charcoal drawings. Each print has been impressed onto Revere Silk fine art printmaking paper in Charbonnel Carbon Black ink and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Aron Wiesenfeld: Vigil: Edition of 45, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Paper size: 16 ¼ʺ × 22ʺ; Image size: 7 ⅝ʺ × 11 ⅛ʺ each; Intaglio printed on Revere Silk paper with Charbonnel Carbon Black ink; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released on February 12th, 2015

UneUne - $395.00

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:51:45 +0000

UneUne (pronounced oo-neh-oo-neh) is an edition of 33 large-scale intaglio prints made from a graphite drawing by ONEQ. The image – originally used as cover art for Smoking Martha’s debut album – has been hand-printed onto Tosa Hanga Natural 95g/m² paper in Charbonnel etching inks. Each print has been signed and numbered by ONEQ and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

ONEQ: UneUne: Edition of 33 intaglio prints, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 1 Printer’s Proof, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Released January 2015; Image size: 15″ × 29″; Paper size: 23½″ × 37″; Intaglio printed on Tosa Hanga Natural 95g/m² paper with Charbonnel inks; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by ONEQ; Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed, and numbered Certificate of Authenticity

ONEQ’s “UneUne”

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:49:21 +0000

We released a new print today, with a new collaborator — UneUne, by ONEQ.

The title is pronounced oo-neh-oo-neh, and ONEQ had this to say about it:

“UneUne is a Japanese word. It’s an onomatopoeia.

These are all of UneUne’s meanings: winding, undulating, meandering, tortuous, zigzag. UneUne is so pleasant to my ear, so I gave the name ‘UneUne’ to this print.

Also, because ‘UneUne’ was drawn by a tortuous line.

It’s a very Japanese-taste line.”

ONEQ’s haunting, noirish monochrome portraits are a perfect fit for intaglio prints. They mix soft, subtle lights and flat, dense blacks in ways that couldn’t be more suited to the medium.

ONEQ’s tack-sharp rendering freed us up to go big, giving this cinematic image the larger-than-life scale it deserves.

Large prints are challenging and we experimented freely with huge delicate sheets of (exquisite, expensive) Tosa Hanga rice paper. After a few test runs, we proceeded with appropriate care…

…and ended up with a stack of forty perfect prints. Which took a trip across the Pacific and back for signing…

…before we were finally able to unveil them to the world for sale, today, on pressureprinting.com.

Exhumation 1 & 2 - $200.00

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 20:37:24 +0000

This limited edition of thirty pairs of intaglio prints – entitled Exhumation 1 and Exhumation 2 – has been produced from original Robert MacKenzie graphite drawings . Each pair of prints has been impressed onto Rives BFK fine art printmaking paper and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

The prints are also available for purchase from Robert’s store, and he has written a little bit about the project on his blog.

Robert MacKenzie: Exhumation 1 and 2: Edition of 30 pairs, plus 5 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Image size: 8 ⅜″ × 11″; Paper size: 12″ × 15″; Intaglio printed on Rives BFK paper; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released December 2014

Robert MacKenzie’s “Exhumation 1 & 2”

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 20:37:00 +0000

We released a new pair of prints in conjunction with Robert MacKenzie today — Exhumation 1 and Exhumation 2. They’re absolute beauts.

These drawings first appeared in the awesome Tiny Pencil 4 anthology and we couldn’t be happier to produce a hand-printed, limited edition of intaglio prints from them. Each pair has been impressed on to Rives BFK paper, embossed with a printer’s chop, and comes signed and numbered by Robert.

They’re available through both pressureprinting.com and Robert’s store, for $200.

The Tree of Life - $1.00

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:59:12 +0000

The Tree of Life is a limited edition of intaglio prints created from Mark Ryden’s drawing of the same name, expressly for Porterhouse Fine Art Editions.

Each print has been hand-printed on a Takach etching press onto custom Twinrocker paper. The print is floated in an Italian golt-guilt frame with museum-quality acrylic glazing, and has been signed and numbered by the artist.

Mark Ryden: The Tree of Life: Edition of 40, plus 10 Artist’s Proofs, 5 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Image size: 16˝ × 10˝; Paper size: 22˝ × 15˝; Frame size: 27 ⅜˝ × 21 ⅝˝ × 2˝; Intaglio printed on custom-made Twinrocker paper with Charbonnel inks; Porterhouse bee chop embossed below image; Signed and numbered by Mark Ryden; Includes a signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity; Released June 2008

Dodecaedri Parva - $5,000.00

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 22:12:59 +0000

Dodecaedri Parva is a limited edition of sculptures featuring a handcrafted wooden dodecahedron with images of iconography serigraphed onto each of the twelve sides. Twenty-five individual screen setups were used in the serigraph process. The dodecahedron is set upon a free-spinning custom-turned walnut base and comes encased in a glass dome etched with the work's title. Each sculpture is signed and numbered by Mark Ryden and comes with a letterpressed and embossed certificate of authenticity.

Mark Ryden: Dodecaedri Parva: Edition Size: 23 + 3 Artist’s Proofs, 3 Printer’s Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Dodecahedron Size: 6 ⅜″ × 6″ × 5 ¼″; Glass Dome Size: 12″ × 8″ × 8″; Released December, 2011

Wood Lincoln - $20,000.00

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 21:58:06 +0000

Wood Lincoln is a limited edition of twenty serigraphs encased in hand-carved mahogany frames. The image—which Mark painted exclusively for this edition—has been hand-screenprinted in fourteen colors on a walnut-veneered panel. The panel has been emblazoned with Mark's insignia & each print comes with a letter-pressed certificate of authenticity signed and numbered by Mark.

Mark Ryden: Wood Lincoln: Edition Size: 20 + 3 Artist’s Proofs, 1 Printer’s proof, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Print Size: 24″ × 18″; Frame Size: 33″ × 27 ½″ × 1″; Released September 2012

The Grand Motor Car - $5,000.00

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 21:07:25 +0000

The Grand Motor Car is a limited edition of 40 multiple-process prints encased in a gilt wood frame. The image, exclusive to this edition, has been created with a unique combination of giclée printing, eight-color serigraphy, foil-stamping, letterpress, and a full-image sculpted emboss. Each print includes a certificate of authenticity and has been signed and numbered by Mark Ryden.

Mark Ryden: The Grand Motor Car: Edition Size: 40 + 5 Artist's Proofs, 5 Printer's Proofs, and 1 Bon à Tirer; Print Size: 24″ × 16″; Frame Size: 29 ½″ × 21 ⅝″ × 1 ¼″; Released March 2014

La Fee Verte - $1.00

Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:51:56 +0000

La Fee Verte is a print-in-a-bottle produced in conjunction with Baby Tattooville for their 2014 weekend extravaganza. Each bottle contains two prints which have been giclée printed and foil stamped in gold. The front print features original art by Laurie Lee Brom, and the back print features an embossed printer’s chop and has been signed and numbered by the artist. According to Lola Gil, “they’re filled with magic.”

Laurie Lee Brom: La Fee Verte: Edition of 45, plus 6 Artist’s Proofs and 1 Bon à Tirer; Print size: 4 ¼″ × 2 ⅞″; Bottle size: 7″ × 3 ½″ × 1 ⅛″; Giclée printed on specially made Japanese Kozo inkjet paper; Foil stamped in gold; Wax-sealed bottle; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released October 2014

Robert MacKenzie’s “Goodly Creatures”

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 18:33:52 +0000

From time to time we get requests to do contract printing for artists; on rare occasions we accept. Robert MacKenzie approached us with a drawing that we couldn’t refuse:

This drawing contains multitudes: a myriad of personalities, vignettes, and tiny details to discover.

Robert had this to say about it:

The characters and spaces in my art are a product of the patterns and stimuli I encounter every day in the architecture, food, and people of my two cities, New York and San Francisco. I am always trying to take these disparate elements that relate to my experiences and repurpose them to create inhuman characters that are culturally and emotionally ambiguous, yet still struggle with very human issues like isolation, interaction and cooperation with one another.

The print process, as it so often does, turned out to be a bit more complicated than we’d anticipated. The way the drawing was separated into two colors left zero room for error in the alignment of the plates, which required a little trickery and a lot of care to nail down. Robert ended up patching a few of the gaps by hand and, while he was at it, added some subtle colored pencil embellishments.

Having spent so much time with the image, when we saw it printed in its final (unusual) pair of colors (it’s a subtle thing, but the orange + blue = faintly oscillating grays plate-tone is beautiful), in the end we decided to ditch the “contract work” label and make this a full-blown Pressure Printing edition. We’re proud to add Robert to our roster of exceptional artists; the print (which is frankly a steal at $350) is available from both Robert’s (brand new!) online store and from us at Pressure Printing.

Goodly Creatures - $350.00

Tue, 10 Dec 2013 17:15:14 +0000

Goodly Creatures is a limited edition of 30 two-color, hand-embellished intaglio prints. Each print has been impressed onto Rives BFK fine art printmaking paper and comes signed and numbered by the artist.

The print is also available for purchase from Robert’s store, and he has written a little bit about it on his blog.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Robert MacKenzie: Goodly Creatures: Edition: 30 + 4 Artist’s proofs & 1 Bon à tirer; Image size: 22˝ × 15 ¼˝; Paper size: 26˝ × 20˝; 2-color intaglio print on Rives BFK paper; Hand-embellished by the artist with colored pencil; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Released December 2013

Gold Bug Identity Design

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:52:00 +0000

We recently had the chance to do some identity design for our friends at Gold Bug, whose LA store is a wonder and an inspiration. A self-described “21st century cabinet of curiosities” — mixing contemporary art, biological specimens, and a singular eye for the unusual — Gold Bug is a joy to visit and they were an absolute joy to work for.

You really can’t go wrong with shiny gold, matte black, and an embossed beetle, but this curvy box came out quite nicely.

And how about this ovular business card?

A rewarding project for an amazing client. Gold Bug!

25%-Off Holiday Sale

Fri, 29 Nov 2013 14:30:24 +0000

(Turkey photo via the Denver Public Library)

Happy holidays! Happy Friday! We don’t hold sales very often; we haven’t held a proper one in over a year. ’Tis the season! We’re discounting everything in the store 25% from now thru the end of the day on Monday, December 1st when you use the code “HOLIDAY” at checkout. Take a gander at what’s available and gobble up hand-crafted editions from our decade+ back catalog at a rare, deep discount.

Lucky ’13 has been a great year for Pressure Printing — full of amazing collaborations with some of our favorite artists — friends and associates both old and new. Sincere thanks to all of them for their trust, hard work, and for being daily sources of inspiration… and sincere thanks to all of you who have supported us with your time, money and attention this and every year.

We feel like we’ve built something pretty special here at Pressure Printing, where we can be a bridge, bringing great art by great artists to great people. Thanks.

Femke Hiemstra’s “I Think of Thee When Far Away”

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:41:37 +0000

We love Femke! One of our favorite things about her paintings (a couple of which we’re lucky enough to have around the office) are her amazing color palettes, which somehow manage to feel modern, old-master-y, cozy, and creepy, all at the same time. These colors were absent in the edition of intaglio prints we completed from Femke’s intricate graphite drawing in 2009.

And we were just as sad as everyone else that Femke’s only book has been out of print for ages.

How to fill these gaps? By publishing a set of 16 eminently affordable, full-color postcards, of course.

They’re cheap; they’re gorgeous.

We approached Femke with the idea earlier this year; she hand-picked a selection of images from across her career and gave the set its evocative name. A cover design and a few press checks later, and we’re proud to announce that we have fresh stacks of postcards to share with the world.

It has been a while since we’ve published an edition like this under the Pressure Printing moniker. But witnessing the perennial popularity of the micro-portfolios we produce whilst wearing our other hat as Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, and watching James Jean’s Parallel Lives catalog fly off our shelves last year has us thinking about publishing more affordable editions going forward. Our roots are in commercial print design and we’ve never stopped designing books. So while traditional fine art printmaking will always be the core of what Pressure Printing does… watch this space. And pick up some postcards!

I Think of Thee When Far Away - $12.95

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:36:45 +0000

I Think of Thee When Far Away is a set of 16 postcards, showcasing images hand-picked by Femke from across her career.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

I Think of Thee When Far Away: 16 postcards; Postcard size: 5ʺ × 7ʺ; Offset printed on glossy card stock; Packaged in a card stock folder; Released November 2013

Baby Tattooville 2013 Badge - $1.00

Wed, 06 Nov 2013 03:37:05 +0000

We produced this badge in conjunction with Baby Tattooville for their 2013 weekend extravaganza. The edition was printed in two colors in intaglio with foil-stamped gold type on Rives BFK printmaking paper. Each Baby Tattooville attendee’s name was hand-lettered onto a badge by a professional calligrapher, with the badge serving as a name-tag throughout the event.

Olivia De Berardinis: Baby Tattooville 2013 Badge: Print size 3˝ × 4 ¾˝; Edition of 100; Intaglio printed in two colors on Rives BFK printmaking paper; Foil stamped in gold; Attendee’s name calligraphed in red ink; Signed and numbered by the artist

Baby Tattooville 2012 Badge - $1.00

Tue, 10 Sep 2013 21:19:47 +0000

We produced this badge in conjunction with Baby Tattooville for their 2012 weekend extravaganza. The edition was printed in relief with foil-stamped gold type on perforated Rives BFK printmaking paper. Each Baby Tattooville attendee’s name was hand-lettered onto a badge by a professional calligrapher, with the badge serving as a name-tag throughout the event.

Brandi Milne: Baby Tattooville 2012 Badge: Print size 3˝ × 4 ¾˝; Edition of 100; Relief printed on Rives BFK printmaking paper; Foil stamped in gold; Perforated edges; Attendee’s name calligraphed in red ink; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist

Audrey Kawasaki’s “Eien”

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 17:03:00 +0000

Our first collaboration with Audrey, Okimiyage, was released five years ago in June. It sold out immediately and has gone on to become our most-requested print of all time.

The project was such a huge success (artistically, financially, and critically) that we immediately began work on a second series of frames — in dark walnut this time, rather than light maple — that would one day house a companion print. That day has finally come.

We sent Audrey the first walnut prototype back in ’08; I like to imagine that, inspired by its deep, rich color, she spent the intervening years figuring out how to work her effervescent lines into appropriately black & bold compositions. Whatever the inspiration, that’s certainly the direction that her work has taken as of late. The drawing, when it arrived, was a perfect fit.

She called it Eien, which looks like this: えいえん (and this: 永遠) in Japanese and translates to “forever,” “eternity,” or “permanence.”

It was time to fire up the presses.

Download video: MPEG-4, Ogg Vorbis

And the foil stampers!

Download video: MPEG-4, Ogg Vorbis

I should probably mention, too, that we built these frames from raw lumber, completely by hand. They’ve been a fixture in the studio for so long that I almost take them for granted; the hours that went into their hand-rubbed finishes, delicate joinery, paper-thin tolerances, and innumerable coats of finely sanded-down finish are now but a distant memory.

Before we could frame anything we needed to send the freshly printed edition off to Audrey for signing, numbering, and some exquisite hand-tinting in pink:

All that was left was to put the pieces together:

Worth the wait.

Due to high demand, we’re taking the unusual step of pre-announcing this sale. Eien will be available for purchase at noon PDT on Tuesday, July 23rd, on pressureprinting.com.

Eien - $1,500.00

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:48:53 +0000

Eien (meaning “forever,” “eternity,” or “permanence”) is a limited edition of 50 hand-colored intaglio prints made from an exclusive Audrey Kawasaki drawing.

Each signed and numbered print has been embellished in pink colored pencil by Audrey, and is displayed in a hand-built walnut frame.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

The Print: Features an original and exclusive Audrey Kawasaki image; Intaglio printed on Rives BFK printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks; Hand-tinted by the artist in pink colored pencil; Decoratively foil stamped in gold; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by Audrey Kawasaki

The Frame: Custom-designed, hand-made walnut frame; Print archivally mounted with Japanese hinges; Museum-quality plexiglass

The Certificate of Authenticity: Custom designed, embossed, and perforated; Signed and numbered by the artist

The Edition: Released July 2013; Print size is 8 ¾˝ × 12 ¾˝; Frame size is 12˝ × 16˝ × 1 ½˝; Edition of 50; 10 Printer’s proofs; 10 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

Santa Lucia - $375.00

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 16:56:23 +0000

Santa Lucia is a limited edition of 40 hand-colored intaglio prints by Marco Mazzoni. The edition was printed exclusively for our friends at Hi-Fructose Magazine. Each framed print has been impressed onto Rives BFK printmaking paper in black ink and uniquely embellished by Marco in colored pencil.

View Santa Lucia in the Hi-Fructose store.
Hi-Fructose wrote a couple of blog posts about the project.
We wrote a post about it, too.

The Print: Printed from an original Marco Mazzoni image; Intaglio printed on Rives BFK printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks; Each print uniquely hand-colored in pencil by Marco Mazzoni; Print size: 12˝ × 9˝; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by Marco Mazzoni

The Edition: Released July 2013; Edition of 40; 5 Printer’s proofs; 5 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

The Frame: Hand framed by Pressure Printing under UV-proof plexiglass; Frame size: 16˝ × 13 ½˝ × 1˝

The Certificate of Authenticity: Custom-designed, embossed, and perforated; Signed and numbered by the artist

Marco Mazzoni’s “Santa Lucia”

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 19:33:00 +0000

Our whole business is built on collaboration. But every once and a while a project will surprise us, highlighting what a gift it is to be able to work with the most talented artists alive. Marco Mazzoni’s Santa Lucia (produced for and sold by Hi-Fructose Magazine) was just such a project.

We ♥ Hi-Fructose! We love Atta and Annie; seeing their magazine grow from the obscure little gem that we first found eight years ago into the beloved, huge deal that it is today has been a joy. When they suggested working together with the crazy-talented Marco Mazzoni on a project we said, “of course!”

It all started with some comps:

We rather fancied that one in the middle, but Marco and Hi-Fructose both had other ideas. Black ones:

And you know what? Seeing Marco’s neon colored-pencil embellishments pop out of the final, velvety-black prints — they were right! But I’m getting ahead of myself. First we had to print the things:

We were a bit worried about printing all of that black, and things got off to a rocky start. But once we brought some heavy-duty wiping tarlatan to bear on the inky plate, the edition printed like a dream.

What we should have been worried about were the customs hoops we would have to jump through to send a fully-insured stack of prints to Italy. After a few horrible calls with UPS¹ and hundreds of extra dollars, the prints finally arrived in Marco’s hands.

We knew that he’d be be hand-coloring them all in colored pencil; knowing Marco’s work, we also knew that these embellishments would be something special. What we did not know until we opened up the return shipment — because of distance, because of language — was that they would all be different:

Surprise! Beautiful!

We’re not used to giving up so much control on a project, but each time we loosened our grip on this it turned out better for it. Working with talented people is a gift.

A little embossing and a little hand-framing and we were finished.

These prints wouldn’t exist without our friends at Hi-Fructose, and we can’t wait to work with Marco again.

Santa Lucia will be available for purchase on Wednesday July 10th at 12 pm PST through the Hi-Fructose Store. They’ve written a bit about the project on their blog, too.

¹I believe the words “abandoned,” “after 30 days,” and “the package will be destroyed” were all used

“Parallel Lives” iBook

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:24:56 +0000

We’re excited to release a new sort of thing today — an ebook!

Or, rather, an iBook.

We released our first, proper, dead-tree book a couple of months ago: James Jean’s “Parallel Lives” exhibition catalog. The limited edition of 1,000 signed & numbered books sold out in a day. We’d been pondering the idea of a digital release since before the paper version came out and we’re happy to see that idea come to fruition today.

Despite the explosion of a new-fangled ebook market over the past few years, and the resulting head-scratching and teeth-gnashing about what such a development might mean for the future of books and publishing, the possibilities of digitally distributed books full of pictures, rather than words, remain untapped. The reasons for this are in part technological: the first ebook readers and the first ebook formats were all about text. There were no tools to make digital picture books, there wasn’t a place to sell them, and there were no devices with which to view them.

These things are changing. But more fundamentally: you lose a few precious things when going digital. There’s no way for James to sign these digital books. They’ll have no real weight, or presence on a shelf. Whereas the printed edition is emphatically material—touched by the artist’s own hand!—this ebook is an ephemeral stream of bits. And as “tactile” as touch interfaces have become, we have a long way to go before swiping a greasy finger across a cold slab of glass feels as natural, pleasant, quick, or efficient as thumbing through a neatly bound stack of paper.

There will certainly be no crazy resale market for the ebooks. They have no smell.

But they offer their own possibilities.

First of all, let’s talk about how great it looks. We’ve built it specifically for the iPad and it the images contained within are frankly wondrous on a Retina screen. Tap any image in the book to make it big:

On a Retina screen, you’ll see far more detail than you would in the printed book. The images are bright and crisp; the color is fantastic — they glow. Outside of getting a good look at the originals, I’ll go so far as to say that there’s currently no better way to see these pieces of art than in this Retina-iBook form. Here are some 100% crops to give you a sense of the level of detail we’re talking about:

The images look better than they did in print. There are also a lot more of them.

When we started talking to James about a digital version of Parallel Lives he sent us an incredible email, something along the lines of, “hey so do you think these would be cool to include?” with a link to 179 in-process photos which laid bare the creation of most of the pieces in the book.

Needless to say, we thought that they would be pretty cool to include.

The iBook is a perfect place for these. There are so many photos, none of them really “print-quality;” they feel more like intimate snapshots than official documentation. Taken straight from James’ iPhone, most shot in low light, at off angles, right on the easel, surrounded by buckets and milk crates. We’ve tucked them into an appendix; twenty-one slideshows that you can pop open and swipe through to see a painting’s journey from start to finish.

They’re fascinating. I mean, look:

There’s a whole other painting underneath that painting! That no one but James had ever seen! We can’t thank James enough for opening his process up like this and letting us see how these amazing pictures were built.

So those are the blockbuster features of this iBook when compared to its paper sibling: better images and (a lot) more of them.

But It is not without it’s subtler charms. For one, digital things are eminently portable.

For instance, you’re probably already taking your iPad many more places than you would ever take a signed, mint-condition, printed book. Browse on the subway, any day of the week! Show your friends at the bar, or whatever!

But these images are also portable within the iPad. This has been my home screen for the last couple of months:

and here’s my lock screen:¹

And we’ve gone out of our way to ensure that these newly digital images are portable across the internet. See an image in the book and want to +1 it on a Facebook or Instagram it to your LinkedIn (or maybe just email it to your mom?) We’ve set up web pages for every plate in the book; tap the share button in the top right to get or share a link to the image. Like these: 1, 2, 3

Finally, while we were (of course) overjoyed to see the print edition of “Parallel Lives” sell out so quickly, it’s crummy to have to turn people away. Oh, did you want to own these images in a meaningful way? Do you want to see and share them? Were you thinking you might like to support us, and James, with your hard-earned money? Sorry! You can’t, you’re too late, there were only so many, we’ve plumb run out. Digital publishing solves that problem: it feels great to be able to put this amazing book back out into the world.

The digital version of James Jean’s “Parallel Lives” is available now—for $7.99—in the iBookstore.

¹But how!? Open the book and tap an image to make it fullscreen. Tap the home and power buttons at the same time to save a screenshot to your photos app (if you’re particularly tricky, you can even initiate a pinch-zoom with a couple of spare fingers to get the upper-left close-button to disappear). Find the screenshot in your photos app, select it, click the share button in the top right, and say “Set as wallpaper.” Boom!

Coop’s “Hemi-Powered”

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:25:00 +0000

The cut & dried, razor-sharp linework and simple blunt impact of this image don’t lend themselves to much in the way of considered reflection, but when rolling out my fifth or sixth pad of ink of the day, I found myself gazing upon the giant steel plate, catching a whiff of mineral spirits, my hands stained in oily black… the studio filled with the satisfying clanks, hisses and smacks of the rubber brayer… and I thought: this fits. Just based on the materials alone, this is perfect. What better way to reproduce this exquisite drawing of this beast of an engine than with steel, rubber, oil, and a whole lot of elbow grease?

Following up on the success of both 1949 Mercury and Memento Mori we’re very pleased to present our newest large-scale collaboration with the inimitable COOP, “Hemi-Powered.”

It reproduces a Chrysler 426 Hemi (aka “The Elephant”) and COOP tells us that that’s a Cragar blower rigged up to it.

The print is big!

We get a little bit better at solving the myriad problems that such a large relief print will throw our way every time… light blacks and sloppy linework are always a problem, and to get a decent punch we end up hitting these hard enough that the (sizing-free!) paper (Arches 88) starts to buckle, crease, and generally deform in bunch of unhelpful ways. Luckily we’ve invented some tricks to cope with all of this; here’s a glimpse at some of our custom-cut maskwork, which we use to build up the shallow areas of the plate and distribute the immense pressure that the press applies just so:

Shipping giant prints presents problems of its own… we ended up just driving the prints out to LA ourselves for the signing. COOP rolled up in this:

and got to work:

A quick trip to get an embossed printer’s chop and we had another big, beautiful edition on our hands. “Hemi-Powered” is available now on pressureprinting.com!

Hemi-Powered - $666.00

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:20:45 +0000

Hemi-Powered is a large-scale relief print depicting a Dodge 426 Hemi engine (“The Elephant”) with a Cragar blower. It has been impressed into Arches 88 Printmaking paper in a limited edition of 25, and comes signed and numbered by COOP.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

The Print: Printed from an original COOP image; Arches 88 printmaking paper; Hand-printed relief in black ink; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by COOP

The Edition: Released April 2013; Print size is 38 ½˝ × 30˝; Edition of 25; 5 Printer’s proofs; 5 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

The Certificate of Authenticity: Custom designed, embossed, and perforated; Signed and numbered by the artist

Daniel Martin Diaz's "Atomic Man," "Soul of Science," & "Self-Aware System"

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:00:00 +0000

In 2012, I became immersed in scientific and philosophical theories. In particular, I was obsessed with scientific diagrams, which explain theories and properties though drawings. Although these rudimentary drawings were without any leanings towards aesthetics, I found them to be beautiful, though that is clearly not their intention. I was inspired to create my own interpretations of the concepts of consciousness and other theories on a scientific, philosophical, and spiritual level through a simplified means such as drawing. All of the projects I have created begin as drawings, which I feel have a beauty and intimacy that paintings cannot capture. The subtle lines that graphite creates and the quickness in which one can capture an idea makes this medium alluring.

— Daniel Martin Diaz

Daniel Martin Diaz is self-publishing a new art-book entitled ”Soul of Science;” he funded it (three times over!) on Kickstarter and it’s going to be great. Daniel is one of our favorites and we hadn’t done a project with him in forever. Upon seeing the Kickstarter we immediately saw these wonderful images as the perfect opportunity to work with him again. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: there is no finer way to reproduce a graphite drawing than via an edition of hand-pulled intaglio prints. From the rich blacks to the grainy, feathery lights, the two processes were seemingly made for each other.

Luckily, Daniel was as excited about the idea as we were and we were off to the races.

Save for a few requisite rounds of test plates, the printing went smooth-as-you-please. We did however take these editions as opportunities to teach ourselves some new hand-staining & paper-aging tricks. Our “paper aging” process now involves three stains and dozens of steps, but the results speak for themselves:

Never content to leave well enough alone, we borrowed some imagery from Mr. Diaz’s book—a Penrose triangle—to create a decorative embossing chop. We wondered: can you make a three-dimensional sculpted die of an impossible object? It took a few paper models and a couple of rounds of refinement, but the answer, happily, was yes!

Finally, we sent them off to Mr. Diaz to sign…

… and ended up with a superb trio of editions, available today!

Soul of Science - $195.00

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:24:29 +0000

Soul of Science, released alongside Atomic Man and Self-Aware System is a limited edition of intaglio prints created from Daniel Martin Diaz’s drawing of the same name.

Each print has been lovingly handprinted on a Takach etching press, hand-stained in tea and inks, signed and numbered by the artist and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Soul of Science: Limited edition of 25 + 4 Printer’s proofs + 4 Artist’s proofs, and 1 Bon à tirer; Released February 2013; Paper size: 12˝ × 16˝; Image size: 7 ½˝ × 9 ¾˝; Intaglio printed on Rives BFK printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks; Each print individually stained with tea, walnut ink, and black drawing inks.; Decorative chop embossed below image; Embossed printer's chop; Signed and numbered by Daniel Martin Diaz; Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity

Self-Aware System - $195.00

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:21:26 +0000

Self-Aware System, released alongside Soul of Science and Atomic Man is a limited edition of intaglio prints created from Daniel Martin Diaz’s drawing of the same name.

Each print has been lovingly handprinted on a Takach etching press, hand-stained in tea and inks, signed and numbered by the artist and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Self-Aware System: Limited edition of 25 + 4 Printer’s proofs + 4 Artist’s proofs, and 1 Bon à tirer; Released February 2013; Paper size: 12˝ × 16˝; Image size: 7 ½˝ × 9 ¾˝; Intaglio printed on Rives BFK printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks; Each print individually stained with tea, walnut ink, and black drawing inks.; Decorative chop embossed below image; Embossed printer's chop; Signed and numbered by Daniel Martin Diaz; Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity

Atomic Man - $195.00

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:18:17 +0000

Atomic Man, released alongside Soul of Science and Self-Aware System is a limited edition of intaglio prints created from Daniel Martin Diaz’s drawing of the same name.

Each print has been lovingly handprinted on a Takach etching press, hand-stained in tea and inks, signed and numbered by the artist and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Atomic Man: Limited edition of 25 + 4 Printer’s proofs + 4 Artist’s proofs, and 1 Bon à tirer; Released February 2013; Paper size: 12˝ × 16˝; Image size: 7 ½˝ × 9 ¾˝; Intaglio printed on Rives BFK printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks; Each print individually stained with tea, walnut ink, and black drawing inks.; Decorative chop embossed below image; Embossed printer's chop; Signed and numbered by Daniel Martin Diaz; Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity

James Jean’s “Parallel Lives”

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:15:00 +0000

James Jean’s “Parallel Lives” solo show opens tonight in New York City; anyone with half a chance of making it to the Jack Tilton Gallery before eight should seize the opportunity see this wondrous group of paintings in the flesh.

James asked us if we would be interested in publishing the show catalog and we jumped at the chance. For those of you can’t make it to the show tonight, the catalog is the perfect way to bring a piece of the show home. It comes signed and numbered by James and has been printed in a limited edition of 1,000.

It’s only $38.

We take as much pride in an offset piece like this as we do in our hand-pulled editions, minding every detail. The paintings speak for themselves, and the catalog — thanks in large part to James’ stellar design — feels crisp, clean and exactly right.

Pick one up today at pressureprinting.com!

Parallel Lives - $38.00

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:06:58 +0000

Parallel Lives is a 56 page, limited edition, signed and numbered softbound book cataloging James’ solo show of the same name. The book contains 47 plates, documenting James’ studio and reproducing every drawing, painting and mixed media work in the show.

We've written a little more about the book on our blog.

Update: We've just released a digital edition of the book. Find it here on the iTunes store and read about it here on our blog.

Parallel Lives: Limited edition of 1,000; Signed and numbered by James; 56 pages; Book size: 9˝ × 11 ½˝ × ⅜˝; Offset printed and perfect bound

Scott Musgrove’s “Mutations”

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 17:13:00 +0000

We came across Scott’s “Mutations” drawing a while back & loved it. I mean, fuzzy interlocking taurus rodents? Sold. We bought the drawing and asked Scott if we could edition it on the spot; he graciously agreed.

Delicate pencil drawings, as far as we’re concerned, were made to be turned into intaglio prints. Both are monochrome, a little bit gritty and capable of the subtlest of tonal subtleties — it’s a perfect match.

No fantastical antiquarian print would be complete without a little tea and gouache:

Scott’s original drawing isn’t contained within any humdrum, plain-jane rectilinear frame — instead he surrounded his pair of topographically complex rodents with a pointed arch. The drawing came double-matted, with the two sheets of matteboard cut into concentric pointed arch windows. We loved the effect. That simple shape somehow takes what was merely bizarre and makes it mystical — it takes the rodents out of a textbook and places them in a reliquary.

We debossed the prints to mirror the sculptural effect of the matting and added a thin band of gold and some ornamental flourishes to the mix. The carving in the moulding echoes all of this with a tight pattern of gothic arches (and hearts!).

Some frame assembly…

…and a trip to Scott’s house for signing and titling and we were done with this little beauty of a print. We’re still waiting on some custom foam and boxes, so orders won’t ship until Thusrday December 6th, but “Mutations” is available for purchase today in the Pressure Printing store.

Mutations - $395.00

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 16:57:39 +0000

Mutations is an edition of rather squirrelly framed intaglio fine art prints featuring an image from Scott Musgrove.

Each print has been hand-stained, embossed, debossed and foil stamped and comes encased in an antiqued frame.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

Scott Musgrove: Mutations: Limited edition of 30 + 5 Artist’s proofs, 5 Printer’s proofs, and 1 Bon à tirer; Released December, 2012; Print Size: 5 ¼˝ × 7 ½˝; Frame Size: 7 ¾˝ × 9 ⅞˝ × 2 ¼˝; Printed intaglio on Rives Heavyweight printmaking paper with Charbonnel inks; Hand stained in ink and gouache; Decoratively debossed, embossed, and foil stamped.; Signed, titled and numbered by the artist; Mounted in an antiqued frame under plexiglass; Comes with a custom-designed, perforated, signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity

MiXTAPE - LOS ANGELES - 08/04/12

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:40:00 +0000

We’re (quietly) releasing a new print today! It’s a little bit special, but first some backstory…

Jessicka Addams & Brian Wakil run the pop-up gallery Dark Dark Science and are on to something good. Their first show (which featured Jessicka’s own works alongside the wondrous dioramas of Lindsey Wey) was something of a coming-out party for Jessicka, who has been a huge part of the lowbrow scene for years—making great music & best friends—but has only begun seriously pursuing a visual arts career recently. For their most recent show, “LA MiXTAPE” Bryan & Jessicka corralled the biggest names in lowbrow and stuck them in a room with some fresh new talent in a—frankly—amazing group show centered around the idea of favorite songs and mixtapes.

Brad liked the show idea so much he decided it was worth more than just a thousand mile drive to the opening—he contributed a print, too: “MiXTAPE - LOS ANGELES - 08/04/12”

Brad would rather take a stick to the eye than toot his own horn but this is Eric here, so I can say that watching Mr. Keech—who has spent over 10 years at the helm of Pressure Printing—finally pull a few of his own images off the press was a real treat. The drawing is as strange and quirky as the man himself… and the man can draw! It took a bit of prodding but he let me put the print up in the store: it’s here. Buy it now!

MiXTAPE - LOS ANGELES - 08/04/12 - $99.00

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:19:32 +0000

MiXTAPE - LOS ANGELES - 08/04/12 is a small intaglio edition featuring an image from the sole proprietor of Pressure Printing: Brad Keech. Brad crafted the edition for the LA MiXTAPE show, held at pop-up gallery Dark Dark Science.

We've written a little more about the print and the show on our blog.

The Print: Intaglio printed from an original Brad Keech drawing; Rives Heavyweight printmaking paper; Charbonnel ink; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed & numbered by Brad

The Edition: Produced for the LA MiXTAPE show at Dark Dark Science; Released November 2012; Paper size: 6˝ × 9 ¼˝; Image size: 3 ⅝˝ × 6 ½˝; Edition of 25; 5 Printer’s proofs; 1 Bon á tirer

Memento Mori - $666.00

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:37:15 +0000

Memento Mori is an enormous relief print, pressed into Arches 88 printmaking paper in black ink. Each and every print has been signed and numbered by COOP and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

The Print: Printed from an original COOP image; Arches 88 printmaking paper; Hand-printed relief in black ink; Hand signed by COOP

The Certificate of Authenticity: Custom designed, embossed, and perforated; Signed and numbered by the artist

The Edition: Released May 2012; Print size is 42˝ × 30˝; Edition of 25; 5 printer proofs; 5 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

The Cannister - $75.00

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:36:01 +0000

The Cannister, released alongside The Tree, is a limited edition of relief prints impressed onto Rives Heavyweight paper. Each signed and numbered print has been embossed with a printer’s chop and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog

Although many clues have been scattered throughout the Frank stories as to the nature of Pupshaw’s specific biology, this is the first actual glimpse of what might be called the Mother Pup. As you can see it has a tremendous capacity for the sort of transformational influence that makes Pupshaw such a powerful protector and peaceable companion for the gormless Frank. Who is her beneficiary? Time will tell.

—Jim Woodring

The Print: Printed from an original Jim Woodring ink drawing; Custom handmade Twinrocker printmaking paper; Hand-printed in black ink; Embossed printer’s chop; Hand signed by Jim Woodring

The Certificate of Authenticity: Custom designed; Signed and numbered by the artist

The Edition: Released April 2012; Print size is 8˝ × 6 ¼˝; Edition of 50; 5 printer proofs; 5 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

The Tree - $75.00

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:34:17 +0000

The Tree, released alongside The Cannister, is a limited edition of relief prints impressed onto Rives Heavyweight paper. Each signed and numbered print has been embossed with a printer’s chop and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog

If you have ever spent a sleepless night tormented by the question of how Frank perceives the world through those fathomless eyespots, you may able to fully appreciate this rare glimpse of The Unifactor as it registers on his drawing pad. Yes, it is always The Age of Eyes and Things That Look Like Eyes where Frank lives. Do you want to see more? You will.

—Jim Woodring

The Print: Printed from an original Jim Woodring ink drawing; Hand-printed on Rives Heavyweight printmaking paper in in black; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed & numbered by Jim Woodring

The Certificates of Authenticity: Custom designed; Signed and numbered by the artist

The Edition: Released April 2012; Print sizes are 8˝ × 6 ¼˝; Edition of 50; 5 Printer’s proofs; 5 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

Sarah & Emmett - $300.00

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:33:14 +0000

Sarah & Emmett is a limited edition of fine art prints made from Travis Louie’s strange and wonderful painting of the same name. We printed the edition on custom hand-made Twinrocker paper with our Tackach intaglio press. The prints have been antiqued with walnut ink and watercolors, and specially debossed with a decorative pattern. The entire image area has been embossed into a subtle dome, imbuing it with dimension and polish. Each print has been signed, numbered, and exquisitely titled by Travis in graphite, and comes with a similarly signed and numbered certificate of authenticity.

Full production notes are available on our blog.

The Edition: Released February 2012; Limited edition of 50 prints; 10 Printer’s proofs; 10 Artist’s proofs; 1 Bon à tirer

The Print: Printed from an original, exclusive Travis Louie image; Paper size is 13˝ × 9 ½˝; Image size is 8˝ × 5 ½˝; Intaglio printed onto custom Twinrocker paper in sepia ink; Each print individually stained with gouache and walnut ink; Embossed dome over image area; Debossed decorative pattern surrounding image; Title hand-lettered by Travis; Embossed printer’s chop; Signed and numbered by the artist; Comes with a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity