Printmaking Presses

We've used many presses to create the prints on this website. Learn more below.


I built this Bottle Jack Press in 2014 using plans I found online:

 

 

The block and paper slide in between the brown pieces of mdf where they are pressed together when the jack is pumped.


Appledore Evening and Green Wave are some of the prints created on this contraption. It has been retired after serving me well.

In 2017, I purchased this etching press:

 



It was homemade by someone who wanted to print their own Christmas cards. For artwork under 12” wide and 16” tall, it works great. I used it to print Crotched Mountain in Fall, Winter Birch and Winter Shadows among others. In 2024, I sold this press to some people who are going to use in kids' programs.


To print Vanguard, I rented the Conrad Machine with a 24"x48" bed at D.M. Penny Press Inc. in nearby Manchester.

 

For a couple of years, I used the Charles Brand etching press with a 30"x50" bed at MAXT Makerspace in Peterborough, NH:

 

Artist Hannah Phelps prints a jigsaw woodblock on an ething press in Peterborough, NH.

 

I am now using this Whelan with a 24"x48" bed in my studio in New Boston:

 

 


Turbulence on Appledore, the biggest jigsaw reduction I have created so far, was printed on a giant French Tool Press at a local art school. They don’t allow rentals anymore, but that beautiful machine has a 36” x 60” bed.

Woodblock printmaking is a relief process, so transferring ink to paper doesn’t always need a lot of pressure. For white-line woodcuts and jigsaws from soft-kut blocks, I use a very special tool:

 



This wooden spoon is made from bamboo. I bought it at the grocery store for around $3 in 2009. Sometimes, low tech is best.