Active and Passive sides of Pram Halfwood Press #115
Pram Halfwood Press #115
Specifications: Made in 2013. Pram Halfwood Press. Serial No. 60115. Specifications: Rollers are 1.5 x 6 and 5.5 inches top and bottom. The bed is 1/4 x 6 x 17.5 inch polycarbonate (the standard) with steel rack; overall length is 17.5 inches; overall width is 9 inches; overall height is 10 inches; weight, about 14 lbs; drive wheel is 8 inches diameter in stainless steel. The bed is rack-driven, approximating a 3:1 mechanical advantage. Wood is solid American black walnut. The pressure screws are linked and synchronized. The press included two etching felts, user's manual, a PressGhost flash drive with USB extension cable for connecting to a computer, the book, "Halfwood Press: The story."
Artist's comment: The prospect of an upcoming printmaking conference prompted Rebecca Ronstadt, publisher of Journal of the Print World, to offer an exchange of a Pram Halfwood for review and subsequent advertising. I was happy to join in this project. Rebecca is not only a contributor to the printmaking world, she is also an artist in her own right. She and her husband, Robert, are active in academe, technology and education. The website for the Journal is http://www.journaloftheprintworld.com
About Rebecca Ronstadt (drawn from the Society of American Graphic Artists's Facebook page): SAGA honored Rebecca Ronstadt for her lifetime achievements in October, 2013, in New York. She is best known as the Publisher of the Journal of the Print World. Educated at Harvard Institute in Arts Administration, Simmons College for Business/Management, Babson College for Accounting, the Boston Museum School of Fine Art and the New Hampshire Institute of Art, she has a well-rounded and long standing career as publisher and software designer, advocate and developer in the corporate, private, educational and political spheres. In addition, Ronstadt is an expert/lecturer on the lithographs and art of John James Audubon.
The Journal of the Print World has been publishing for over thirty-five years, and is devoted exclusively to antique and contemporary fine art on paper. Ronstadt save the publication when its former publisher could no longer continue, having been an avid reader for many of those years. The articles in the Journal of the Print World cover classical and contemporary artists and their work. The Journal of the Print World’s mission is to help printmakers and print purveyors build lasting relationships.
Ronstadt, a printmaker herself, describes an epiphany the first time she visited a printmaking studio.
“A whole new world opened to me where everything I loved came together in one place. I'd been working as a publisher all my life, book design, advertising, marketing ... and I realized that the part of the business and what I was doing that I loved the most was the stuff I was doing with Image, Ink and Paper… It was a turning point in my life!”
When she first saw her Pram Halfwood Press she sent an email message with:
“It was interesting to see the effect the very small press had on me ... after being so familiar with my American French Tool. The latter so big, so dominating, so mechanical. But really BIG. Then, you take the same thing ... a press ... shrink it down to not quite nano level ... and IT becomes the work of art ITSELF. ... The tool becomes the art. Not sure if I articulated that right ... but the press is like sculpture. Precision kinetic art.”
No video of No. 115 in action yet, but a glimpse of the similar No. 112 in the book-signing event in a Duncan Wine Bar in British Columbia is similar to Rebecca's:
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