He's BACK!

One of the best parts of having a shop and a press is getting the opportunity to work with fellow artists and printmakers. Mike Kachanis and I have known each other for many years! We have been in some gallery shows and collaborated on prints in the past. There is an earlier blog from last year about our 1st printing marathon at Spofford Press.

This year was our 2nd week long printing session, fueled by coffee, Radiohead bootlegs and nonstop Instagram posts (Mike is finally on social media via an Instagram account)! Here are some pictures from this past week!

**We cut down Mike's paper on day 1. Many pieces of Japanese Mulberry ready for some ink.**

Mike tends to make larger woodcuts then his etchings. Printing them is better suited for 2 people, which is how these week long events started!

**Mike rolling up the "Toadstool Hollow" block.**

We hand burnish all of Mike's blocks. This can be accomplished using barens or the backs of spoons, but Mike showed up with these beautiful burnishing tools that he made with his father recently. They are very smooth solid wood in an egg shape, and they glide over the paper beautifully. They have a slight taper at one end so you can really get into small hard to print areas.

**"Toadstool Hollow" print hanging to dry.**

**Mike brought one smaller block that fit on the Press bed, so we printed it using the etching press and then used hand burnishing to finish the prints up.**

A nice advantage to using Japanese paper and oil-based ink is that you can see the image through the back of the paper as you print it, either by hand or press. This is the printed block just before pulling the paper to reveal the print on the other side! The back of the paper is almost as crisp and dark as the front.

Before inking some of the blocks, we masked off the background around the image in order to not get any unwanted ink on the block and the print. It took a few minutes but the resulting print was clean and beautiful.

**Inking right over the tape masking. The tape is pulled off just before the paper is placed on the block and burnished.**

Mike's work is so large and graphic that it makes for pretty awesome and dramatic photographs!

**While they were drying, we weighted the papers down with a few clothes pins on the bottom corners to prevent them from curling over and smudging the freshly printed images.**

You can smell the drying ink outside! LOT of prints hanging...

**A fun picture from Instagram. The reveal!**

By the final day the drying lines were full and the editions were printed!

Another killer week with Mike Kachanis. Looking forward to seeing what galleries these mammoth prints end up in!

Michael Kachanis : May 27- May 31 2013

Fellow printmaker, and good friend, Mike Kachanis came to Spofford Press during the last week of May to edition his large scale woodcuts. Mike and I met in college and we both graduated with Printmaking degrees. In October 2011 Mike and I had a two person show at the Hive Gallery in Providence that featured our individual recent works. A few years ago he started carving large woodcuts on old doors and various pieces of found wood. An ambitious project with one small problem - physically printing them. It takes at least two people and a lot of time and patience. So we camped out for a few days and got to work.

**Mike burnishing his print, "L'ancien"**

Mike brought over 7 blocks, ranging from 1 x 2 ft. to 2 x 5 ft. Mike made a plan to print an edition of 5 or 6 prints of each block. He used a beautiful roll of Mulberry paper that took a good month to come in from Japan. We cut sheets first while our hands were still ink-free.

The process for large woodcuts like these is simple in essence but involves a lot of subtle printing skills and patience. Ink is rolled onto the blocks' surface using a large brayer. Once the block has a nice heavy sheen to it, a large sheet of paper is carefully placed over the inked surface and gently pushed down.

We used Graphic Chemical's Relief Bond Black 1920 ink on all of the blocks.

Sitting on opposite sides of the table, Mike and I started burnishing the backside of the paper. Mike had surprised me with an amazing gift, a hand made burnisher. He had recently made a series of wooden hand burnishers out of mahogany and oak. We used them exclusively on all of the editions and they worked beautifully! The oval burnishers are held firmly and are used to rub the paper in a small circular motion. By using a thinner Japanese paper the image appeared through the paper after it had been burnished, indicating the image is transferring nicely.

**Here's the two-man process of pulling the final print off of the block!**

After the whole surface had been burnished, we carefully lifted the paper off if the block and hung to dry. Then repeat!

We averaged about two editions a day. Not all of the blocks were editioned in the time frame allotted, so we will be seeing Mike again!

**The process for pulling a print of "Arabica"**

**Editioning the "L'ancien" gargoyle print**

Working with Mike is always a great time. Between listening to the entire Smashing Pumpkins catalogue and trips to the best burrito place in Providence, we have fun and still get the job done. Mike is planning on another few days at the shop to finish some older work and edition some brand new woodcuts! We are also going to collaborate on a print or two, an idea that has been 8 years in the making!

Mike has an upcoming exhibition and is in the process of making a new body of work! Check out his website for more information. If you would like to see an enormous amount of Mike's older work, Mik e's Flickr Portfolio is the place to be! I'll end with some of the finished prints!

**Final Print " Is Now & Ever Shall Be"**

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