Am I Cheeting?

May 19, 2012

When I go to the garage these last few days I feel like I’m cheating on Olivia. After some serious bartering my wife finally agreed to let my second mistress move in. Her name is Helga and I still have to get a picture of her that does her justice – maybe tomorrow. Last Monday the move in happened. And I have been grooming her almost every day now this week. I do feel a bit guilty with Olivia sitting there looking over and seeing all my attention on Helga’s Continue...

Second in the Gyrfalcon Series

February 1, 2012
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Here is the second of the Gyrfalcon print series. It is titled “Gyrfalcon Reach” as the bird is reaching skyward in this image, grabbing air looking to gain height. The reaching up motion seems quite severe here, but when watching the bird the movement looks quite effortless. There is this pendulous movement, up and down – and at the same time a bit side to side , barely avoiding the tops of small trees and bushes. When about 200 yards away there was almost an explosion of feathers as the Continue...

First of the 2012 Editions Ready

January 2, 2012
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This Limited Edition print is based on a series of sketches I did shortly after observing a gyrfalcon hunting north of Wandering River (a couple of hours drive north of Edmonton). As often happens when I work from my photo references, the first few sketches were way too realistic. It took a few iterations before I worked out how to show the essence of the falcon, how it just rode the air so effortlessly, dancing above the bushes and small trees. After some absentminded sketching one day dealing with the Continue...

Original Prints?

December 28, 2011
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What is an Original Print? I would like to be really clear about this, because I’d like you to buy some of my work because you like it. No other reason. Because sometime later, when I get to meet you, it would be real nice to have a conversation about that. But for those of you for whom this is not enough, let me quote some of the experts on the subject: Original Prints are – as stated by the International Fine Print Dealers Association: “A print is a work Continue...

Why Print?

December 22, 2011
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Well, that is easy to explain – but it will take a while. One easy explanation is that I just could not stand charging the big money for my originals, so a democratic/egalitarian drive made me move to print (but thats just a good story). Do you really want to know? When I started with this art adventure in the fall of 2000, I started painting – and learning lots. Then a few years later I realized that I was making friends in the painting community (Ted Godwin for instance Continue...

Feed & Delivery Tables

July 30, 2011
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I had a plank of oak lying around from way back (sailboat building days) and always wanted to to do something special with it. From some inquiries with other printer/bloggers, I discovered that the feed and delivery table mounted on my press were not the original ones, and I searched out the information about what size the original might have been. There is a fair bit of conflicting info about the tables out there. In the end, the size was not the most important: I only had the one oak Continue...

Olivia Put to Bed

June 26, 2011
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I cut and chiseled the timbers for Olivia’s base from some pressure treated rough 4×6″ timbers. Went out to look at some pallet jacks to make sure I could accommodate the rental variety for the inevitable moves. Also, once I started thinking about raising the press on a set of skids, I discovered that cleaning up will be a lot easier. It took a while because there were two misfires; First I bought material of too small a cross-section, with the metal bending precariously as I tried to lift. Then Continue...

Saddle Post Spring Detail

May 20, 2011
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Turns out there are two different springs: One. the shorter two for the double roller saddle post:
Spring length 31″, (190 turns of 0.079″ diameter spring material, wound to 0.465″ inside diameter 0.620″ outside diameter). 
The longer two springs are for the single roller saddle post:
 Spring length 34″, (196 turns of 0.070″ diameter spring material, wound to 0.467 inside diameter 0.608″ outside diameter). To be able to get the spring off the rod you need to be able to compress the spring a bit while removing the cotter pin at Continue...

Lock Roller Repair

April 16, 2011
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The lock roller rotates on the fixed stud, attached to the cast-iron frame with the prominent x shape – called the rocker lock. It makes the rocker lock follow the shape in the small head lock cam on the left side of the press. The rocker lock makes the press frame more rigid at the moment when the platen and the bed come into contact, when forces in the 20 to 30 ton range can momentarily be experienced. The inside bore of the roller was quite worn. More than twenty Continue...

Main Gear Misalignment

March 10, 2011
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I’m sure glad I went through this trouble, as the pinion would have come loose, likely at some inopportune time. As well, the gear teeth were just starting to mark up, with the pinion pushed too far over, and with the smaller meshing of gear teeth surfaces, there was obviously higher load, (and wear on the teeth) taking place.                                 This is what it looked like before. The main gear and the drive pinion were Continue...

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