This past weekend I was part of an exhibition in our village which consisted of some local artists; John Mortensen, April Lafferty and myself, with some visiting artists from Vancouver. The visiting artists were from Vancouver's Taiwanese arts community; Shya-fen Billington, Wu-Tzanq Liaw, and Chih-Hsiung Chien. Chih-Hsiung Chien brought a nifty little printing press manufactured in Taiwan and Japan and spent part of the weekend producing lovely little prints. Apparently his friend in Taipei is importing some of the components from Japan, and making the little presses to sell in kits. Not for sale here, and apparently just starting up in Taiwan; considerable interest from elementary schools as a way of introducing kids to the printmaking process. He let me do a drawing and print it up; very nice postcard size arrangement. Apparently you can buy bigger outfits. It works similar to the old Gestetners of my childhood, however the paper is thinner and more sensitive to the pencil. It provides an interesting line quality, as you can see above, and drawing on the tissue isn't too awkward.


Chih-Hsiung with my finished drawing on the template.


Inking the drawing.


Printing the drawing.


You can make about 40 prints apparently.