“Brayer History”

The latest design---
inspired by old brayers/brayer
“skeletons”. The world of printmaking is
littered with old dysfunctional brayers, or what's left of them;
and a great many that obviously didn't pass the
“Art-School-Test”. If only they could talk.....
I love the graceful calligraphic aspect of the brayer handle shapes at the top of the image ---that brayer handle (long missing its rubber roller) came with my Brand etching press last year, along with a few other roller cores awaiting refurbishing. Since it always seemed a bit fancy for a brayer (more decoration of a utilitarian item when it doesn't need to be, one of my favorite themes), it also reminds me of that article in Yankee magazine entitled “What's-It,” featuring a strange gadget or flea market find, and readers would write in with their guesses as to what the implement's function was. (an SGC visitor to my table mistakenly guessed
“cheese slicer” ----well, it is a bit large for that, don't you think? And why, then, would it be hanging out with lines of text, other brayers, and positive-negative shapes, such as one often gets in relief printing? Hmmmmm..... the mystery continues!...)

This is an all-around print, utilizing discharge printing as well as fabric inks, rather a tour-de-force for getting it onto the shirt!
I think the future incarnation of this T-shirt image will
be to incorporate my previous geared Kelton study
(really the Hunter-Penrose press image) on the front chest area of the
shirt----to make it even more printmaking-related and less artist's-reception-cheese-oriented.
Sometimes it takes time to work the bugs outta the prototypes...

Kelton Etching Press 2 (Front of shirt) and a Tote Bag...

Another view of the Kelton Etching press.

I am also offering press image totebags.
Shown is the same image of the Kelton.
I will put the other press images on the
totebags too.

Back of the Kelton Etching press T-shirts

The backs of both of the Kelton 1 and 2 T-shirts (printed in black ink) are printed with this
window-pane of Kelton silhouettes, with the curved Kelton logo echoing the cast-in builders'
name at the bottom of the press side-frames; and also expressing the top-arched window frames of the industrial buildings from the time period in which this press was made and used.

Kelton Etching Press 1 (Front of shirt)

My connection to old printing machinery has a personal facet as well. The first etching press I owned was made by this company, M.M. Kelton, out of Brooklyn and New York City, and was very much like the one in this design. It is a cast-iron direct drive etching press. I bought it right after finishing my undergraduate degree ---the finding of it was a pre-wedding gift from my late husband, Jim. It just so happened that an acquaintance of his at that time had a big old farmhouse in the Philadelphia suburbs with a basement bursting with artifacts from the WPA. The man's father had been a WPA artist. Rather fitting, considering that this year is the 75th anniversary of the WPA!
Unfortunately I had to sell the press after having it for 10 years, because I moved and had no usable space in which to keep it. The press moved around a lot while I owned it and its current owner has moved it around quite a bit also. Although I still miss the press, I am happy that it has an appreciative home! (And I have since gotten a tabletop Charles Brand Etching press and I am very pleased with it.)

I have always been especially intrigued with the lovely lines of this press, and I know the memory of having owned one like this has been a prime motivation for doing this series.