A broken printing press

... so this one was hand pressed. Not ideal when your trying for an intaglio effect, i.e. the pressure of the press pushes the paper into the inked lines, rather than just printing the surface (relief).

It happened as Anna was printing after lunch. I'd just spent a little over an hour inking two plates to create my next print and suddenly ... nothing! The print bed refused to move as the wheel was turned. So another day gone! It affected everyone quite badly as the two J's are in the middle of printing cards for a National Trust Christmas Fair and we're all trying to add to our collection ready for our exhibition in the Sheffield Gallery over Christmas. Fortunately I'd already decided not to be over ambition for the exhibition and to use things I already had. It would have been good to have a couple of additional prints in the portfolio.

This is one corner of the hand pressed print, which I quite like.