BUSINESS PLANNING: The need for Halfwood Presses continues to grow, but concerns about the present economic scene and future outlook make people hesitant to buy the presses. Interest is there, but commitments to own are at a low point. I am using this slowdown time to review and reinvent the enterprise, re-writing my business plans and using the Internet to learn the best options for me and for the hundreds of people who expressed their support over the past eight years. My reading includes "Business Model Generation" by Osterwalder & Pigneur, and I'm using the templates on the Website called "Wickedstart."

There are several ways to learn printmaking and practice the art and craft of printing on an etching press. One, you can join a workshop, pay their fee, and they will let you use their press when they feel like letting you in. Two, you can take a course at a college, pay their tuition and fee, and they will let you use their presses whenever they feel like letting you in. Private printmaking studios, too, will rent you time and whenever they feel like it they'll let you in. Some include knowledge and skills that the directors, faculty or individuals feel are right and let you in on what they know. Over my 50 years in printmaking, I tried them all, both as student, workshop, private studio and professor. My idea is different. You buy a Halfwood Press with a PressGhost (me) built in. that way you can use the press in your own space (or your camper!) and - with some kind of computer screen attached to the PressGhost - access - on the flash drive memory stick - your printmaking professor, built-in.

ONE-HUNDRED THIRTEEN OWNERS AND COUNTING
I noted there are 120 owners in a 75-minute video on YouTube, later I found 113 people. My mistake. Some owners have TWO halfwood presses. This is enough people to start a club! However, many artists I've known quote Groucho Marx: "I wouldn't be part of a club that would have me as a member!"  Hee hee. Last year I rejoined the Seattle Print Arts, and I'm having fun being a member of something again.

Press Testers Invited

Having tested over 125 Halfwood presses, I'm tired. But it is necessary. Recently someone said they'd like to come and try out a Halfwood - despite they weren't planning to buy one. Good idea! Like a test kitchen, where people try out recipes. Get a taste of printing on a Mini - bring your own plate. There is a catch: I'll make a video for your YouTube presence. - BR

How many people want Halfwoods?

I wrote a book in '08 when about thirty presses were sold. In the book I included an estimate of the number of people who would likely want to own a Mini Halfwood. I did the math based on my career as a professor and promoter of fine art prints and came up with 400,000. Four years later, I wonder how I can make 400,000 Halfwood Presses. Raise your hands if you want a Halfwood. Tell me why. :)

Rembrandt's Ghost in ...

I'm writing a novel. The working title is "Rembrandt's Ghost in the New Machine." It's about a guy who wakes up on a boatload of horse manure in the harbor of 17th C. Amsterdam. Want to know what happens?

No Web site is complete without a blog, right? Yet is there time enough to make Printmaking World Presses - a hands-on task - and still write? Welcome to my first blog - though it is not really my first since I started writing blogs many years ago. Those blogs are still online someplace; I haven't had time to keep them up. Now I'm looking at a new stage in the printmaking world game that I made up for myself - my own roadmap - and so it's a good time to start a blog for the PrintmakingWorld Web site. I think. Therefore I am. That is, I am starting a blog today, Friday the 13th - a good day to blog.