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The proposal for a right-sized source of unique printmaking presses, furniture and gifts.

The main offering of the proposed Seattle Printmakers Store will be a line of Halfwood Presses, Printmakers Furniture, and printmakers gifts. The very definition of printmaking will be expanded to include new technologies. Some hi-tech is considered part of the history of printmaking and core of the maker movement. For example, 3D printing and laser engraving will be promoted alongside press-making kits and old-style wooden presses, being made partly on CNC routing machines.
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Co-founder's concept of the Printmaker Store proposed and modeled as if located at the Pike Place Market site.
(Note: This siteis now the Chin Music Publishers/PPM)

As the Seattle Printmakers Center grows and develops toward all twenty components of its master plan and we deepen our offerings, the store will sell board games based on people and printmaking, printmakers novelties, local authors and book artists' products, trading cards, artiststamps, and more.

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Store Item: Gift box

One of the printmaker gift concepts - the Rembrandt en Wijn kit which is based on the sip and print industry entry, a concept in keeping with and in support of the Seattle Printamers Center.

Item: DIY printing press

The WeeWoodie Rembrandt Press, the award-winning working model based on the 17th Century wooden press used by Rembrandt and other artists who pioneered in making printmaking more than a medium for reproduction.

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Item: Press in a chest

The Printmakers Chest, a Frigate Halfwood Press in a strong printmakers chest, including two drawers and enough room inside to carry everything you need to go printing on the road. It's also a handsome piece of furniture in proportion with small living spaces.

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Not a big box store

With the trend for general art supplies, including printmaking, going toward a few mega-stores (all of which have strong catalog and online shopping services) makes it convenient to get almost everything you need to be a printmaker at competitive prices.

In Seattle, Daniel Smith, Inc. was a favorite among locals. The company was started as a basement etching ink operation by artist D. G. Smith in the 1970s. Since the 1990s, the store has been under new management and in 2014, they announced that the company would no longer be offering printmaking supplies online.

Until the Seattle Printmakers Center initiative, it appeared opportunities for enjoying printmaking experiences and locating hard-to-find demonstrations would be fewer. With the Printmakers Store project (one part of Bill Ritchie's Seattle Printmakers Center initiative) there is new hope in the Northwest.

The Printmakers Store will be small and focussed on a re-invented kind of printmaking - offering personal services, eco-friendly and educational products. D. G. Smith always emphasized customer service and education. The Printmakers Store will carry on this winning combination with its community benefits.

Disclaimer: This is a concept under development for one of twenty components of Bill Ritchie's proposal for a Seattle Printmakers Center, of which each component reflects creativity of Seattles' artists who, in the surrealist tradition, helped to raise printmaking above the level of fine art toward a world of the super-real influenced by the Pacific Northwest's thriving technology culture. Each component of the Seattle Printmakers Center (such as Printmakers Store) operates as a for-profit business, with part of the profits going to support the Seatle Printmakers Center activities.

Learn about the co-founders of the Printmakers Store