Facilities

Located in Hatcher Hall, renovations to the Printmaking studios are complete. The facilities are comprehensive and include extensive equipment for relief, intaglio, lithography, monotype, and screenprinting, as well as for book arts and papermaking.

Newly renovated, the Printmaking area measures approximately 10,000 square feet, and houses intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, book arts, papermaking, and digital and darkroom facilities.

 

Large Format Opportunities

Printmaking at LSU provides an unrivaled opportunity to produce large- scale images. Our facilities include a 120” Takach Etching Press (also ideal for relief and monoprinting); a 120” Takach Lithography Press; and a 4’ x 8’ vacuum table for papermaking. As such, the wide-ranging nature of the equipment and labs enables everything from making the paper to printing on it.

 

Lithography

The lithography shop has five presses, including three large Takach Garfield presses, one of which has a 4’ x 10’ press bed with plate base, and two Fuchs and Lang Presses. 

Stones: The shop owns about 140 stones ranging in size up to 30” x 40” and there is a large graining sink, and a lift for moving stones easily.

 

Intaglio

Presses:
Takach Floor Model: 49” x 120”
Takach Floor Model: 36” x 42”
Takach Floor Model: 25 ½” x 48”
Charles Brand: 36” x 42”
Botega Press: 25½” x 47” 

Etching Tanks: Numerous vertical etching baths allow for processing plates measuring up to 4’ x 8’. The tanks are set up with ferric chloride as an etchant, but can be changed to accommodate other metals, such as aluminum or zinc. 

The black and white inking area measures 3’ x 16’, and includes two inking slabs, two hot plates, and a third hot plate that is designed as an oven for evenly heating larger plates.

The color inking area measures 3’ x 20’ and includes 3 inking slabs. Two additional slabs measuring 3’ x 4’ are available on wheeled carts for mixing color in any area of the shop.

 

Book Arts and Papermaking

The book arts area is equipped with two Vandercook presses, an SP 20 measuring 18” x 24” and a Vandercook I measuring 15” x 22”. A small tabletop proofing press is also available. Additional equipment includes eight galley cabinets with galleys and three composing stations. Over 200 drawers of foundry type round out the accouterments for relief and letterpress production. An extensive library of vintage type-high cuts, along with miscellaneous imagery, is part of the facility’s resources. An Anderson & Vreeland photopolymer platemaker is housed in the darkroom. With the computer lab and darkroom close at hand, photopolymer plates are a popular option, and are used on the press in combination with Bunting magnetic plates. A Robust board shearer for cutting book board, paper, and cloth; a Challenge paper guillotine; job backers; a large standing press; and several nipping presses form the core of our bindery area.