As a BFA in Printmaking being 4 weeks from graduation makes me nervous. No studio, no press, not light exposure unit, how will I live? Luckily I starting freaking out about this long ago and want to share the fruit of that freak out.
I built my own mini studio. It’s still in the works, but it’s fairly functional right now.
I have an inking station, make out of an old window. The cane from the windowpane reinforces the glass edges and I duck taped them for safety. I placed this on top of a waist height books shelf and wha-la storage and a workstation.
Next came the “clean area”. I bought a kitchen island from Ikea and drilled an antique laundry wringer to it. I made a press bed out of Masonite board, I still plan to build supports on each side with wheels to help guide the bed. I got free blankets by cutting down a set of ruined blankets from the university studio. Next to the press I made my paper blotting station with some new clean white towels and a paper brush. I use a large plastic storage tub for my water bath.
As I work primarily with polymer plates I needed a light exposure unit. I built one using a facial tanning lamp I found on EBay. It has a dial to set for minutes. I set it for the approximate about of time and use my phone to measure it more accurately. I built a wooden box and blocked off the sides with mat board to help protect my eyes from the UV light, and avoid an unfortunate tan. At this time I don’t have a vacuum system so instead I use a plate of glass, which I clamp to a sheet of wood with alligator clips. This sandwiches the polymer plate and film work together and is placed inside the wooden box.
So far this solves two of my largest studio problems, now it’s just all down to the details.
peculiarprinter 
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Great exposure unit. Great post.