Well Travelled Supplies

Early in the semester, when I was still covering university printmaking classes, I spent time looking up information about printmaking supplies so I could share it with the students.  The regular professor had put some on the syllabus I handed out, but I have additional knowledge and wanted the kids to know all the possibilities.  So I went to the Daniel Smith website to check on some of the things I know that they carry and was hit with a bombshell.  The current company president was announcing their plans to end production of their art supply catalog and the online ordering system.  The plan is to return to their roots as a manufacturer of artist supplies, which they will still sell, but mostly through other art stores.  This is a major inconvenience, but things I bought from them that they don't make themselves are available from other suppliers.  But I figured I could still get my relief ink, since the company was founded by a group of printmakers specifically to make better quality printing ink than was available anywhere.  However, they decided to ignore those actual roots (which were still bragged about elsewhere on the website) in favor of fictitious "roots" as paint company.  So they will keep making paints, but had already discontinued all ink production, just selling off the remaining stock, and my relief ink was long gone.  It was bad enough that the ink I had been using exclusively for 20 years was no longer being made, but these wannabe painters were lying to customers in calling this "going back to their roots."  I called their customer service line to see if I could get more information, and was told that many of the employees were baffled by the decision (many are printmakers themselves).  The printmaker I met last week had lived in Seattle for a while and had taught print classes at one of their stores.  She was aware that the catalog was ending, but was shocked to learn that they were ceasing production of printmaking supplies.  

Maybe someday they will realize the error of their ways, but I resigned myself to the idea that I need to find a new ink and soon.  I do have a can and a half left, which lasts me a while, but I also use it in teaching my woodcut class (I start them on water based inks, but they all want to switch to oil based inks as soon as possible) and that's scheduled to start up again next week.  My old friend and former student Tom Huck had favored it for a long time, but I had noticed on his site a few years ago that he was promoting Gamblin brand inks- I assumed some kind of financial arrangement had been made.  But then earlier this year he announced that he would be having his own custom label brand of relief ink, manufactured by Gamblin, called Outlaw Black.  (Drive by Press, headed up by one of Tom's former students, also has a custom label ink formulated for relief printing on cloth)  The company website doesn't list these custom label inks, but my tool supplier does, so I ordered some tools a few weeks ago and had them include a can of Outlaw Black in the shipment. If I like it, I'll order some more.  

The problem has been waiting for the stuff to get here.  It was sent parcel post (relatively cheap), and after the first weekend it finally departed the west coast.  A link to tracking information allowed be to follow the progress.  It arrived in New Jersey toward the end of last week, at which time the post office inexplicably sent it to a different town than the listed address.  That town is just across the river from where it was supposed to go, but the tracking site told me it was declared undeliverable, and after a weekend in a post office closed for the holiday, it was forwarded to the other side of the state.  For a few days I was left wondering why it couldn't be delivered- was it damaged, the labels destroyed, etc?   I was worried that maybe it would be sent back to the company.  Yesterday morning the computer told me they had decided to send it to the town it should have been sent to last week, and I got confirmation that it had arrived.  

During the day today I went down to pick up my box.  The box was completely intact, with two clearly printed labels with the correct address.  So why it was sent to the wrong county will just remain a mystery.  I'm glad it's in my hands, and in the coming days I'll pull a proof of some old block to see what I think of this ink.  The tools supplement the supply I had, including a few sizes I didn't have.  Now I just have to hope the class gets enough students to run.