This is the do it yourself Mini Etching Press kit, part of the Halfwood Press line of etching presses. It is made so that it can be packed in a compact box for mailing. Owners need about an hour for assembly. The kit has a user manual, felt blankets for intaglio printing and a chase for relief printing. Besides etchings and linoleum blocks users print lithographic, stencil, mono types and mono prints. This personal size press is youth friendly and capable of professional quality prints by experienced printmakers. The printed user manual is interactive with QR codes to link owners online.

A world traveled art professor, a teacher of people of all ages, and an artist who took up printmaking the year he left his father's farm, Bill Ritchie is a visionary, an innovator and considered by some to be a little eccentric. He chose to transform his job of teaching printmaking at the University of Washington rather than conform to national standardized tests. Living in a center of high tech industries, he is drawn to blends of archaic technologies and innovations, enjoying challenging people to use nearly forgotten hand printing to widen horizons in technology, education and design for young people.

Emeralda Works was founded to design and test fine arts education software, including support software, supplies, equipment and consulting services for subject matter experts' asset management. In establishing Emeralda Works, Bill Ritchie believed that higher education in the arts requires changes that embrace new technologies while conserving old technologies and the assets of art history. As a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in printmaking, he re-defined the art of printmaking by aligning printmaking with performance arts and entertainment whereas in the past printmaking was associated with painting. New skill sets, including support software, supplies, equipment and consulting services in intellectual property management thus became the company goal concomitantly with art education. The unique line of Halfwood Presses is part of the company goal to produce appropriate technologies on a scale that is right for the changing needs of the printmaking community worldwide.