Two-color print

Here is the two color print from the letterpress workshop complete with the set-ups on the bed of the press. Believe it or not, the registartion is pretty intentional, and a litle more than tricky to do!

Two-Color is no easy task! You work hard to get the first color of the prints looking good and then all can go down the crapper if the second color aint right. Lots of proofs to make sure. Let's you fine tune, move the little eight into the counter of the large eight, create thetension in the two large eights and so on.

I just may use this for my New Year card this year. That was my plan!

Letterpress word of the day: Reglet – noun. a thin strip of wood used in place of leading to space lines of type.

Collaborative print

One of the great things about letterpress is the many layers created as you print. The transparent inks create all new images on their own when applied.

I thought it would be fun if everyone in the workshop added a layer to a print. I started it out with some 8's and passed them along to the other groups. Some came out nicer than others. Some did not understand the whole collaborative thing. Eventually, I asked people to run my "first layer" prints through their presses. When they saw what was h appening they caught on.

This print was one of the best with something added from all three presses!

Letterpress word of the day: Furniture – noun Also called bearer, dead metal. Printing. pieces of wood or metal, less than type high, set in and about pages of type to fill them out and hold the type in place in a chase or on the bed.

Fruits of workshop No. 1

This is one of my prints from the workshop. It was a simple lockup, securing the type, of a single piece of type that I moved around on the bed by swapping out pieces of furniture, spacers. It actually is pretty nice with all the many layers of the overlapping forms. It was a simple print just playing around with form and layers.

Letterpress word of the day: Coin - noun; a wedge used for securing type in a chase; quoin.

Letterpressing!

You know when they say walk a mile in one's shoes to know what they know? Well I walked for a day and a half and have a whole new impression, pun intended, of the letterpress process.

Furniture, reglets, coins, lead, timpan. So many new words, a whole new print vocabulary actually. I was a little intimidated by the actual press, but in reality, it is quite benign and easy to use. Even the cleaning of it is quite simple (brought me back to my deli days and cleaning the meat slicers)!

I got three things done over the day and a half workshop. I made kind of an art print, created a potential image for my New Year card, and tried to get a group print going that was 75% succesful. All will be shared over the next couple of days!