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28Jul
Amidst the “summer of weddings” craziness, I’m trying to squeeze in some letterpress work. This is a little sneak peek of what I worked on this weekend. Barely there blue waves on 110# Crane Lettra. Full reveal will come … soonish :)
Tags: Ink
Category: letterpress // 1 Comment
27Jul
Finally went through all of the inks I acquired, weeding out the dried up ones. Here’s what I ended up with:
2 Yellow
2 Rubine Red
1 PMS 185 Red
1 Rhodamine Red
2 Warm Red
1 Orange OA 3638
1 Brick Dust
1 Bronze Blue
1 Process Blue
and … 5 blacks.
Whew. I’m set for life with reds and black.
Too bad the “cactus” color didn’t work out; it looked like a fun color:
Unfortunately, I’ve got about 15 dried up cans to toss out. Anyone know how to dispose old ink properly?
Tags: color, Ink
Category: letterpress // 1 Comment
19Apr
A sneak peek of what I was working on this weekend…
I got to use such pretty colors on the press — lemon yellow, teal and a fiery coral. What do you think about this color combo?
I also have to say, for the printers out there, using opaque white to mix colors instead of transparent white was far less of a headache trying to get the right color and a solid coverage — what are your thoughts?
Tags: Ink
Category: letterpress // 5 Comments
02Feb
My first wedding invitation done by letterpress — finally finished and I think overall successful! There are still some inking issues with my press that need to be worked out (even with my new rollers!)*
The bride wanted a classic, elegant invitation set with pops of watermelon color.
*I am still getting inconsistent inking even with my new rollers and new metal trucks. It’s almost in pattern where I’ll get no ink on one side of the plate and after awhile, I’ll get no ink on another portion of the plate and then it goes back to all inking all over. Dented rollers would be an explanation if there wasn’t inking on one portion all the time. But it moves! Could it be the hooks/springs that hold my rollers? Any printers out there, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Tags: Ink, invitation, wedding
Category: letterpress // 1 Comment
21Jan
Handmade ink from plants and berries? Yes please! I always wonder how my rubber-based ink fairs on the environment while doing letterpress. Not good I’m sure. I use such a tiny amount for each project though. But how about Britt Browne from the PaperMoonProject on her ink made with cranberries. This is how ink was originally made and I love the idea of going back to it.
Here’s her step-by-step process.
Here’s a list of different berries/plants you can use to make certain colors from red onions and beets to tea and turmeric.
Hm… I wonder if this would work for letterpress?
How about plantable letterpress paper from Porridge Papers?
Seems very challenging to letterpress with handmade paper because the paper won’t be perfectly even so your design/type won’t be perfectly even in my mind. But Porridge Press does a beautiful job!
Thick Neck Arts makes paper out of fruit/egg crates ( you know that soft brown layer in between fruit in grocery stores?) and here are her step-by-step instructions.
Tags: Ink, paper, sustainable
Category: Uncategorized, environment, letterpress, stationery // No Comments
11Jan
What I worked on this weekend (a work in progress):
My sister’s save the dates! I still need to do two more runs ( I know, I’m crazy ) but I think they’re looking good so far. I had BIG help from my family and my dearest friend Claire who was my apprentice for the weekend. Even though I’m still an apprentice myself! Yay teamwork!
Lessons learned for those are starting out like me:
1. Black ink is like the plague. Avoid it as much as possible when mixing it to make a color. For the brown, it need 4 parts of black but all I needed was a drop.
2. Watch out for the arm grippers! This was my first time using the aluminum base and hah.. classic mistake. My gripper was hitting the base and I was wondering why no ink was spreading on the left side.
3. My Sigwalt press is a beautiful machine but its rollers are not. I think one of the previous owners had used rollers from another press and tried to make it work on the Sigwalt. Result: inconsistent rolling and trucks not perfectly aligning with the rails. Siigh..I think it’s time: Anyone know a good Sigwalt roller supplier?
Another question for other letterpress printers out there: Is there an alternative to taping the rails? I’m using electrical tape and it captures air bubbles at the bottom resulting in bumps. It also doesn’t stick very well.
Observation about the polymer plates: They are great and easy to use. I love that you can just cut them up! My only complaint, which maybe someone can offer some advice about, is that if I press quite hard (which I like to do to give it a nice bite) I will occasionally see some “ghosting” imprint around the design. Is there a way to avoid this?
One tip/trick I’ve discovered regarding the plates: I’ve got some small type on the plates where ink builds up into (especially the descenders of the type). I started off by cleaning it out with a Q-tip but sometimes it left cotton bits or was still too big. The solution are the SofStick Disposable Sponge applicators thanks to my sister who’s a dentist. They’re teeny tiny sponges on the end of a stick so no residue for your type (or your teeth)!
Stay tuned for the final production next week!
Tags: Ink, Sigwalt
Category: letterpress // 10 Comments
