visualchemist

Over the holiday, a brand spanking new (old) Monarch Press was unearthed and went up for sale. Anyone that’s been shopping for one knows that a good working tabletop press is hard to find, and even more so when it comes with a larger chase size. I actually wasn’t shopping for another press at the time, but it was a deal I could not pass up and I had to see it with my own eyes. I made arrangements to meet the seller, John, and as I walked up his driveway, I spied her. There she was, beaming in John’s back yard, waiting to be taken home.

My jaw dropped as I assessed the condition of the 9×12 Craftsmen Monarch staring back at me. Sans rollers, this little gem had been hiding for decades with an unused ink disk, original orange paint job, working gripper bars and great rails. She also came with 3 chases and a full case of 36pt Futura Bold lead type. Score!

Along with a little dust and minimal surface rust here and there, the press came with 2 gauge pins in place, as well as both the feed board and delivery board in excellent condition.

We had to temporarily leave some Christmas presents behind to make room for the Monarch. “Madame Butterfly” was a 5 minute drive from my old stomping ground. Could there be a 8×12 old style treadle press hiding somewhere nearby?

This year, I asked my Secret Santa for vintage wood type for Christmas. Goofy, yes, I know. My sister-in-law, Angie, read my wishlist and personally hand picked these vintage pieces of wood type as a Christmas present for me. Apparently, she lives next to an antique/junk shop that happens to have a bunch of letterpress type laying around. Lucky her. Here’s to the start of a great wood type collection!

Also, a few weeks ago, I had put out a wanted ad on BriarPress for some new to slightly used Pilot rollers. I received a few responses, but one offer was the best. My barely used Pilot-sized Super Rollers, bought from Paul F., arrived in time for a photo with the Christmas tree. Along with the delivery were a set of roller bearers and an ounce of copper spacers. Yay!

I got a call from my good friends over at Roxy. They were in need of 750 holiday cards printed up: 2/1 + envelopes and needed them out asap. I was in the middle of printing up Maeden and Derwyn’s wedding invitations, but I was happy to accept the job. Once things got going and I did the math, I realized I was in for a rough week. For these holiday cards alone, I was about to crank my left arm and pull my trusty little Pilot’s lever over 3,000 times in the span of several days. Lucky for me, Lieutenant Price had decent rollers and was up for printing the job.

On a dark and stormy evening, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, with friends awaiting my arrival at home, I made the trek out to Vernon, where I ordered and picked up the lot of parent sheets of Crane Lettra. 100% cotton. The good stuff.

This is what Lt. Price looks like all covered up in metallic gold ink and ready to go. After printing up 750 of the gold on the front panel, then the red tracks, and finally the inside text, it was then time to get these bad boys to the bindery for one last step… scoring on a Heidelberg.

3,000+ cranks later…

I would have scored these myself, but this run was a bit large for me. I got help with scoring from Ed, over at Afana Printing, up in Signal Hill. In case you were curious, here’s what scoring on a Heidi looks and sounds like.

Holiday card artwork provided by Roxy.

My first official letterpress project was for a wedding invitation set for a bride and groom that had wanted a theme that was a little bit vintage, elegant, and simple. The bride had seen what I had done for the McAllister wedding invites, and decided that a similar theme was right for them. I am a big fan of vintage cartouche, so I was happy to oblige. I actually credit one of my old professors at Cal State Long Beach, Jim Van Eimeren, for teaching me such a lovely word.

A cartouche (pronounced “kartoosh”), as defined by Google and Wikipedia, is a rounded, convex surface, usually surrounded with carved ornamental scrollwork, for receiving a painted or low-relief decoration. It was an insignia worn or carried by royalty and nobility, each one unique and served as a nameplate or emblem.

Because of its nice compact size, I decided to print the RSVP card first. The challenge was to take a single photopolymer plate and cut it up to print up three colors.

Here is a fresh piece of uncut polymer plate reflecting my RSVP card design.

The plate was then chopped and separated for each color to be printed. After printing orange ink on 150 cards, I proceeded with printing the green ink.

At last, I was finally ready to print the 3rd color, the cartouche. Even though the ink dries up fairly fast, I let the cards sit on drying racks just to be on the safe side.

This is how the final RSVP card turned out. Maeden and Derwyn’s color palette is a combo I have never used before. It actually turned out quite lovely.

After a big sigh of relief that the first piece was finally done, I was off to continue that entire process all over again on the remaining pieces of the invitation set, namely the invitation envelope, ceremony card, rsvp envelope, directions, and entourage.

I have yet to print up their program and giveaways to complete this job. I’ll post those photos once the entire job is completed.

Along with mixing custom colors, last night, I also printed up some new blind letterpress cards for Etsy. The message is quiet and simply stated. I didn’t really want to add color, leaving this card open to alternate envelope colors.

Last night, I mixed up three custom PMS colors for an upcoming job I will be printing within the next two weeks. I’ll probably add just a touch more black to the orange to really hit the burnt orange PMS color my client is looking for.

The other day, I made my first sale on Etsy. Woohoo! So, last night I was inspired to print up a few more letterpress greeting cards to add to my tiny, but growing, collection. I wanted to test some of the vintage blocks I had laying around. Some worked and some didn’t. The teddy bear I had hoped to print needed a little shaving on the edges. The turntables I printed up were just eh. I managed to put this little (big) piggy and an old moving truck to good use. I also printed up some vintage type blinds on the cool tags I bought weeks ago. I’ll be posting these items for sale on my Etsy shop (visualchemist.etsy.com) real soon. By the way, I finally fixed the header links up above. Now if only I can finish up my sites.

This vintage blue pig is actually part of a larger collection. Eventually, I hope to design twelve cards representing the entire Chinese zodiac lineup.

This card was inspired by good times and great friends. I have yet to verify this typeface and measure the height of this larger font.

Simple and sophisticated. No ink. Oooohh aaaahhhh, my favorite so far. This type was set using 36pt Stymie Light.

I bought this block because moving may be in our future. Someday.

I’ll be adding plenty more cards to my collection in the near future. Thanks for stopping by!