visualchemist

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.

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!

I finally took some time out to print my first project. In searching for my letterpress, I knew I eventually wanted to give thanks to those who have helped me along the way, so this first card is dedicated to a certain handful of individuals. Though there are still a few supplies I would like to acquire, I committed myself to printing a thank you card using the moveable type I received from Tooknap Press and a little vintage army tank dingbat I scored on eBay.

COLOR FORMULA

Even though this was my first print job, and I had not yet attempted a 2-color piece, I was up for the challenge. I knew ahead of time that I wanted the colors on this card to consist of army green and olive drab. I started the process by mixing my inks following the Pantone formula breakdown. A little ink goes a long way with letterpress, so as a test, I kept my color portions small.

LOCKED AND READY

I had originally locked up my type, tank and stars together, before realizing the need to be adventurous and attempt a 2-color job. I knew registering the artwork without proper gauge pins was going to be a challenge, but I was up for it. I was forced to improvise. I disassembled the chase as you see it here, and broke it down into two separate passes. I printed the bold type first, then the army tank together with the stars.

TANK YOU!

Through trial and error, here is the final result. Some of the challenges I faced were figuring out how to properly pack my press, mixing and laying the proper amount of ink on the ink disc, and registering multi-colored elements. I also realized that I wasn’t thrilled with the quoins and key I currently have, and could use a second chase to have ready to go.

I’ve been pretty bad with sending out thank you cards in the past, and now, I have no excuse.

VINTAGE PRINT BLOCK

The other day, I purchased a vintage print block with a really awesome deer graphic. I couldn’t wait to see how it printed. Though it looked worn down in the photos, I thought I’d try it out and see what happens. It really did look like it had been around for quite a while, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. You just never know with these things. Maybe it’s got a little more mileage left in it, maybe not. I took the chance, not wanting to pass up a really great piece, and besides, I thought it would go perfect with some thank you cards I had in mind.

CENTURY GOTHIC

Puns are silly fun, and some can even be quite clever. I enjoy them, or anything that has to do with a play on words. When I saw this deer, I immediately knew I wanted to create a “Thank You, Deer” card. For my type, I used Century Gothic for its clean and modern characteristics. Setting this short sentence in my composing stick took less than 5 minutes. It was playing around with the tracking and kerning that took forever.

LOCKED UP DEER

Here he is, all inked up and ready to be cleaned. As you can see, I didn’t really set up my composing stick properly. To correctly center my type, I should have put equal amounts of spacing on both ends of the line.

THANK YOU DEER

To correct this, when locking up my deer, the reglets needed to be adjusted to place him centered just above my uncentered type. So really, this is a lesson on what NOT to do. What I should have done was take that extra minute to set my type up properly.

Here is the final product. I’m not thrilled with how it came out, but for a second project, again, it’s not terrible. I’ll have to do another run of these cards when I have the time.