visualchemist

A dear friend from high school moved up to the Seattle area and it had been years (years!) since we last saw each other. Being the socialite and foodie that she is, she invited my family to her last minute birthday party. I needed a last minute gift, so I quickly hand set some lead type I had laying around and pressed a set of notecards for her. I hope she likes them! Happy Birthday, Miss Almie!

*If you are interested in a similar or custom letterpress set like this, get in touch!

Kelly from Paper Stories organized an awesome letterpress swap. The idea is for a bunch of letterpress printers to trade their prints with each other. I thought it would be a fun idea to participate, but unfortunately, I didn’t realize that my timeline would be cut so short because of our quick move up to Washington. We literally had less than a weeks notice to pack and get ready for the move! Aaahh! Time was of the essence and I did not have time to send out for plates. Determined to participate in the swap, I repurposed an old design concept I had created for Suburban Riot tees and proceeded to hand carve my design out of a spare linoleum block.

Sadly, the carved up block didn’t hold up too well in my Pilot. Perhaps the lines got too thin from all the pressure of each pull. I really wish I had given myself more time to design out a custom piece for the swap. I was literally dropping these off at the post office on the way to the airport. While letterpress is a rush for me, I wish I didn’t have to rush through this one. I’ll have to do another swap to redeem myself. Can’t wait to see the awesome prints from the trade!

I had some card stock laying around, and being the recycler that I am, I decided to put a few sheets to good use. My original intent was to create a simple 2-color “Hi” card composed of the standard alphabet using just my vintage SignPress, MasterP. After printing up the initial cyan layer, I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what would happen if Lt. Price printed up the second color.

Actually, composing the first layer flat on the press bed was easy. Registration for the second, though, was not so easy. My trusty Pilot came to my rescue and printed up a nice bright bold yellow “HI.” Looks lime green on press, doesn’t it?

I would have liked these note cards even more if the stock was textured. These cards can now enjoy their new life as a “Hi” card, brightening up someone’s day.

I used MasterP to print up this set of 24 personalized note cards as a special order on Etsy. The not-so-awesome part was discovering that the name of the recipient was spelled incorrectly. Fortunately, I caught the error before shipping this sale to Miss Arnao. Unfortunately, I really liked the way the first set printed up, although I preferred the composition of the second. The first and last photos below are from round 1, which I’ll call the “practice” round, while the step-by-step photos show round 2, with the better composition. Hello, it’s Brittany, not Brittney.

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.

I’ve had several requests to print metallic silver ink on black. This was a quick test I did this morning to see how well the ink coverage performed on two sample dark substrates. Small Type INVISIBLE was set in 18pt. lead type and it printed quite crisp with even coverage, as did the huge WORD.

Word.

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.