Rolling for Xmas!

Finally achieved something, or that's what it feels like anyway. After sitting on a load of designs all year, and just putting off and putting off doing anything about them I eventually got some plates made in Auckland at Inline Graphics on the recommendation of Shona from Magpie Press.

In the end I was really pressed for time, and because I am still experimenting with packing and roller height on the Adana, I ended up pulling these cards on the Farley flat bed press. I still used the Boxcar base and polymer plates, but after a bit of trial and error I got things lined up by fixing some furniture to the bed with tape, and using some tracing paper with guide marks to help line things up on the plate.
 

Sheet to help me line up centre of the plate

The tracing paper & furniture positioned to hold A5 cut card ... push go.

The flatbed requires hand rolling of the ink, so it was a little bit messier, and much slower, but the results are pretty good. I even got the hang of masking out the plates for hand inking so I could print some two colour cards in one pass.

Taa da! One Xmas card, made by me.

Next, I did what anyone else does ... I turned the stereo up, locked myself in the room and printed, printed, printed. Naturally there was a bit of an attrition rate, I’m certainly learning to pay attention and not push things so fast that you lose concentration ... especially with the hand inking because I had to be very careful not to ink the base or fringes of the non-exposed polymer. I am stoked with the results though. I must have round 90-100 cards done, probably six designs/variations in all. They ain’t perfect, but not bloody bad for a first crack. And better than the usual hokey snow flake dross we usually have to deal with here in NZ ... I mean, its summertime, Rudolph’s nose is red because its sun burnt.

Below are the results ... and yes, U CAN TOUCH THEM ... THEY ARE FOR SALE - $5 each or 5 for $20. Cards are A6 (105x148mm folded). Each comes with an envelope and sealed in a cellophane bag. All have round cut corners except the Angel design which I thought did not need it. Probably sort a couple of bucks out for any postage, but I won't worry about that unless anyone actually offer to buy any! If anyone is interested, pop me a comment and I will post an email address.

Ham Myrrh Tree - Red

Ham Myrrh Tree - Red & Green

Ye Olde Ham Myrrh - Red & Black

Metal Xmas

Surfing Angel - Gabriel Does Surf

Yuletide Warning

Ye Olde Ham Myrrh - Red & Green

Black Letter Ham Myrrh

The Lot

Thanks for looking
Craig

Training Daze

Late last year I was lucky enough to spend a day at Wai-te-ata, up at Victoria University here in Wellington. Myself and a dozen or so other impression hungry geeks, gave up a holiday weekend to ogle and play with the press' amazing collection of type and equipment under the sterling tutelage of Dr Sydney Shep.

It was a great beginners course over two long days where we basically played setting the type and running some prints on an Asbern cylinder press (pretty similar to the Van der Cooks everyone has in the States).

Day one we just played with type, grabbing what we liked, composing it and then cranking a few prints. I’d seen a quote similar to this, and played with it.

I never realised I grabbed a 1 instead of a cap I at first ... but it works I reckon.

Day two could set with more wooden type, and I took in my own wooden alphabet I bought in London. It is a cool deco style font, a Delittle set, that always makes me think of Belgian beer for some reason. It is missing the P and Q - but I solved that.

This is the DeLittle face I got in the UK.

Later on we worked together to print a small book of quotes. Sydney had asked us to find quotes we liked related to reading, prose or printing. For some unknown reason, I remembered this recent interview with Scottish author Irvine Welsh, so I used that ... but as it was short I twisted it’s spelling into the good old gutteral Scottish vernacular he is so fond of writing in. It makes it more fun to read out that way. We then took all the pages and hand stitched the book together as a keepsake - it was cool to have two individual pieces, but also this combined effort.

My page in the book - I went low brow.

Must get back up to Wai-te-ata at some stage - its brilliant. Just need a suitable project worthy of their kit. I should put up some pics of the press’ amazing equipment and type selection.

When, who, what?

While I was living in London around 2006 I kept seeing more and more amazing letterpress work and became almost obsessed with it. I have worked in graphic design, strapped to a Mac, for over 20 years now, but the better the software gets and the cheaper full colour printing gets ... well, white space and the actual presses just seem increasingly removed from your day-to-day. The simple, clean and tactile nature of letterpress is just too good to ignore.

Coming back to New Zealand in early 2009, I bought with me an Adana 8x5, and a heap of wooden type I had steadily acquired off eBay ... but it sat in the spare room of the flat (hopefully not rusting) for another year or more until the missus and I purchased a house. Since then, I've also scoured Trade Me (NZ's own eBay) to acquire an Adana HQ press, and a Farley table top proof press.

Now, in the spare room, nearly two years of procrastination has ended and I have finally got printing after a few false starts. Said false starts included some simple table number cards from my wedding earlier this year, and the thank you cards I did post-nuptials.

The Farley Table Top press

Tests for the Thank you cards ... Thanks with a X, mwah.

The messy play room. Adana 8x5 patiently waiting.