intro to letterpress, part two

Last night was my third letterpress class and I finally printed the save the date card that I set last week. I came to class armed with a vision of what I wanted to print but ended up with a much simpler version. The above block of letters spell, "save the date/ october 11, 2008/ tom and anne." Simple and sweet and just enough for my first real attempt.

I'm beginning to learn that letterpress is one part creative vision and two parts problem solving. The little trays above hold valuable spacers that are crucial to creating a clean design. As you have designed your lines of text, horizontal spacers are used to separate each line.

Above, some furniture (or wooden spacers) used to secure the block of text on the press as seen below. This can be the most labor intensive part of the process since securing the block of type is somewhat like putting together a puzzle. Once the type is secured on the press, you also need to measure to make sure the paper lines up exactly the way you want it. All of these steps reminded me of days in the darkroom, printing text strip after test strip until the print was just perfect.

While securing the type, the ink is usually warming up on the rollers. I had a mustard yellow in mind for the save the date card but after dabs of blue and yellow ink, we ended up with this shade of grass. The color process is so quirky, you may never be able to duplicate a specific color twice. The ink actually rolls around these rollers for up to 30 minutes prior to printing to insure that the entire ink is covered evenly and the color is smooth and consistent.

Then is was time to print! This is actually the easiest, most beautiful part of the process. You can print endless number of sheets once the type is set, applying a fresh dab of ink when needed. We were only able to print a few cards each and next week, we'll sew one of each into a little book. My save the date card is resting on top of the drying rack, so you'll have to wait until next week to see it. These are two other cards printed with wooden type, so the letters are much thicker and textured. As you can see, towards the end, we refreshed the ink and added more blue.