Hearts, Love and all things pink and red!

For about five years now I have been making gift cards for Soma Chocolatemaker. I've spent the last few days at the studio making their Valentine's Day gift cards. Hearts. Pink. Red. I have never been in love with the whole scheme of Valentine's Day scheme being red, white, pink with hearts and cupids! I'm so thankful that at Soma they like the brown card stock I use for their cards!!  I don't know if I could stand to print Valentine's cards if they all had to be on white or pastel colours. For me, the brown stock makes the subject and colour a little less... ummmmm... dislikable? Perhaps it''s because I like to think of the brown card stock as wonderful chocolate! They could probably even pay me in chocolate...

I tried printing on the Craftsman for the first time. Since these cards are gift card size it's a good size to try out on the Craftsman. The press is not working as smoothly as I think it should be, but it is printing well. One thing I don't have are the pins to hold the paper in place for printing! Oops! I had to fashion some out of layered cardboard. I was impressed! They worked pretty well. I was able to register the red hearts in line with the pink type using them! I won't be keeping my cardboard pins though. On Friday I'll go to see Craig Black at Don Black Linecasting to pick up some brass pins for the press and see if he has any suggestions for getting the press to work a little more smoothly.

Top: The Craftsman press with a locked up heart.
Bottom: My makeshift pins!
Right: Really nice wood type font in quarter cases.

Printed with metal type.

X's and O's printed with metal type.

A bit too much pressure with the small type.

The Rockwell metal type prints so nicely!

LofL Postcard Swap Goodies!

These are a few of the postcards I received for participating in the LofL Postcard Swap! We had to create a "Greetings from..." type of postcard that represented the town we lived in, where we were visiting, etc. There were over 70 participants from North America and a few places further away. The only condition was that an element had to be letterpress printed. Not a problem for me!

What a wonderful assortment of type and images! I really love the ones that use original metal or wood type and found cuts. Even the backs were interesting!!

Top - my postcard submission;metal type and vintage cuts printed in three colours
Bottom - submission from my friends at Pomegranite Letterpress

A few of the great postcards that I received!

I loved looking at the backs as well!

2011: Year of the Press Shuffle

My SP15 won't be alone anymore!

I talked to a friend today about her Vandercook that needs a long term temporary home. So... it looks like we will be adding another press to KOZO Studio family! Yay! Now I just have to clear some space (not as easy as it sounds in my case!) and figure out where to put it! Time for a big studio shuffle ... help! Phil! Albert! Ken! I think I'm going to need your help!!!

I love presents and a mystery!

Sweet peace sign print! Love the colour!

Found this wedged into my studio door! It's a small print of a peace sign on nice watercolour paper ... letterpress from a polymer plate I believe. What a nice holiday surprise! I just wish I knew who printed it and gave it to me so that I could say thank you!! Anyone have any ideas?

PPP

I check out what is up on  "etsy" every once in a while... there are people making some really great work  in there. You just have to sift through it... a lot! The two photos are from Purgatory Pie Press Ink.
They do letterpress!... and not just for cards and invites!!... they actually do creative book projects! Type and book form together! Awesome!! You might think their prices are a bit steep, but they aren't. Not for the amount of technical know how and creativity they have. Their stuff is a little quirky, but I love it!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/38830981/ppp-abc-xyz-grey

Project for my heart.

I spent a while working on this project. Days actually. I created the two heart ornaments for a gift exchange for mother's who have last their infants.  One ornament was for a local mom and the other was sent to a mom in Florida, USA. I hope they like their pieces!

I set the type for the names and dates of the two babies. 

At the last moment I set the butterfly dingbat in.

The names and dates were letterpress printed onto some of my handmade paper. 

The hearts are made of cotton pulp. I cast each half of the heart in a mould and then glued the two halves together. I decorated the heart after the glue had dried.

Papermaking workshop photos.

 

A burst of paper pulp colour! 

Pulp painted and laminated with string and I am sure there are a bunch of spices in there as well!

Sunday was the last day of the four part Papermaking workshop I held at my studio. There were 5 participants and they made some beautiful pieces. This was the inaugural papermaking workshop for the studio and so far all is pretty good. Well, aside from the fact that whoever did the cement floor forgot that the water is supposed to drain towards the floor drain! Participants experimented with laminating, debossing, pulp painting (which was a favourite!), adding inclusions as well as almost anything else they could think of! I really admired the creative freedom that one of the participants had in approaching her paper pieces.

Beating red linen fabric offcuts from my friend Emily Hamill who is a fibre artist.
It took about 6 hours to beat the linen down to a pulp.

I see koi in water!
This is a paper piece by one of my workshop participants. The orange is actually dahlia petals.

Scattered petal and leaves in natural pulp.
The fibre for this pulp is also from linen and cotton fabric offcuts from Emily.

Sheets of damp paper drying between wool blankets sandwiched between two wood boards with weights on top.

Helicopters or maple keys laid onto a newly formed wetleaf.
I can't remember if this was to be a deboss or if she ended up putting pulp on top to laminate the keys in.

Workshop participants wet posts after being in the press.
The next step is to put each newly pressed sheet between dry felts.

Tiny sheets with plant material laminated in it.

My hands couching a new wetleaf on wet felts.

My daughter helping me transfer a post of just pressed wet leaves onto blotters.
The wet leaves get sandwiched between the blotters and then they will go into the air dryer.

Pieces made by workshop participants.

A new addition...

Katie's Craftsman Press

LOOK!!!
I'm so excited!! Now I have the addition of a Craftsman platen press at the studio! A huge thank-you to my friend Katie who has allowed me to give her press a home until she has a permanent one for it. It's been in storage for a while, so I'll have to give it some TLC before I try it out. I do love the platen press (they look much nicer sitting in a studio! it's such a satisfying moment when the paper meets the type) but for what I like to print, a platen press is not practical.
So again, "Thank-you, Katie for lending me and my students your press! I'll take good care of it/her/him!"

Who's De-boss!

This is a video about Studio on Fire a design/letterpress studio in Minneapolis. Ben does a good explanation of how a polymer plate is made - they have an all in one plate maker!!!... it vacuums! it exposes! it washes! it dries! it does everything except print!!  I want one!!!  to bad I can't afford one and I don't know how to use photoshop or adobe image maker to create a positive! The last time I made a polymer plate I had to go over to a department called REPROGRAPHY to turn my negative into a positive by actually shooting and exposing another sheet! Guess how young I'm not!

Near the end of the video Ben makes three good points about the abilities of letterpress printing as opposed to modern printing methods. Yep. Letterpress is from a different time when things were done much more slowly and thoughtfully and one had to work within the processes limitations. That's what I like about it!! I know that I can't set and print two hundred pieces in two colours in a couple of  hours! Letterpress takes time, patience, and focus - some things I feel we are starting to lose (some have already lost it!!) in our modern society.

Something to note... what's with all the DE-BOSSING?!? I know that this is what everyone has come to think of when they think "Letterpress", but what happened to having the paper "kiss" the ink for a good print!?! Twenty years ago in school we were taught that the surface of the type/cut was supposed to "kiss" the paper to create the print. The deep de-boss was not practical as you would squash the heck out of the surface of your font or image eventually making them lower than type high and in some cases obliterating detail! As well, too much pressure isn't good for reading if you are printing double sided for a book or newspaper. Wood and metal type are big investments and you wouldn't want to wreck them by putting too much pressure on them. Polymer plates that are widely used now are relatively inexpensive, disposable and removes the need to use wood or metal type. So , I guess you aren't damaging your investment if you are crushing the heck out of your one job polymer plate.

"...Without dispute, Studio On Fire are masters of the design and letterpress world..." 

-Gestalten.tv

As much as I love their work, I'm not sure I would call Ben a master of the letterpress world, design... perhaps. There are many more letterpress printers out there who are much more deserving but are not in the graphic design world, much more low key and out of the spotlight. Just my opinion, though.

Studio On Fire/ Gestalten TV

www.gestalten.tv

and now for a paper making studio!!

I'm puttering around in the studio basement getting the space ready for a hand papermaking workshop that I'm teaching. When I got the studio we put in a bunch of pot lights to make it brighter, but It's weird being down there and not knowing if it's light or dark out. This must be what it's like to work in an office building cubicle.

Checked out my beater and I guess I haven't used it since it was used in "The Time Traveller's Wife" movie. I have an extra pipe (I think it's theirs), my drain stop has a broken handle and my makeshift engine protector is missing. Ugh! Have to do some McGyver-ing!

My felts are all in one place, I have to clear the air dryer, and put the press on the floor by the drain... hmmm... better check to see if the pump has enough fluid to create pressure... and where are my boards?!?
The workshop starts this Sunday and the first thing we'll do is talk about types of paper, what the differences are, fibres, and ways to manipulate pulp. After that we'll start getting the dry stuffs ready for pulping. The five participants will be learning how to make paper from scratch. We're starting with cotton and linen fabrics for the pulp. Using linters will come later when we need a boat load of pulp to work with!

I love the fact that I can turn our old rags (t-shirts, pants, towels, etc.) into gorgeous pieces of coloured papers. That is what I call Up-cycling!

I've got the rags but I'm still waiting for the riches!