Prints from 8/2/11 as Promised and First Attempts at Letter Press.

First things first, my print I talked about from 8th Feb in an earlier blog and promised pictures were coming soon; well here they are! 

Detail No. 1

Detail No. 2

Full Print

I am really happy with how this print turned out and I'm sure I will use this technique again with prints to come! :)

Looking to the future, MA Printmaking have an exhibition coming up. We have split in to teams for each task to do with organizing the event and I have found myself on the marketing team. Mus and I decided to come up with an idea each for the poster then put the final decision towards a class vote.

I decided I wanted to try out the letterpress method for my idea as I wanted the piece to reflect the tiny imperfections of printmaking and look tangible to the viewer with the embossed effect left. I didn't want to letterpress all of the posters as this would take too much time and would be too expensive. Instead I wanted to get one print from the type that I set, scan it in to my computer, then work on the poster/flyer from there adding essential information and editing, still managing to get the letterpress effect, but being able to fine tune and achieve an ink jet output.

I collected the lettering in a composing stick (shown top right of first letter press photo) so I could measure how long the line length would be, then pushed the lettering carefully on to a galley tray. I used a mixture of wooden type and metal type.

The type is the carefully (or not so carefully in my case; I had to stand half my letters up again as I knocked them down!) slid off the galley tray and on to the stone, which is a level metal (I'm not sure which type) surface in the middle of the room. I then had to find a chase to contain my letters. This is a frame that contains the type within it. When it is empty it is called a chase and when it is full of type it is called a form. The remaining space is then packed out with pieces of metal and wood called furniture which are all slightly lower in height than the type, therefore will not print, but hold the type in place. Around the edges of the furniture are quoins which can be adjusted using a quoin key for the final tightening of the type in place.

Finished form

Above is my finished form with all the letters fully locked in. It is now ready to be inked...

Then pressed using pressure from above on the Albion Press, adjusting the packing to achieve the desired result.

The Albion Press

Despite the fact I enjoy the working environment of the print studio I also adore the opportunity it provides me with to use these beautiful machines which are a work of art within themselves. Here are some of my first results.

I then scratched in to my inked type...

... to achieve these results.

I put these results towards the class. They were constructive but chose to use Mus's poster idea for the poster and mine for the private invite and flyer for the show. To achieve consistency between the 2 designs I had to change the colours I was using to match the poster so the marketing will look professional and therefore reflect the show! ;)

These are the images using the same colours as the poster. I then scanned this in and used it for the image on the invite for the private view and the flyer for the show. These things still need finalizing but I can disclose that they are looking pretty good and think the team is working well together! Hopefully this keeps up from everyone and the show will be a roaring success! He he!