Category Archives: Equipment

Video

Tonal backgrounds for artwork

20 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by in Books, Equipment, Heart of Darkness, Letterpress, Printing, The Intruder

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

For the center spread we did for Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” I needed access to a bigger press. A friends shop has an old Kelly 2 press in Charlevoix, MI about 40 minutes away. The sheet is 35.5 x 12″, a little too big for any current letterpress at DWP.

I hand inked four 16 gauge copper plates and arranged them on a template on my BAG intaglio press to get the background tones you can see already printed on the sheet. This process has a few benefits – it crushed the fibers of the Hahnemühle Biblio paper stock leaving a smoother surface for the artwork press run, the subtle color adds compositional frames around the artwork on the large page spread, and this process leaves a nice plate mark from the incredible force exerted by the intaglio press.

Today I was shooting for a similar effect but via all letterpress instead of intaglio for the background tone. I tried several ink combinations but in the end I used my own formula of a medium weight linseed oil, just the smallest dab of raw sienna and some other ink body modifiers. Once again I used copper plates but this time mounted them to type height (.918″) and ran them on my Vandercook OS 219.

 

That’s Dale from Seely’s running the beast and me at the delivery end checking sheets.

Weekend project

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Equipment, Letterpress

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

The weekend is here so no printing till Monday. Plenty to do though as I’ve purchased a new press and its time to do the Big Press Shuffle!

Up till now the studio has mostly been confined to the studio with the exception of the Linotype which has had its own home in a 12 x 10′ room in the lower level of the garage. With the impending arrival of a Heidelberg Windmill platen press (coming in at around 2800 lbs) I’m forced to move some other bit of kit out to the garage. It makes most sense to keep all the letterpress equipment in the shop within access of all the ancillary items necessary to actually print. So off to the garage goes my BAG (Bottega D’arte Graffica) intaglio press that has a 27.5 x 47″ bed.

Before the move a lot of things must shuffle around the garage as well. Woodworking tools, shelving, stacked lumber (haven’t actually parked in the garage in years anyway) must get emptied out so I can tear down one partition wall and add another. Today the bulk of the moving got done and if tomorrows weather holds out lumber will be removed and the new wall started. Should be done, drywalled and painted within a couple of weeks, just in time for the Windmill arrival.

This will give me a new  12 x 20′ space which will be home to the Lino, magazines and matrices, router, lead saw, intaglio press and probably another small non-critical letterpress like my C&P Pilot for proofing. The space is already heated and when I built the garage I ran a water line over so that will be available for paper baths and supply for mold cooling if I ever get the Ludlow or Thompson caster I’m coveting. Water will also be a major necessity for paper making but for now the Hollander Beater will have to share space with the wood shop. Eleven foot ceilings and two big windows on the north and south sides of the building will give a nice space.

Probably have room for a dartboard….