Nerds in the wild & other curious creatures

I'm back! The recent beautiful weather here in New York has sparked some new designs. I had to take the cards outside to be photographed, any excuse to spend some time lounging in the grass.

This card is a little tribute to my plasma physics husband and his lovely retro glasses. It was printed in black ink with a touch of silver but it's hard to tell in the photograph.

This design has been waiting patiently to be printed now for months. I did a whole series of ocean life in this pointillist/color blindness test-inspired style. Keep an eye out for turtles, octopi, and crabs. :-)

This design goes out to my friend Danielle who, like me, spends way too many hours in front of her Mac. When you're spending most of your waking hours in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and the like, these two keys become embedded in your mind. To the extent that when you, say, drop a purseful of belongings in the subway, stub your toe, or ruin a set-up on your letterpress the first thing you think is "Apple + Z" as if you could go back a step and it'd all be okay. Unfortunately this doesn't work in real life.

What to say? Who doesn't like elephants? I think this card will be perfect for sharing with all the new parents out there – it definitely seems to be baby season on the farm and in my neighborhood.

Last, but not least, a design for the lovely & talented lady of Cicada Studio & Cicada Home, who it sounds is on a creative adventure of her own. I hope you approve! :-) This design was based off of a couple of public domain illustrations from a children's book.

Fun custom invitations

I was approached by a client seeking unique & fun invitations for her father's retirement party, in a small quantity (25). She was looking for a tongue-in-cheek tribute to her father's years of work, between law enforcement and a famous food manufacturer. Although it took hours of brainstorming, back & forth, sketching & illustration, and of course, the printing, I'm very proud of the final result. Thirteen hours, three plates, three colors and some hand cropping later we arrived at some beautiful invites. These invitations were printed on Crane's 110# Lettra paper with matching envelopes in Natural White. As a note, I've used dummy text for the illustration and blacked out the names, dates & places on the photographed final.

The illustration was done using a photograph I took of a can of tomato soup. It is paired with some Helvetica Black I mapped around a (3-D) cylinder in Illustrator and then traced by hand (for the "Bureau Shapes") and hand-drawn icon noodle shapes for the fedora, badge & gun. Text around the outside is dummy text but layout is the same as in the project.

Close up of the finished product. In the original Illustrator file I tried hard to make the text on the can look sketchy, but in the finished product it ends up with a more refined smooth look.

Another close up. Note the trapping I used to make sure all the colors overlap with no white showing. It's much more noticeable in this picture than it is with the final product in your hands.

The whole final product. I did black out the information along the edge but the text of the invitation runs around the outside black border in white (much like the illustration).

Machining a "Boxcar" style base

So, after the initial expense of the press, we've been trying to fix it up on the cheap (hence why we're still only running on 2 out of 3 rollers).

Last night, my husband machined a "boxcar" base for me to use to prop up my photopolymer plates on the press. Just like the fancy new trucks we have, this was machined out of scrap plastic.

The final plastic base was measured with a calipers to make sure it would bring the plate to type high (.918 inches). We estimated that the plates I've been using are about .037 inches thick, although thickness varied across the plate. Even with the Boxcar bases I used in class, I'd need to add a little paper or tape underneath any given plate to bring it up high enough. I don't know whether that was due to inconsistencies on the press, the plate, or the base. Maybe a little of everything... though their bases are quite tough. I'm hoping this plastic one will stand up to printing. And, even if it's a tiny bit off, I think I'll be able to get it to work decently.

Here are some more pictures from the whole process (click for more detail)...

Initial set-up of the Pearl press

*Click on the thumbnails to see detail & read my notes.*

So last night I finally got the press set up for printing – I've just been so lazy! It wasn't really as difficult as I was expecting, but as with many antique items, we discovered some parts needing repair. It had also been so long since we had touched it, so it needed a good oiling to run squeak-free.

The first thing I did load up the chase (a frame that holds the type & is attached to the press for printing) with some sorts (lead letters). My instructor from class recommended placing a single letter close to each corner of the chase to check that the platen is touching the type evenly. I put the chase with the type in it on the press and did a dry run with the rollers. I just wanted to make sure the rollers were not hitting the type too hard (or, as I thought before, hitting the ink plate). Thankfully this was not the case.

I placed three sheets of tympan paper (an oiled paper I purchased at NA Graphics) on the platen. I've heard you can also use butcher paper, but I just wanted to do proper set-up for my first time. The other good thing is that tympan paper has a very exact & even surface. Hopefully this means next time I need to change out this paper, I can do the same set-up, with the same good result.

We found that one of the screws of the arms that hold the tympan tight has sheered. We're still trying to think of how to fix that. This means the tympan I put on there is probably not as tight as it should be. In the future I need to also get a top protective layer of some sort – probably vinyl. I also want an expert to take a look at the press and double check what I've done. I'm still learning. I feel like the previous owner(s) didn't know what they were doing and ended up damaging parts – either through misuse or neglect. :-(

I inked up the ink plate with turquoise ink and my husband started the press going. It takes a couple minutes for the ink to distribute evenly on the ink plate – and then you're ready to print. I decided to forgo gauge pins (pins that hold the paper in place) since this was just a test. Also, it occurred to me that I really need to buy new ones since the ones I have a bent & rusted (not a good combination).

We ended up not needing to adjust any of the screws on the backside of platen (for precise calibration). The impression seemed just fine. We will have to do it again when I get a vinyl cover sheet.

A NOTE ABOUT THE PLASTIC TRUCKS:
My husband had machined (out of scrap plastic!) new trucks (pieces on the end of the roller on which the rollers turn) because the rusty ones that came with the press were too small. When trucks are too small, rollers hit the type and get damaged. (And rollers are quite expensive!) I had him machine the new trucks to the exact size of the rollers, which has solved the problem. A lot of folks have great luck with Morgan Expansion Trucks available at NA Graphics – these trucks are expandable, meaning they can be more flexible to your needs. Any adjustments I need to make will have to be made in a less technological way – ie. tape & paper. :-)