Sunday, April 1, 2018

Working together

Folk who have followed along for a while will know that Barry and I work together occasionally, and always help out with each other's work when asked.  Barry will often solve technical problems around my work with me; I will often times help him out with design thoughts and solutions.

However of more recent times, we have officially banded together to create Deckled Edge Press - the home of our letterpress hopes, dreams and designs.

Together we will design and print a range of things; and over the weekend we did one of our first efforts together - a series of posters for a Conference.


The Conference theme is Equality - and we were asked for something like my 'imagine peace' weathergrams that I hang on International Day of Peace - but larger!

We spent a few hours trialling paper and placement and here are a few of the reject papers. Arches Velin is a favourite calligraphic paper - but letterpress, not so much.


Mohawk Superfine also didn't make the cut..


We chose Fabriano Tiepolo - even the name is gorgeous!

As we proofed, we realised that the length of the paper would sometimes rest on the edge of the press or the chase or the quoins and impressions and marks were occurring where we didn't want or need them, so we taped everything up to create clean surfaces.

We worked well as team - here I am inking the small letters (Barry inked the larger letters), and then Barry rolled the press whilst I managed the paper; then he held the paper whilst I lifted it off.

The length of the paper (about 76cm) meant that it would have moved and jiggled a fair bit without two pairs of hands, leaving smudges and overprints which would have been somewhat undesirable.



But oh, the magic of the reveal... I never ever tire of it.


We need an edition of 30, so printed about 36 just in case. We will go through and select the edition and the artist's proofs tomorrow - they are still drying today. I just love them.


With extra big thanks to Caren (Ampersand Duck) for the loan of the large type.  I had purchased some large type sight unseen with the promise that it was the kind of height I needed; and it all appeared much shorter than I needed, and Caren came to the rescue. Letterpress folk are lovely.


And just because we couldn't help ourselves, and there was still ink on the inking plate, we did a few on brown paper - I almost loved them even more!


And I just loved the look of this. Before we began I popped the type onto the bed of the press in preparation, and it just looked so lovely...


Barry is also blogging about this today - so it might be worth popping over to his blog rustnstuff to see his take on it all. It was a great weekend of joint-jobbing!

12 comments:

  1. I do like the texture of the wood type.

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    1. I love the storytelling of it Jac - so many things it has done and witnessed...

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  2. so nice. i worked with my printer friend at caliban press a few years ago to print on a couple little lokta shifu squares, and it scratched the wood type! then we tried metal type, and it scratched again. eventually he let me print again, on paper!

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    1. Oh V I almost gasped at that! Amazing! Who knew??? The things you learn. I will take extra care if I am ever tempted to print on lokta shifu!

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  3. such beautiful photos, can almost smell the ink!

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    1. Thanks Mo - it was oh so satisfying. But I need to check if the geckos have pooped on any of them overnight! It is so moist up here at the moment that they are taking longer to dry than usual...

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  4. I think it must be wonderful to be able to work together. Two always know more than one ! The Fabriane paper is nice, but the brown paper works equally well ! Lots of (joined) fun with the project !

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    1. You are right about two knowing more than one Annick - we each know slightly different things as well. I did fall in love a little bit with that brown paper I must say - my mind is ticking over!

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  5. There's something about those wooden letters that is simply magical. It's interesting to see how the various papers took the print. Thanks for sharing the trials! And congratulations on being asked to create the posters. Such a lovely message that they carry. Enjoy!

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    1. I agree J - there is warmth and history and wear and stories...in that type. It was a joyful job and I am always always learning as I go along...go well.

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  6. I’m always impressed by the serendipitous results of your using-up-ink trials ... two thumbs up on the brown paper!

    As for collaboration ... ‘tis a wondrous thing, although I confess I’m far more apt to give advice than take it (sigh)

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    1. I love that brown paper Liz! Over the years we have worked out how we do it best - who is leading who is following; and also just recognising that we are so utterly different in our approaches that we are probably quite often both right! Laugh.

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