Studio pottering

To start, a shot of a stunning pink flower of a weird cordyline type plant at the new studio - stunning!

And then to pottering.  Whilst my anxiety about the world and the future is receding slightly (mainly I think because we appear to behaving as a nation and doing sensible things with good outcomes) I am not yet back near anything I would call peak performance!  I am definitely still a bit skittery and finding that time is an odd thing - slippery and stodgy at different times.  So I am manly pottering in the studio and using the time to do some of those what if? or how do I? s that I often think about in passing, but don't get back to doing.

This week I decided it was time to try out some metallic dusting powder I had bought when we were in Scotland last year.  I thought it might be nice to dust it onto black or other colour ink to give it a golden touch, rather than using up lot of metallic ink.  Metallic ink can also be a bit hit and miss - it is always hard to get the metallic pigment bits to stay evenly mixed and not just fall to the bottom of any pot and so on.

So as Barry was madly printing away the back of over 200 postcards, I nicked into the production line to print two for myself to practice on.

The dusting powder is very fine - so precautions re breathing were taken. Whilst the ink was still wet, I dusted a wee bit of powder on. Gold and copper.

And because I am pretty impatient, I dusted it off again after about 5-10 minutes. And was pretty chuffed! I think we will find nice ways to use these powders.

Another thing I bought when in Scotland was a sheet of polymer plate flourishes.  I am a traditional type kind of letterpress gal; but thought a few flourishes could come in handy every now and again.  So they have sat there for a while now and I thought if not now, then when? Laugh. I am not made for modern ways...

I have had limited success with polymer plates  and as ever, teaching yourself can mean a whole lot of dumb things happens and mistakes get made.  Still, I thought I should have another go.

So I cut one out and attached it to a piece of timber I had had cut to make type high.

Pretty happy with what came about - could be useful. It was crisp and clean around the edges which was great. But boy did I have trouble making it stick on the block.

I thought I should test out a few more so cut out quite a few from the plate - it was good buying! Lots of different flourishes.

They were all set on blocks and I thought this would test a good few of them.

Again - struggled to get them to stick.

Two fell off as I put them through the press. Clearly this was not going to be a thing I could ever use if they just fell out willy nilly.

The general look and feel of the print was good (except for the two gaps issue) so I wanted to check if I could find out what had gone wrong.

I laughed so hard.  A quick google about the type of plate (it has some serial number on it) and I found the bit where the advice says "replace the blue protective sheet after each use to maintain the plate's adhesive capability".

I went to the drawer where I had packed them away; picked up a piece; and slowly, gently and with stifled and muffled hilarity pulled back the blue protective sheet to discover a significant and magnificent layer of stickiness on the actual plate!!!

There's always next time. Stay tuned. Grin.