pulp and press

New Home

2010-10-08T21:53:00.000-05:00

Blogger, you've been good to me...but it's time I grew up and learned CSS for Word Press. Please follow along at the new address, and update your feeds! The adventure continues...

Greetings from ROPA

2010-09-11T10:22:00.007-05:00

Cripes...I've been so busy with Tweedle print projects these days that I haven't even had a moment to take photos and post! I'm not complaining - I'm just surprised that my business has switched into high gear so rapidly. I'm still reeling a little, and trying to figure out how to handle all the new work. But as I keep saying, it's a good problem to have. And it's so rewarding to know that people really like my work and keep coming back for more.

I took a break last week from client projects to work on a postcard for a swap hosted by Ladies of Letterpress, a group I belong to. The only rules were that it be 6" x 4", and be a "Greetings From..." wherever you live. Because I like to challenge myself (or make myself crazy, as iHub would say), I decided to do a 3 color print on the front with really tight registration. I designed in a slightly older, cheesy postcard style with colors from the 70s. Printing it definitely made me work...especially since Leonard had a bit of a relapse into funky inking. But I'm pretty proud of how it turned out:

As you can see, I definitely went for some impression on the front...but not so much as to cause it to show through to the back. I plan to investigate duplexing my house cotton paper at some point in the near future.

Speaking of the back, it was slightly less insane with only 1 color and not nearly as critical of an alignment:

I was pretty happy I was able to get the registration so tight.

I can't wait to see all 125 other entries, which I should be receiving copies of soon!

While I only printed enough on this run for the swap itself, I may run some more in the future for sale through my shop.

Cow Cards

2010-07-09T16:43:00.005-05:00

Recently I took on a project for Ashley from Monster Bites (which featured Tweedle Press on their cool blog a few months back). Ashley wanted to send me some old programs and flyers from one of her college's alumni events, and have me hand recycle them into new sheets of purple paper for note cards. I added some purple flecks from my own stash of scrap paper, and letterpress printed cows on the fronts. We came up with a joint message that states how the note cards were made, and they'll be handed out to other alums at an event. What a great idea! Talk about sustainable. And bovine-chic.

I love how my hand recycled paper takes a letterpress impression - it's so squishy and absorbent, and prints beautifully with my vegetable based inks.

Ever sine Paul came down to give Leonard a once over, he's been behaving rather well. My previous inking issues have been almost completely solved by adding roll bearers to the forme, and now I know how to adjust platen pressure myself. Leonard still has a problem with maintaining consistent pressure, but at least I can achieve the prints I want eventually. At some point I'll need to invest in a Vandercook, but this is working for now! Leonard is just big with the makeready. Oh well.

High Tea 2010

2010-07-08T13:53:00.008-05:00

You may remember the High Tea party I threw last year, complete with letterpress printed tea menus and towers of treats. Well, it was such a success I decided to do it again this year. This time, I even printed invitations (yes, the snail mail kind!):

And what good would invitations be without a coordinating RSVP card?

Along with the tea menu, they made a pretty cute ensemble:

Everything was done as a 2 color print on 100% post-consumer cotton paper (my current favorite). Since I had already acquired most of what I needed for a tea party last year, the place setting came together really easily:

Add towers of home baked goods, flowers, and voila! A beautiful tea party table:

Of course, it also helps when you have your lovely friend iRe taking tea orders.

I didn't letterpress print the food menu because I wasn't sure how much I was going to actually get done before the day of the party, but I did print one big copy from my home printer.

I actually made everything that I intended to this year, which was quite an accomplishment but wouldn't have been possible without the help of Mom, Dad, and iHub (thanks guys!). For your drooling pleasure, here is what was served:

Herbed Goat Cheese & Cucumber Tea Sandwiches
Deviled Ham & Pecan Tea Sandwiches (my favorite!)
Smoked Trout & Watercress Tea Sandwiches
Prosciutto Gruyere Pastry Pinwheels

Kuchen (German Holiday Bread, family recipe)
Cheddar/Dill Scones (delectable)
Crumpets
Lemon Curd
Devonshire Cream
Rhubarb & Red Onion Chutney
Orange Marmalade (purchased)

Grape Pie (family recipe)
Sea Salt Caramels (so easy, so good!)
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Creamy Vanilla Frosting
Cinnamon Biscotti

Whew! I'm not providing a link to the mini vanilla cupcakes recipe I used, because it was only OK. I actually made a whole initial batch using another recipe, but those came out brick-like and weird. For some reason, it seems that mini cupcake recipes are different than regular cupcake recipes. I haven't found one yet that I love. The frosting recipe I am in love with however, is here. It's amazing. Trust me. And now for some photos of the food! First, we have a tower with cinnamon biscotti, mini vanilla cupcakes with creamy vanilla frosting, and sea salt caramels:

Here's a savory tower with tea sandwiches, cheddar/dill scones, and crumpets:

A closeup of some tea sandwiches (this is making my mouth water):

The grape pie:

And the pinwheels:

All in all, a great time was had and we all stuffed our faces extremely well.

Until next year!

(thanks to my Mom for the lovely pictures)

Additional Photos Of The Kohler Invite

2010-06-04T20:43:00.004-05:00

Remember the post a few months back where I reported on my first luxurious collaboration with Amanda and Tony over at Spilled Ink Press? Well, I finally got around to taking some more photos of the finished invitations for your viewing pleasure.

That's a letterpress blind impression (no ink) on the cover, and Amanda and Tony's flat printed invite inside, along with their fab sash and wax seal. So lovely! Stay tuned for pictures of my recent Tea Party invite, as well as a recipe listing for the menu.

Hipstamatic iPhone Effects Charts

2010-05-07T15:57:00.004-05:00

Like many other people, I've recently become obsessed with the Hipstamatic for iPhone app. It totally rocks, and I've bought all the films, lenses, and flashes. You may know that a lot of my letterpress print inspiration comes from photography, like my Siluette Toscane note cards. So I was pretty excited to find this app that created all sorts of awesome effects. I was disappointed to find that there isn't a chart somewhere showing all the possible combinations of the three for the current version though, so I've decided to create my own. I've laid the chart all out, and it seems there are 336 possibilities. I set up a rather unscientific station for taking the photos:

It quickly became apparent that 1) I wasn't going to be able to take all the photos at one time. Getting through 56 on one lens is enough for one day. And 2) In order to be somewhat consistent, I'm going to have to set up a more stable environment somewhere that doesn't depend on any natural light. So, expect posts like this until I've gotten through all 6 of the lenses, and at the end I'll have a nifty chart showing all 336 possibilities. Here's what I did today (click the image to enlarge), but I'll be redoing the John S Lens from the beginning once I've got my "super scientific" station set up. The subject, by the way, is a hilarious stuffed animal my sister gave me.

Annual House Walk

2010-05-01T12:10:00.005-05:00

This is the first letterpress poster I've done in quite a while. The Rogers Park / West Ridge Historical Society is having their Annual House Walk on May 2nd and they needed some posters for advertising as well as a program cover. I worked with them to design a poster that was both retro and modern, historical and deco. While a good amount of them were digitally printed for placing around the neighborhood, they also commissioned me to do a limited edition commemorative letterpress run of 75. These will be for sale at the House Walk, and proceeds will benefit the Historical Society.

The prints were done using bark colored ink on 80 lb. Speckletone stock (100% recycled, PCF).

As expected, I achieved a good level of impression on the sparser sections of text, and the heavily detailed image in the middle came out crisp as well.

Since these are 17" x 10.5", I wasn't able to print them on Leonard (my 8" x 12" C&P platen press). I rented time on a Vandercook proofing press, and man was it nice to not have those uneven inking issues I get on Leonard. Of course, it gets exhausting to manually roll each individual print on a Vandercook as opposed to the automatic printing action of Lenoard. Someday I'd like to add a Vandercook to my collection, for smaller runs and larger prints like this.

The prints are signed and numbered - I knew someday there would be a reason I practiced my rockstar signature so hard.

Is Isn't Easy Being Green

2010-04-28T16:02:00.007-05:00

You may have noticed that I'm on a mission to be the world's most eco-friendly letterpress printer. I'm not just talking about using some recycled paper here and there, a little soy ink, and a couple of CFLs. I'm not talking about greenwashing the hell out of my products just to make my clients feel better about themselves. I want to figure out the real and scientific effects I'm having on the environment, identify specific goals for becoming the most sustainable business possible, and educate my clients with the information I discover.

That said, I have to start from the realization that I create products that are not necessary for life. I don't grow food, I don't make clothes, and I certainly don't build houses. I make really stylin' invitations, business cards, announcements, recycled paper, and other goodies. If (when?) the world goes all Road Warrior, I don't think people are going to be fussing about ink colors and paper coordination for invites to their next gasoline raiding party. When you start down the road of trying to be as eco-friendly as possible, you inevitably reach the conclusion that the ULTIMATE solution would be to not make new products at all. We should all stop driving cars, live in huts, eat from our own gardens, and stop our livestock from farting so much.

So sure, if you consider the extreme solution then I should just throw in the towel all together. However, until we all get mowhawks and road bikes, I maintain that art is a necessary part of culture and society. Creating beautiful things is part of what makes our lives interesting, and that doesn't have to mean that we completely disregard our obligations to the health and safety of others and our planet. So starting from the point that art exists and isn't going away anytime soon, I'm going to try and do it in the best way possible.

Now that I've got my philosophical / tree hugger issues out of the way - onward! You may remember my previous struggles with finding the ultimate in eco-friendly letterpress inks. Currently, I've settled with using a linseed oil based etching ink, which to the best of my knowledge is zero VOC, certified non-toxic, and contains no petroleum or other binders. I've requested the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) for each of the colors I currently use, but so far have only seen one of them. Probably not that big of a deal, since what I've seen so far doesn't shed a whole lot of light. I was hoping the sheets would provide a list of the exact ingredients/components, so I could do my own research on the potential environmental and health effects. I know that these inks have a high degree of pigment, and I also know that sometimes pigments are made of heavy metals. So far I have been unsuccessful in tracking down exactly what's in these inks, and so I'm currently reaching out to all the science nerds I know to see if they have any idea what I can do. My vision is I'll find some fancypants laboratory (like on CSI) where I can send my various items, and they'll spin them around in some machine that will then produce nifty computer charts.

Here are my eco goals regarding letterpress inks:

1. Find fancypants laboratory filled with very sciencey looking people in white coats to do some analytical chemistry on my inks.

2. From these results, find fancypants environmental people to explain what potential effects these inks could have on the environment and the health of people, plants, and animals.

3. Find fancypants ecology people to do experiments with my printed letterpress items, and see what happens when they biodegrade and/or compost.

4. Figure out what the best way is for me to clean and reuse shop rags saturated with letterpress inks. Does it make sense to have them washed? What happens to the waste water, and how much energy does this use? Can I have them recycled? Can I have them composted?

5. Speaking of rags, I need to find some better ones that aren't made of cotton and bleached. I'm almost out of my current supply, so some research in this area is pending.

Expect science nerd updates, specifics on lab coats, heavy metal (PRIEST!!), and worm poop.

Mimi's Organic Exchange

2010-04-19T20:50:00.007-05:00

Last week I printed some #10 size flyers for Mimi's Organic Exchange, which is a fantastic organization here in Chicago that facilitates networking between creative people. I designed the flyers as two colors (Grass green and Aubergine purple vegetable based ink), and printed half on Spearmint stock and the other half on Aspen (both 100% recycled, 30% PCW, Processed Chlorine Free, and made with alternative energy sources). They both came out really nicely.

Although I ended up with nice prints, I continue to have problems with uneven inking of polymer plates. This appears to be a relatively common problem, and one for which there doesn't seem to be definitive solution. I'm considering trying out magnesium plates to see if that changes anything.

Are You Curious...

2010-03-31T07:47:00.000-05:00

...about what I do when I'm not letterpress printing? Well, one of the (many) other things I do is to run an eco-friendly online gift wrap shop called Olive Paper. I'm putting together new collections all the time, and the most recent is spring 2010's Green Shoots. Here's a shot of a big order I'm packing up:

And a shot of some lovely new tissues I've got in stock:

I'm working hard on only offering eco-friendly options and closing out all the older items that don't make the cut. One of my newest ribbons is cotton, made in the USA and 100% biodegradable (even the spools!). Plus, they're just freakin cute:

Yay!

PS. The boxes I use to wrap up my orders come from Empty Boxes, where you can buy boxes for reuse.

A Luxurious Collaboration

2010-03-30T08:00:00.002-05:00

Following the advice of my bestest (have you visited my Weasel blog yet?), I'm going to refrain from requiring myself to pen lengthy, amazing, or perfectly constructed blog entries. That being said, those adjective can be used to describe a recent invitation project I put together with Amanda and Tony from Spilled Ink Press. I blind printed (no ink, just impression) the fronts of the invitation covers, and A+T flat printed the insides and assembled the sashes and gold wax seals. Here's a slightly crap iPhone pic I snapped during the letterpress process:

And here are some much nicer ones Amanda took during final assembly:

Luxurious indeed! Stay tuned for future exciting updates from Spilled Ink and Tweedle Press...we've got some good things in the works.

On Self Promotion

2010-02-25T14:04:00.004-06:00

Recently I've decided to try and become more involved with business networking and the local community. I'm finding there's only so much that Google ads, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account can get you. I'm looking to expand my circle of contacts and referrals, so I've started attending events and trying to be a little better about self promotion. This isn't something that comes naturally to me, mind you, being the introvert that I am. But I keep hearing over and over that it's the only way to really get your business going. Last night I printed up these cute promo cards in violet ink on the 8 x 12 that I plan to had out at an event tonight:

The big press was in a pretty good mood last night, though I definitely noticed he was a bit crankier than last time. I think it may have something to do with the cold - last time I went in to print, the heat had been on for quite a while before I arrived and I managed to print my way through FIVE different projects:

Granted it was all the same color, but I didn't have nearly as many inking problems as I usually do. Last night was still pretty good, though I did have some inky issues off and on. The most common problem seems to be that I'll get everything set up and begin running some prints, then at some point a part of the plate either starts getting over inked or not inked at all. It's odd, because it only starts happening after a bunch of prints have gone through. I feel like something must be moving, and I suspect it's because the chase may not be completely level. I have a similar problem at home where I have to continually bang the top or bottom of the plate base to keep it even. At some point I probably need to look into getting some newer/better chases that are flat. For now, I'm just happy when the big press seems to be in a good mood.

By the way, there have been so many updates over at my shop that I'm not even going to list them all here. Check out the news page here for the latest.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-07T10:30:00.007-06:00

Whew...now that all the holiday craziness is over I welcome the calm of January. Time to reassess, re-motivate, recreate, and blog! First up, I'd like to announce my new blog Under The Wild Rose As Weasels, where "A city mouse with a country soul [me] attempts to mitigate the impact of 2 humans, 2 cats, 2 cars, and 2 big ass TVs by implementing realistic earth-friendly changes." It's been a blast so far.

As my first Tweedle Press offering for the new year, I've just made available these lovelies:

That's right, now you can get scrumptious letterpress printed stationery, on sheets that are recycled individually by hand from your own junk mail! Choose from unique designs to be personalized with your name. This is almost certainly the most eco-friendly, extraordinary way to reuse gift wrap and other scrap paper from your home.

I'm really happy with the designs I've come up with for the stationery

Tomorrow I plan to go into production on a few of the things that got pushed to the side during the holidays. I'll continue to release Personal Recycling products, and will be coming up with some spring-y designs soon too.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack: "Hooting & Hollering" (Wild Beasts).

Personal Recycling now available!

2009-12-17T16:19:00.004-06:00

Just a quick entry to let all of my lovely blog readers know that Personal Recycling is now available from Tweedle Press. What exactly, you might ask, is this service? You can read the full explanation on my website, but in brief:

When you send your junk mail, used office paper, crumpled gift wrap, and paper packaging off to a commercial recycler, a lot of energy and water are used sometimes along with bleach and other chemicals to make it usable again. If you instead send your materials to Tweedle Press, I will personally make something beautiful (without the use of any nasty stuff) for you to use again. It's true that I use a small amount of electricity for my blender and one big bucket of water, but everything beyond that is entirely human-powered.

Currently I've only got Plain Sheets priced and available for purchase, but very soon you'll be able to get custom letterpress printed good on your personally recycled sheets as well. Just in time for you to send me all the used gift wrap you're about to collect!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 12/17/09: "Night Time" (The xx).

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-04T16:56:00.009-06:00

So I guess I fell off the blog wagon again for the last week or two...the whole vacation over Thanksgiving mucked things up a bit. Not that I didn't enjoy myself, I mean, hello:

I didn't have time to letterpress print the menu that my mom and I came up with, but it was truly excellent. Prior to stuffing my face I'd been getting some orders for cards and such in from Etsy, which just warned my cockles. I just love the whole printing/packaging/shipping process...it makes me feel so "official."

The other day I finally got around to timing myself making paper out of junk mail, so I'll know how much to charge for the service in the (near) future. I even weighed the shreds prior to blending them so I'd know exactly how many ounces to use for regular sheets of paper vs. card stock thickness. I also took shots of the finished papers with various degrees of "chunk," or how finely I shred the fibers prior to making the paper. I personally like the paper when you can still see letters and sometimes even word fragments left over:

"Super Chunk"

However, such chunk-osity is only good for artistic applications (collaging or perhaps printing gift tags). If you actually intended to use the paper for writing but still wanted some of that speckly, recycled feel:

"Chunk Light"

And finally, if you were looking for a smoother paper,

"Smooth Operator"

All of these papers and various weights would be priced the same, it would just be a matter of providing me with more or less of your junk mail to start off with. As soon as I can get a few more details worked out, expect to see my junk mail recycling service available for purchase in the Tweedle Press Shop.

I told iHub (husband Ian) that one of the things I'll really like about the studio I intend to have some day is the ability to have lots and lots of space for drying my wet papermaking couch sheets (not the actual paper I've made, but paper I use to draw water out of them). Currently when I spend a day making paper, I have to lay all of my soaked sheets out whatever counter space there is in the kitchen and dining room. This last time I even strung some up in the windows and bannisters so we could actually have somewhere to eat:

Someday my setup won't be quite so ghetto. Lastly, I've just added a new product to the store which is actually the first thing I'm offering that uses some of the pretty papers I've made from my own junk mail and other waste papers.

Dead Things / Beast Gift Tags

I had originally intended to print these gift tags on chipboard (and still will, in the future) but I wanted to start using some of the paper that I've made for something. They'd be super cute tied onto a packaging with hemp or even baker's twine, and are pretty much as eco-friendly as you could possibly get. Credit card offers turned into letterpressed gift tags? Yeah, I do that.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 12/4/09:"Lay Me Down"(The Frames).

So Speedy!

2009-11-13T10:24:00.007-06:00

So I went in to print on my 8x12 last week, and I decided that with 300 prints at 3 passes each I absolutely HAD to get brave enough to use the motor. Pushing the wheel with every print for all 300 of the Empty Boxes teaser cards (and sometimes an extra push in between for more ink) nearly killed me - but really wouldn't have been possible to use the motor with. I had to firmly slide the inside fluting of the cardboard onto several gauge pins to keep them in place - something that took more time than a quick switching out would have allowed. So anyway, here are a few things I learned:

1. Ye who spends good time on makeready will be greatly rewarded.
I took my time measuring out sheet placement, gauge pin placement, and packing so that when it came time to actually run the (very nice & very expensive) paper through the press, the prints came out really nicely. That was pretty exciting.

2. Kort Adjustable Quad Guides are my friends.
Gauge pins and me, thus far, haven't really gotten along. I finally decided to try some of the ones that Boxcar Press recommends, and they really are pretty sweet. Expensive, and they take a little extra time to get into the tympan, but you really feel like they're going to stay put. Also, it's much easier to adjust them a little without having to unstick and restick little clampy feet that tear up your tympan. Hooray for Kort!

(image from NA Graphics, where I bought the pins)

3. Printing with the motor on, even at speed 3 out of 15, is way faster.
Once I was happy with the quad guides, feeding the paper in and out was a cinch. Occasionally I'd have to push the throwoff lever, whether for more inking or to just give myself a little more time to get the paper in, but I think in all those prints I did I only managed to accidentally print on the tympan once. Not bad. This really makes me feel like an order someday for 1000 of something would be totally doable.

(now available for purchase on Tweedle Press and Etsy)

4. With heavy coverage, even a powerful 8x12 can't get much impression.
Although the red bits of these cards created a good punch, the black printing area was just too heavy to really get into the paper. I suppose this is one of the limitations of a platen press. Maybe someday I'll have a bigger studio and can find myself a nice Vandercook for jobs with heavy coverage.

5. Yes, I use sweater drying racks to dry my prints. What? It works.

And now for few miscellaneous notes:

Remember the cardboard postcards I printed the other week? Well, the website for Empty Boxes is finally up and you should check it out. This is a new company I'm part of that is trying to help companies reuse as many shipping boxes as possible before recycling or trashing. It's totally eco, and totally neat.
Next week I'm participating in No Impact Week, which is a shortened version of Colin Beavan's "No Impact Man" experiment. During this week, participants will take a hard look at everything they do in their daily lives the negatively affects the environment, and try to curb as much of it as possible. Hopefully some of the things we learn will turn into habits. Check it out!
I know I mention them frequently, but The Evanston Print and Paper Shop rocks! They routinely save my butt with last minute plates, paper cutting, and other things. In fact, I'm heading over there today to cut down the aforementioned Cheshire holiday cards.
Yesterday I added a new product to the Tweedle Press Shop and Etsy Shop: Dead Things / Birdo Coasters. Cute and creepy, makes a great gift!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 11/6/09 (when I was printing): "I Was Wrong" (Social Distortion). Mike Ness makes killer music to print by.

Back At It

2009-10-31T15:19:00.000-05:00

You know you're you're done with your website if...a) you can spend all day printing and b) you can write 2 blog posts in 2 days. Woohoo! So, I think I realized that the last time I actually ran a big print job really was several months ago. I was trying to improve upon some business cards I had printed on the Pilot, but the big C&P was giving me quite a bit of inking agida. Many of you, loyal readers, wrote in with suggestions for how I could fix the mysterious inking issues. Even though before I had time to adequately respond to you I was sucked into the time vortex that was my website, I truly appreciated all your ideas. The truth is, I was so frustrated almost to the point of tears that I think part of what I needed was a big break.

When I went back in yesterday to print the corrugated postcards, I initially had some of the same problems I did a few months ago. Mysterious uneven vertical inking, sometimes even leaving out whole spots in the middle of the plate:

Weird, right? The only thing I've been able to determine so far is that how the base is sitting in the chase seems to be affecting inking. I'm not sure if my Chase is a little uneven (as I'm pretty sure is the case with my Pilot) or the surface I'm using to lockup isn't completely flat, but I seem to be able to achieve some success by gently knocking various corners around once locked up, to compensate for the uneven inking. Whatever I did seemed to work for the moment, which THRILLED me. I mixed up a nice deep orange color for the cards (appropriate, given the date), using some of my Van Son VS Zero Ink for the first time. I was disappointed to find out, earlier this year, that the VS Zero (zero volitle organic compounds) ink would only be released in CMYK colors instead of Pantone mixing colors. I went ahead and ordered some anyway, though, figuring I would eventually get up the courage to put my preschool color mixing knowledge to the test.

So, these tubs I have are HUGE. I think 10 pounds each. When I finally cracked them open today, the ink looked a little runny. I was concerned that I'd have a similar spoogy effect that the Braden Sutphin Earth Pride ink was giving me a few months back, but actually once it was on press it was a little on the tacky side. It printed very nicely on the corrugated, and eventually came off the press with just vegetable oil. Overall, I'm really pleased with how the VS Zero performed. The only thing that's vexing me a bit is that now, 24 hours later, the ink still isn't dry. I'm not exactly sure why this would be the case, but when I touch one of the cards it's still tacky and comes off on my fingers. This isn't a good sign - particularly since I need to go back in on Sunday to print some more cards and they have to be ready to mail out on Monday. If the cards aren't completely dry by tomorrow I'm pretty screwed - because I already printed about 150 cards using this ink and don't have any extra. :: sigh :: I guess I'll see what happens. At least they look nice:

And now to show a little love for my big press, some artsy images:

Sure is a beauty. Now I just have to get up the courage to start using it with the motor on so I don't have to turn the wheel with my left arm the whole time - I woke up in the middle of last night with my wrists throbbing. Hopefully I'll be able to get the hang of it using regular paper - the cardboard was tricky because I had to actually secure it pushing the gauge pins through the middle of the fluting. I wonder how much it would cost to "downgrade" to a foot treadle instead of a motor. I get nervous when the thing is at speed 2 - and it goes all the way up to 15!

Maybe I would feel more comfortable if I had more secure gauge pins. The ones I have are a bit old and rusty, so perhaps I should just get some new ones. Yeah, I'm off to order some right now. Word.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 10/31/09 (Happy Halloween!): Starblood (Cranes).

Could It Be True?

2009-10-29T19:58:00.005-05:00

Is the new Tweedle Press website finally, FINALLY live?? Man, this one has been quite a long time coming. A bit overdue, in fact. It seems that it has slurped up all of my time recently, so much so that I barely even remember that I'm a letterpress printer (or a blogger...). BUT now that the site's up, showcasing all my current lovely products, I can get back to printing (and blogging!). Even though it seems like this new website took me forever, I am really, REALLY happy with it. For the most part, I'm the type of person that doesn't like to rush things that involve design and creativity. Sometimes I overdo it with the perfectionism, but sometimes it turns out pretty well.

First up: and order of 275 Alice In Winter Wonderland (Cheshire) holiday cards: plates are made, ink and paper selected (and mostly cut)...now we just have to see if I can wrangle my 8x12 chase into allowing the plates to be inked properly. Second up: a nifty teaser postcard for a new "eco" company I'm creative Director for, Empty Boxes (plug plug). I'm not linking to the website just yet because the real one isn't up - it will be soon though, and I'll mention it again when it is. Until then, here's the image I'll be printing on some pieces of corrugated for a kickass postcard:

ROCK! After that, I'm on to some business cards for my sister Holly, which I'm doing in exchange for some writing she did for my website. Then I'll probably print up some more items from my Dead Things series, all the while doing some self-promotion and marketing. Woo! Tell your friends! :)

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 10/29/09: all Andrew Bird, all the time.

My Impression

2009-09-16T12:06:00.004-05:00

So I wasn't entirely happy with how my Braden Sutphin ink was performing on paper. It just seemed a little...squishy. I read a lot of opinions on Briar Press, e-mailed some fellow printers, and tried to dig a little deeper into the whole "eco" ink debate. I'd like for my shop to be as eco-friendly as possible, as healthy for me as possible, AND have my prints look as rad as possible. I feel like the whole soy ink thing has been pretty firmly rejected at this point as being any more eco-friendly than traditional oil and rubber based letterpress inks. So I started thinking about the "vegetable based" idea some more and read that in the old days, all oil-based letterpress inks were made from vegetable and seed oils. It seems that these days most are made from petroleum oils instead, which is obviously not the friendliest. I read several people promoting the fact that Charbonnel etching inks are still made with linseed oil and a heavy pigment load, which makes them great for letterpress and a lot more like printing was "in the old days."

I also read that Charbonnel inks work well for large areas of coverage, which I'll definitely need for my various holiday card designs. As I mentioned before, I've decided to try out Somerset papers for these cards because they supposedly score/fold well. Today I did a quick test on my Pilot with s combination of Charbonnel inks and Somerset paper, and it did look really nice. The edges were crisp, even with a deep impression.

Speaking of impression, I've come to the conclusion that I just can't get a lot of it with my Pilot. It does a fine amount for small pieces like the one above, but a lot of my designs are fairly dense and I just can't get the pressure I need on my little table top guy. I've tried all sorts of packing materials, methods, and amounts...but when it comes down to it I just can't get enough pressure. I don't want to kill myself or crack the arm of my little guy, so I think I'll just have to stick to smaller designs (like business cards) on the Pilot. Luckily I've got my 8 x 12 C&P also, which so far has done great with impression over larger areas.

This was the first time I've actually PRINTED in over a month or so...I've been so busy doing backend planning and such. It felt really nice. Cleanup of Charbonnel using only vegetable oil went about like it had for all other inks - took a while, but worked pretty well in the end.

My holiday card designs are for sale on the Goode Green website, even though I haven't actually made any plates, bought any paper, bought any ink, OR tested any of the prints. Scary! This is me practicing jumping into something without overanalyzing and overpreparing, and seeing what happens. I DID spend forever pricing those suckers, though. Man is it complicated. Now I'm off to work some more on my website...cheerio!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 9/16/09: "First Train Home" (Imogen Heap). Seriously dude...the Alice In Wonderland references that keep popping up in my life are uncanny.

More Holiday Cards

2009-09-12T13:10:00.010-05:00

Ready for more? I also developed these with holiday photos in mind, and drew quite a bit of pattern inspiration from some pictures I took in Paris. These will be using the same paper and ink as the Alice In Winter Wonderland series, and can also be personalized with a few lines of text on the inside if desired. Each of these designs comes in 3 color combinations.

Filigree (Goldstar/Midnight, Granny Smith/Red Delicious, or Silverbell/Plum)

Icicle (Frost/Silverbell, Goldstar/Lime, or Red Delicious/Granny Smith)

Link (Goldstar/Pomegranate, Red Delicious/Midnight, or Silverbell/Lagoon)

Scallop (Goldstar/Evergreen, Lime/Pomegranate, or Silverbell/Lagoon)

And finally, 2 designs Hayley asked for involving beachy palms and a cool car. Feliz Auto come with a print on the front and room for your holiday photo inside:

While Feliz Palms has room for your photo on the front and some customized text inside:

While I've never been very good at farting out nice designs after staring at a blank screen, I find that I do okay when given a few parameters and suggestions for inspiration. Alright blog world, am I back in your good graces now? See? I HAVE been working, I swear!

Pulp and Press Soundtrack 9/12/09: "Disfarmer" Album (Bill Frisell).

"Alice in Winter Wonderland" Holiday Cards

2009-09-12T11:06:00.011-05:00

OK y'all,

Since I've been neglecting the blogosphere for the likes of my new website and some fancy new designs for holiday cards, I thought I'd at least show you the latter. The first series, "Alice in Winter Wonderland," I had already begun developing when my friends Hayley and Sheila asked if I could do some letterpress designs for their photography business Goode Green. If you remember, Sheila was the one who took the awesome pinup photos of me and my friend Rebecca a few months ago. Seriously folks, if you need some kickass pictures give them a call! Anyway, I'll be selling these through them including photos, and on my site without photos. You'll have the choice between a blank inside or a block of custom text:

I've decided that because I'll be folding these to create cards, I'll be printing on some super delicious Somerset paper from England that's made with 100% reclaimed cotton rag. This makes for an incredibly soft sheet that takes an impression well and scores/folds nicely, or so the folks at Evanston Print & Paper tell me. I've also gotten some Gamblin and Charbonnel etching inks (made the old school way, with linseed oil and pigments), because I've heard these work really well for large areas of coverage. I'm hoping to do a test this weekend or next week.

I have some more designs to show you, but those will be in the next post...

New Website Countdown

2009-07-29T08:17:00.001-05:00

You may have noticed I've been a bit silent over the 2 weeks or so, and this is because I've been working feverishly on the complete Tweedle Press website redesign. The new site will have improved navigation, clearer shopping, updated products and descriptions, and new custom packages with pricing. Please bear with me, faithful readers, as I am aiming to have everything up in August. Just to be a tease, here's part of an image from the new site that helped to inspire the entire design:

Curious?

must. kill.

2009-07-10T11:28:00.000-05:00

OK, this blog entry is being posted a bit late - I wrote most of it, then went on vacation, yadda yadda. So I'm actually referring here to some printing I did a few weeks back:

I've had a frustrating couple of days in letterpress world. You might remember these calling cards I printed a few weeks ago, which came out decently but overall I wasn't thrilled with the level of impression the paper took. So, I decided to order in some 134# Aqua Cranes Palette paper, since the 100% cotton is supposed to do really nicely with letterpress. It really is tasty paper, and I was excited to try it out. So on Friday I prepped my Pilot with the same calling card plate and mixed a nice deep green color. I pretty much ran into every problem across the board: not enough impression, uneven inking, un-crisp printing, too much ink, not enough ink, etc. It was just one of those days. So, I decided to just pretend it didn't happen and instead try again on my big 8 x 12 tonight.

Unfortunately, things didn't go much better. I'll start with Problem #1: Uneven Print, and excuse the crap photo but I'm too tired to do any better:

See how the print is heavier on either side, like the "www" and "m"s in "com"? It gets lighter/crisper in the middle, but the edges just look really...squishy. I thought maybe it was just an uneven impression problem, so I spent a long time doing some serious makeready - cutting out individual letters from packing to try and compensate. The weird thing is, this exact same problem was happening in the exact same places on the plate when I tried the print on my Pilot at home.
Question: Could this mean that the plate itself is uneven?

As soon as it started to look okay, I ran into Problem #2: Uneven Inking. Basically it seemed like a lot more ink was being laid down on one side of the plate than the other. There's a circular graphic at the top of the card, and it was really apparent that one side of the circle was printing more heavily than the other. Looking at the back of the cards, it didn't seem like the impression itself was uneven (indicating uneven platen pressure), so I thought it must have been the roller just laying down more ink on one side. I tried taping up the rails to raise the rollers on just the bottom of the chase, which only sort of worked. Since I don't have a picture, I'll do my best approximation via Illustrator:

Question: Is it common for uneven inking to occur vertically like this? How can I compensate for this?

This brings me to Problem #3: Un-Crisp Printing. Once again, I'll do my best to illustrate this problem without a photo. The left side is what the graphic should look like, and the right side is how it has been coming out:

As you can see, there are some fine details in the flowers that should remain unprinted. Instead, the flowers are completely filling in with ink. I noticed that the problem got worse the longer I printed, so I'm wondering if maybe the ink was heating up and getting too squishy. I thought maybe the problem was simply too much ink, but when I removed some from the press all I got was a mottled print - incomplete coverage indicating too little ink but the lines were STILL filling in. The only thing I can think here is that I need to dry up the ink a little. I ordered some drier from Braden Sutphin the other day and will give it a try - but does anyone know if I'm on the right track here? I'm pretty out of ideas, and I know that a crisp print CAN happen along with a deep impression.
Question: Is ink consistency to blame when ink amount has been ruled out and fine details are still filling in?

::sigh::

Page's #10 Cards

2009-06-21T17:32:00.009-05:00

Note To Self: When you proclaim "I think I'm getting the hang of this," the letterpress gods shall show you otherwise, and chuckle to themselves.
After Friday's successful prints, I went in to work on the big press on Saturday. I mixed a nice orange, I taped the rails, I took some ink off after getting a little slather happy, I got a good impression, and I thought everything was swell. After a few prints I started to notice the tiniest dusting of orange bits on the prints in areas the plate didn't touch. I wiped off the plate and the speckles moved. I taped the rails, I untaped the rails, I adjusted the packing, all the while becoming increasingly frustrated with the tiny speckles plaguing me. Finally, I decided to call it a day with not a lot to show for it. As I began cleaning the press, I noticed that the handy cheapo shop rag I had used to wipe some of the ink off the press mid way through the print tests was leaving little bits of fiber on the platen, which were then transferred to the rollers. The bits were then stuck to the ink on the rollers, picked up more ink from the platen as they rolled, trailed across the plate, and voila - orangey snow effect on the prints.

At this point I was already halfway done cleaning, and didn't fancy a run to Home Depot for lint free cloths, another inking, another printing, and another cleaning. So, I came back today to finish the job. I was very careful this time to make sure there was hardly any dust or rag lint on the platen or rollers before inking, and sure enough my friendly orange bits disappeared. I suppose that's one more thing to add to my ever growing mental list of letterpress troubleshooting tidbits. Man, by the time I'm 80 I'm going to rock at this! Here are the results of my 2 days' labor:

Some beautiful #10 note cards in chartreuse and pool, with a nice deep orange print color, for Page. Next purchase - a print drying rack to prevent ink transfer onto the backs of the cards. Blah! Other than that, they're gorgeous.

I just realized that I've now printed for 3 days in a row. Holy crap. And I'm not even remotely joking about letterpress being a workout. Since I continue to be timid about using the motor or my 8 x 12, there is a lot of wheel pushing and foot planting that goes on in addition to the cleaning. You know those little diagrams on the weight machines at the gym showing you "muscles trained"? Here's what one would look like if they had a platen press at the gym, based on where I'm currently feeling the most pain. 200 reps!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 6/21/09: "Freetime" (Kenna), "Map Of The Problematique" (Muse), "Feiticeira" (Deftones).

I Think I'm Starting To Get The Hang...

2009-06-19T14:30:00.010-05:00

...of platen presses. I'm learning the ins and out of jiggering with taping the rails, moving the gauge pins, adjusting the packing, and ink distribution. I'm sure there are still many more tricks to discover, but for now I'm happy that things are getting easier instead of harder. Today I did a custom run of a bunch of "Yay!" Peggins cards for Beth, who as a teacher has many graduates to whom to send congratulatory cards this summer.

Registration for this 2 color run was a little tricky, as you can see the filling for the Peggins' bodies can't be the slightest bit off or you can see it sticking out of the blue line. Luckily, I tend to make what seems at the time to be an absurd amount of extras for makeready. With one color jobs or two color jobs with crop marks for registration, the makeready to product ratio is a bit better, but with this one I ended up with about 70 good cards out of the 110 I started with. This means I've got a few extra that I've put up for sale in my Etsy shop - hop to it if you want one! The cards are a bright blossom color with white and blue printing, and they come paired with a chartreuse envelope. Adorable, if I do say so myself.

I had planned on stopping there with the Pilot for today, and going into work on my 8 x 12 for some really cute custom note cards for Page. They're #10 size, just like the Tea Menus from last week, so I need the 8 x 12 bed and base size. However, it has been insanely thunderstorming all day and I didn't fancy wading out to the car with all my inks and paper. So, those cards will have to wait until tomorrow (sorry Page!), but I can't wait to see them printed. The colors are going to rock. So, instead I opted to stay home and print another job on the Pilot - some coasters from my "Dead Things" series. Since I had already printed up some of the prehistoric beast stationery, I decided to continue with him on the coasters.

I wasn't able to get a very deep impression on these, but I think that's OK. I get afraid when I have to pull down too hard on the Pilot's arm that it's going to crack, plus this coaster stock is really thick and stiff. I think the black print on the surface with just a touch of impression looks mighty dandy, and as soon as I take pictures in their final packaging I'll put those up for sale too. Now that I'm out of things to procrastinate with, I guess I'll clean my press. AGAIN. I'm seriously considering videoing a "Get Great Arms With Letterpress" exercise series - left arm does the arm pulling/wheel turning, and right arm does the scrubbing.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 6/19/09: "Do You Feel Loved" (U2).

An Ode To Vegetable Oil

2009-06-16T19:25:00.007-05:00

Oil of veggie you kick so much ass,

Your yellow demeanor belies your true sass.

Letterpress cleanup is always a chore,

But you make it so easy to do and what's more -

There are no toxic fumes burning inside my nose,
And my small future spawn will not come with webbed toes!

Your myriad of uses really is quite a stunt,

You polish wood floors, and you make a great bundt!

Veggie oil, I hope that we're friends for all time,
Now this is the end of my a-ma-zing rhyme.

How To Throw A Rockin' High Tea Party

2009-06-13T22:36:00.011-05:00

Think high tea is reserved for stuffy old ladies and British royalty? Think again. Sure it's fun to throw in some vintage kitsch, but if you play your cards right a tea party can be a classy yet relaxed event that's fun...and delicious.

Why exactly am I bringing this up on a letterpress and paper making blog? Because all parties can use some fine printed material to impress the guests, and I used my tea party as an opportunity to give my 8 x 12 press its first 2-color whirl. I'm quite the tea collector, and when I realized I had over 30 teas to offer my guests I decided it would be a great idea to create a tea menu off of which they ordered:

Of course there are all sorts of other options for party prints: invites, RSVP cards, food menus, place cards, and thank you notes, to name a few. If you're putting together a soiree of any sort, hit me up at Tweedle Press to discuss custom printed products. If you're interested in throwing a high tea party, here are some suggestions from mine:

1. Plan the menu, and make ahead.

Since part of the fun of a tea party is lots of little morsels, it's a good idea to provide a variety of tasty bites for your guests. This doesn't mean that you have to drive yourself insane making things, though, especially if you freeze a few things the week before. Here's what I made for my party:

Savories
Curried Tuna Tea Sandwiches (made day of)
Cucumber Mint Tea Sandwiches (made day of)
Cheddar Chutney Tea Sandwiches (made day of)
Prosciutto Gruyere Pastry Pinwheels (made day of)

Breads and Spreads
Traditional Crumpets (made day of)
Lemon Curd (made night before)
Concord Grape & Walnut Conserve (made previously & canned)
Cilantro Cream (made day of)
Fig Preserves (purchased)
(I intended to also make Cheddar Dill Scones and Blueberry White Chocolate Scones, but didn't quite have enough time)

Sweets
Walnut Fudge (made week before, refrigerated)
Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies (made week before, froze)
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (made night before)
Butterscotch Rum Poppyseed Bundt Cake (made week before, froze)
Rhubarb Cherry Pie (made week before, froze)

2. Make sure you get an accurate head count, and plan the place settings in advance.

I happen to have inherited several china tea sets from various family members, so that part was easy. Here are the other inexpensive items I collected for setting the table:

Tiered Serving Platters
White Table Linens
Napkin Rings
Paper Doilies
Small Silverware
Seasonal Flowers In Vases
Condiment Servers

I read a few things about tea place settings, and eventually ended up incorporating all of them and also winging a few things. I put doilies under the small plates, tea saucers, flower vases, and tiered servers. Teacups and saucers were to the right of small plates, small knives on the right side facing inwards, and small forks and spoons were placed horizontally above the small plates. Napkins in rings were to the left, and tea menus in the center.

3. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Well, obviously you enjoy sweating SOME of the small stuff or you wouldn't have read this far. Attention to detail is one thing, but just make sure that you're flexible. It really is true that guests take their cues from the mood of the hostess, so just go with the flow. I would have liked to get my scones done in time for the party, but it just didn't happen. I would have liked to have had all the crumpets made by the time everyone arrived, but it turned out that people enjoyed watching me make them for half an hour or so. I also think it's important, and in fact fun, to have a few new things pop out over the course of the party rather than have everything ready and blinking the instant people arrive. I did two batches of the Prosciutto Gruyere Pastry Pinwheels so that I could bring fresh, hot ones out halfway through. A few of my guests helped keep the kettle full and on the stove so the table teapots could be constantly refilled. And speaking of help, a husband and a sous-hostess friend are indispensable for keeping your cool (thanks guys)!

Somebody Stop Me!

2009-06-08T21:08:00.003-05:00

Another custom job finished tonight - this time some A2 stationery on 100% recycled "Eco White" paper with jet black ink.

Since the press was still mostly set up from the previous job on Friday, I barely had to do any makeready. I can't decide whether I like printing pre-cut or crop marks jobs better - they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I like that I don't have to worry about alignment with crop marks (post-cut) jobs, as long as they're one color. However, I'm always worried that I'm not cutting things exactly the same way afterwards. With pre-cut paper I have to spend a bit more time making sure everything is straight and spaced properly, but one that's done they're all ready to go without anything to do afterwards.

After I finished the stationery, I baked a bunch of these Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies for my upcoming high tea party, which are to die for. Now I've just got to clean the press and I can finally relax for the night. A run of 100+ stationery cards in about an hour? In the timeless words of Flava Flav, "Yeeaaahhh boooy!"

First Custom Job

2009-06-05T16:25:00.010-05:00

As I mentioned last post, I'm currently working on several custom jobs. Today I set about printing, and I'm pretty happy with the results of this calling card:

It's referred to as a "calling card" both because of the simple amount of information, and because it's slightly bigger than a regular business card at 2.5" x 3.5". I had been wanting to try out French Paper's Muscleonte paper (140#), and since Barbara wanted an aqua color this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I was curious to see if the extra heavy weight would take an impression well, but it seems it was a little too "muscular." I finally got a decent impression after adding a lot of packing, but I probably won't use this paper again.

As for ink, I finally dove in and bought some Earth Pride from Braden Sutphin last week on a recommendation from a fellow letterpresser. It's vegetable based, contains less than 5% V.O.C.s, and comes in all the regular Pantone colors, unlike Van Son's VS Zero which I was previously excited about. I decided it would just be too difficult to try and mix colors using only the CMYK of VS Zero, but since I bought some I may test out some of the solid colors at some point. Overall, I'm really happy with the Earth Pride. It doesn't really smell like much, which makes my headache-prone sinuses very happy. It's a little on the soft side, but not unworkable. It definitely forms a crust in the can and isn't meant to be left "open" on the press for extended periods of time, but neither of those things really bother me. Cleanup was really quite easy using only vegetable oil. I'll probably continue to experiment with other inks, but for now I'm pretty happy with what I've got.

As long as I had all the packing and everything set up on the press, I decided to go ahead and test print using some of my hand made papers recycled from junk mail. At some point I'd love to be using all my own paper, and after this exciting test I think it will just be a matter of figuring out how to produce sheets with consistent thickness. My various papers took impression much better than the French Paper, and I think the textural elements look really snazzy:

I was a little afraid of ink bleed on the hand made papers, but as you can see the print stayed really crisp. This means that either the papers rock, the inks rock, or the combination of the two rocks! I'm really excited to see that it worked, because I was starting to think that printing on my own papers wouldn't be feasible. WOO!!

Note to self: Rubber bands are your friends, until they're not.
I've realized that it's pretty necessary to use a rubber band across the grippers of the Pilot, because I rarely use a sheet of paper big enough to be held on by the grippers. This was working well, as I had the rubber band positioned perfectly across the middle of the card where there was no printing. Until about the last 25 cards or so, I was getting pretty frustrated by an indentation in the cards I was sure was due to some uneven packing under the tmypan. Then the rubber band slipped a little and actually blocked out part of the print, and I realized it had been sitting right where the impression was happening.

I moved said rubber band higher up on the card so it just barely hit some of the crop marks, and all of my problems were solved. No more random impression, no more uneven print. I got a decent amount of prints done once I had fixed the problem, but I wish I had noticed it sooner. I can't wait until I've been doing this for a bit longer and I have all these things stored up in my brain. Someday my prints will be perfect...or closer anyway. I find that in general, letterpress is a really good lesson in imperfection for me. And with that - I'm off...maybe more printing this weekend!

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 6/5/09: Depeche Mode (Hole To Feed).

Busy, busy!

2009-05-29T14:35:00.006-05:00

Well, it's finally back to business after several weeks of vacation and general discombobulation. Currently I've got four custom print jobs I'm working on: 2 stationery, 1 calling card, 1 menu (more on that later), and I'm almost at the stage where I can scrunch all the images together to make film then plates. Once the plates are made, I'll be sure to provide updates on the print progress of each. I'm hoping to have all 4 done in a few weeks, in addition to a stock item I'll be re-running.

These "Yay" cards are from my "Peggins" series, which was one of the first sets of designs I came up with for my store. Since it's graduation season, I'll be printing up a whole bunch of them for sale:

If anybody wants to buy any - please let me know! I've actually printed these before, but it was my first ever try on a platen press and so they didn't come out quite the way I intended. Hopefully, now that I've got my own presses, I'll be able to spend an assinine amount of time perfecting the registration and colors.

Speaking of colors, I've have finally ordered some of Van Son's new VS Zero ink through Fuji. It sounds fantastically "green," and is vegetable based. According to the techs, here's an approximate breakdown:

Rapeseed Oil - Approx. 46%
Linseed Oil - Approx. 18%
Oticica Oil - Approx. 6%
Pigment (Dry) - Approx. 20%
Additives - Approx. 7%

The hope is that I'll be able to clean this ink off the presses using only vegetable oil or other non-toxic cleansers. Unfortunately, the inks aren't going to be made in the regular lineup of Pantone colors, so I'll have to see what I can do with mixing CMYK myself. I guess I'm sort of confused as to how I might go about this, seeing as how CMYK inks are intended for 4 color process prints (i.e. 4 different plates, registered perfectly). I've asked the folks on Briar Press if they have any suggestions for how I might do this, or if I'm insane for even contemplating it.

In other news...after my most recent meeting with a business counselor, I penned "The Retroactive Roadmap To Tweedle Press." My counselor suggested that I write out exactly where I'd like to be with my business a year from now, and then works backwards from that to create some goals and milestones for myself. It was extremely eye opening, and let me know that I'll really have to get moving sooner than I thought with starting to take more days per week to work on the business. Scary, but exciting! As soon as I've got a rough draft of the business plan, I'll talk more about it here. For now though, I've got a date with the Chicago Public Library to do some research on my target market, and these are some rough upcoming dates for the rest of this year:

June: ink research/testing, finish business plan, print custom projects
July: new website launch, print stock items
August: begin marketing, start to take web orders!
September: go down to 3 days a week at current job (yikes!)
October: start marketing and taking holiday orders
November: print and ship holiday orders
December: end of year money stuff, print stock items

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 5/29/09: Bon Jovi (Livin' On A Prayer). Don't laugh - I played Rock Band last weekend and it's been stuck in my head ever since. HELP ME!!!

Inspiration: Parisian Patterns

2009-05-15T16:29:00.016-05:00

We're back! OK, maybe that shouldn't be an exclamation point...maybe it should be a sad droopy face that's in baguette withdrawal. But actually, it's not so bad returning to "real" life after our amazing vacation, and I'm feeling very refreshed and ready to pour some new energy into Tweedle Press. I took a million photos while we were in Paris and Brussels (click those to see the respective full photo sets on Flickr), but here I'll just post the ones I took specifically of patterns suitable for letterpress inspiration.

Of course I was inspired by more than just patterns, and I likely plan a series of Parisian images similar to the one I did of Tuscany a few years ago. Ah, Paris. Now it's back to the business plan.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 5/15/09: Morrissey (It's Not Your Birthday Anymore)

Inspiration: Pinups & Paris

2009-04-28T20:03:00.007-05:00

Just a quick note to let you all know that I'll likely be out of the Pulp & Press blogosphere for about 2 weeks, as we're off to Paris on a much needed vacation! I'll surely be doing some good hunting around for inspiration, as always, through architecture and design. Hopefully there will also be some tasty paper shops like the ones in Italy.

On another inspiration topic, I've always loved retro pinup style along with its classic hairstyles and bright, bold patterns. A friend and I got together for an amazing photo shoot last weekend, and I'm sure the resulting photos will inspire me for a long time...

Photographs by Sheila Goode, and hair/makeup by Tigerlilie.

The Business Plan

2009-04-17T16:45:00.011-05:00

About 2 years ago (a bit after I discovered my love for letterpress printing), I decided to enroll in the WBDC's "Jumpstart Your Business" series of classes. In general I'm an over-planner, over-thinker, over-organizer, and over-methodizer, but not yet an over-acheiver. At least that's how I see things. So, rather than just jump right into the fray as it seems many other letterpressers-turned-entrepreneurs do, I decided to try and make an educated stab at starting my own business. I'm not entirely sure which is the better method for this particular "industry" (and I use the term loosely; you'll see why a bit later), as here I sit all this time later and not much further along as a business owner. Sure, I've made great advances in my letterpress designs, my printing skills, my aquisition of equipment, my e-commerce store, and other such things. But does this really count as being "profitable" in the business world as opposed to my own creative and emotional state? Not a chance.

During the class series, I learned some good things about target marketing, financing, cash flow analysis, and industries. What I also learned, or re-learned, was that the world (or humanity, actually) seems very intent on categorization and pigeon holeing, and that there is no "business model" for creativity. Want to open a grocery store? There's a plan for that. Want to run a dry cleaning business? Here's how you finance, market, and project income/expenses. Want to be successful creating art, writing songs, or hand crafting letterpress greeting cards? Yeeaahh...not so much. It's not that it can't be done, it's just that there's no plan for certain success. It makes sense because creating art of any sort requires creativity and talent, which isn't really a tangible or reliable supply. Whether or not people will pay your for your creations is also mostly due to taste and subjectivity, though you can do some swaying with good marketing. I learned this once before when my old band made a stab at rockstardom: it's possible (and likely) that a lot of bands don't "make it" because they just suck, but equally likely is that they're unwilling or unable to dedicate the vast amount of time and energy it takes to market, schmooze, and create buzz for their product. I'd like to think that our failure falls into the latter category, but I digress...

My point here is that it's very hard to nail down a marketing strategy for your own creativity (and it tends to feel icky), and it's even harder to try and figure out what "industry" your creativity falls into. One of the first things to do when writing a business plan, apparently, is to identify where your business idea fits into the North American Industry Classification System. This seems like a really good idea, because once matched with your magical industry number you'll have an easier time researching your market, competition, operations, and finances. However, what do you do when your business idea includes thinking of a card design, drawing it, having plates made, manufacturing paper, printing it on said paper, selling it wholesale, distributing it, AND selling it retail? Not to mention the possibility of designing custom goods for other people. Here's the (extremely exciting) list of industries Tweedle Press could possibly fall into:

322121 Paper Mills
541430 Graphic Design Services
323119 Other Commercial Printing
511191 Greeting Card Publishers
424120 Stationery and Office Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
454111 Electronic Shopping

Besides the fact that having your hand crafted letterpress babies reduced to "Other Commercial Printing" (sexy!) is just depressing, writing a separate business plan for each of those industries would be enough to drive anyone nuts. When I tried explaining this 2 years ago to a business plan counselor, she suggested trying to see if there were any parts of my business that could be eliminated or "farmed out." This is a perfectly logical idea, except when talking to an independent, control freak artist. Why couldn't I just design the cards and have someone else print them? I could, but that's not the point. Why couldn't I just print cards designed by someone else? Again, not the point. Why couldn't I just sell cards designed and/or printed by someone else? SO not the point. Frustrated by the inability of a business-minded person to understand my drive to be successful with my art, I pretty much gave up on the plan.

However, now that I've gotten together everything that I need to design, print, package, market, and sell my products - I find myself flailing around a little bit trying to figure out how to take things to the next level. What is it that I need now? A business plan. So, once again I'm diving into the picking apart, analyzing, projecting, and compartmentalization of my letterpress babies. I'm working on a rough draft of the plan, and next week I'm set to meet with another business counselor. Hopefully, this time I'll be a little more willing to do what needs to be done, and I'll be a little better at explaining what I'm trying to do. And maybe, just MAYBE, eventually I can be a successful business owner AND feel creatively satisfied. Wouldn't that be something.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 4/17/09: Andrew Bird (Fitz and the Dizzyspells)

Success!

2009-04-10T17:37:00.007-05:00

The first website I ever designed was for my band in New York, and on it I created little animated dancing bodies with photos of our heads grafted on. That's how I'm really feeling right now after the first successful print on my big letterpress - like a silly, giddy, repetitively dancing cartoon character with my head on top. YES!!!

The throw-off arm is still a little sticky, but workable after I loosened the bolt holding the throw off pin circle. I sprayed a little WD-40 in there, and now at least the pulling of the throw-off arm forward (to print) is relatively smooth. I still need to work on what's making the pushing of the arm backward (trip) stick, but this is great progress.

As for the throw-off arm in "print" position making the press stop (see the video from last week), this time I tried running the press without the chase in first. No problem! Luckily, as I was wandering around inspecting the grippers before putting the chase in I noticed just a bit of ink on one of the grippers. It would appear that one of the gripper arms had been nicking just the very end of my Boxcar base, thus preventing a print and the press from moving further. So, this will officially be my:

moment for the week. After all the lovely advice I received from Rich at Front Room Press, I guess at least I'm glad I didn't have to try and start adjusting all those things.

I got to do a bunch of exciting makeready, cutting out various shapes to put behind my little dead things on the stationery. The finished pieces probably have a little too much impression and have a few breaks in the lines, but the ink coverage is pretty perfect if I do say so myself. I'm considering naming my presses after various characters from Alice In Wonderland, given that the name of my shop is Tweedle Press. Cheshire? Jabberwocky? Mad Hatter? I'll have to see what of their personalities begins to shine through.

Finally, I would like to say that in the future I intend for not all of my posts to be quite so technical and letterpress geek. I'd like to post about some stuff that would be of interest to others as well, so look for entries on the following topics in the near future:

Starting A Small Business
The Creative Process
Finding A Niche
Work/Creative Environment

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 4/10/09: Life In Technicolor ii (Coldplay). You must check out this video - it's hysterical.

Inspiration: Morrissey

2009-04-06T08:17:00.003-05:00

Welcome to another edition of Inspiration, where I blog briefly about something that influences my work these days. I'm trying to come up with a cute "brand" word for these posts, but "Presspiration" sounds too much like sweating. Any ideas?

Saturday we went to see Morrissey at the Aragon Ballroom, and he was fantastic. Ian is an even more dedicated Moz fan than I, but somehow neither of us had ever managed to be graced by his presence. While his set was definitely new material heavy, he did pull out a few Smiths tunes and some early B-sides. Mostly it was just fantastic to see him strutting about the stage, sounding fabulous, and making us all wish we were as cool as he. After all, what's more rock and roll than a giant shimmering silver backdrop of a shirtless sailor flexing?

Thanks again to the shaky concert camera phone. Morrissey reminds us all that presentation is important, professionalism is great, but never take yourself too seriously. Also, if you can work a classic tux with a bow tie - it's hot.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 4/6/09: Something Is Squeezing My Skull (Morrissey).

Letterpresser or...mechanic?

2009-04-03T16:50:00.007-05:00

Today was my first attempt at getting my C&P 8 x 12 New Style up and running. To refresh your memory, here's a video of it running with the motor from a few weeks ago. So obviously it goes, now I've just got to get it printing well. The newly re-ground rollers looked beautiful when I first put them on:

After inking up, here was what I worked through today:

1. Problem: Too much ink on the plates.

Solution: You guessed it...taping the rails. I started with many, MANY layers of Scotch before I found some of that nifty strapping tape like the guy uses in the Boxcar video. I was being super anal about making sure I had the same number of layers on each side, until I realized it was OK that the right rail was more worn down than the left one. Must...learn...to be OK with unevenness. It's not like I give away my last one in a handful of M&Ms if it turns out to be an odd number. What??

2. Problem: Rollers popping out due to the grabber shaft sticking.

Solution: OK, "grabber shaft" isn't really the technical term...but I've searched the C&P parts diagram and can't find the piece I'm talking about. It may be the roller frame or roller arm. Here's the wonkiness that was occurring:

Basically, the sliding shaft that allows the roller frame to go up and down as the rollers make their way across the ink disc and down over the plate was getting stuck in the up position. This led to rollers flying everywhere and totally bizarre ink patterns. I oiled every conceivable hole to no avail...then finally realized that the large spring under the shaft had a piece of metal sticking out of the end that was getting caught. A little twist, and all was well again.

3. Problem: Throw-off arm stops the machine dead in its tracks, instead of switching from "trip" to "print."

Solution: This one stumped me. Once again, this probably shows my lack of experience with platen presses...but I was pretty sure that pulling the throw-off arm towards me was what was supposed to make it print instead of just inking the plates with no platen contact. Instead, pulling the arm towards me caused the press to stop being able to move all together. Since it's a little noisy in the warehouse with the heater going, please enjoy my Marcel Marceau demonstration of the problem:

It doesn't seem like a part is sticky or not sliding properly - it really seems like pulling the throw-off lever is supposed to put the brakes on the machine instead of allow it to print. Do I have the wrong idea here? What am I doing wrong? How do I switch from "trip" to "print"?

In better news, a friend commented that I looked like a mechanic with shop rags and WD-40 in my hands. Hot.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 4/3/09: Sadly, Jizz In My Pants (The Lonely Island) was the only thing trapped in my head all day. Next time I'm bringing my Tivoli and iPod.

Ink: A Comparison

2009-03-30T18:37:00.012-05:00

So, after letting the "Shit / I'm sorry" cards dry for a while I've decided to take a closer look at the performance of the water based ink vs. rubber based ink. Here are some closeups:

I must admit that I'm not 100% sure the card on the left was printed with rubber based ink, because I printed at The Evanston Print and Paper Shop before I had my own presses. It could have been oil based, but the two look very similar when dry so I'm not sure it matters much except in the cleanup department. Anyway, here are some points for comparison:

1. Workability: How do the inks distribute on the rollers? Does the ink begin to dry as it sits on the press? What about the contents of the can?

Water Based Inks: Since I haven't had these too long it's hard to say if any crust will develop in the jars, but I'm going to guess not. It's a nice consistency coming out of the jar, and is very spreadable in the ink disc. Starts out a little glommy on the rollers but eventually evens out and is nice. I noticed no drying while it sat on the press.

Rubber Based Inks: Develops a top crust while in the can, and is very tacky going on the rollers. Doesn't seem to dry out when on the press.

2. Cleanup: How easily to the inks clean off the press? What sort of materials are required?

Water Based Inks: Most of the ink comes off with a dry cloth before using any solvent at all. Vegetable or baby oil can be used for final cleanup, though I found even after this step the rollers still had a little bit of ink on them. The cleanup process is great for avoiding toxic inhalations, but requires a bit more patience towards the end.

Rubber Based Inks: Requires a fair amount of elbow grease, even when it has been loosened using Crisco. Mineral spirits are the best way to get everything completely clean, but do produce toxic fumes.

3. Print Durability: Do the prints smudge when dry? How long does it take to become fully dry?

Water Based Inks: The prints did withstand the "cat test," meaning a brief scramble of paws across the top. So it's not like the ink is running all over the place, and normal handling didn't produce any visible smudges. However, if your hands are the least bit damp it definitely smears the ink. Seemed pretty dry within 24 hours.

Rubber Based Inks: Once it's dry, it's not going anywhere...even if you are a sweaty monster. Initial drying goes pretty fast, and complete dry within 24 hours.

4. Print Quality: Does the ink bleed? What's the coverage like?

Water Based Inks: In the end, print quality will really determine whether a particular ink is viable or not. Unfortunately, I'm just not won over by the water based inks' mottled appearance. As you can see if you click the photo to enlarge, it just seems a little...blobby. The edges seem like they are bleeding out just slightly, and it's just not particularly crisp. It's possible the mottled-ness might be remedied by using a less textured paper (the photo is Luxe from Waste Not Paper), but I feel like a good ink should hold up to this type of paper.

Rubber Based Inks: Obviously these are one of the standard letterpress inks because they print well. The edges are crisp (minus the, ahem, slight over-inking spooge on this particular print), and the coverage is consistent. At this magnification some of the same mottled appearance is visible, again likely due to the paper, but it's not as significant as the water based ink.

Conclusions: Well, it looks like my search for a non-toxic ink with non-toxic cleanup and good print quality will continue. Still to try: soy inks, rubber based inks with non-toxic cleanup, oil-based inks with non-toxic cleanup, acrylic inks with non-toxic cleanup. Cleaners to investigate: baby oil, California wash, Ivory soap. Are there any other ink types or cleaners I'm missing that should be tested?

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/20/09: Black Hearted Love (PJ Harvey & John Parish).

Inspiration: Bloc Party

2009-03-29T11:33:00.005-05:00

OK, so this isn't technically pulp OR press related, but it relates to my rock and roll inspiration so I have deemed it relevant: Bloc Party ruled last night! It had been a long time since we'd been to the Aragon, but visually it always seems kind of enchanted with it's Disneyland-esque sculptures and painted ceiling. Even though Kele and the boys had to end a bit early due to issues he was having with his voice, they certainly pumped out the rock, the likes of which we haven't seen in ages! Shaky concert cam:

(pic taken during 'Flux') It's nice to know that people still get really into concerts...I suppose we haven't been to a show with a younger crowd for a newish band in a long time. Man, those kids really make a lot of noise, unlike the sober 30 somethings for Placebo, Social Distortion, Muse, Snow Patrol, or the like. We'll likely be plunked firmly back in that reality for the Morrissey show next weekend, though I've heard his fans (however 30 or 40 something) are particularly rabid. It's probably unlikely I'll be able to wrestle any of them for a sweaty Moz shirt.

N.I.B., Production Technician

2009-03-27T15:02:00.009-05:00

I think I can safely say that this was my first "official" day of letterpress production. Even though I'm still in the test phase with the water-based inks, if these notecards turn out well and not too smudgerific I'll probably put them up for sale.

These would work as a great all purpose stash if you just want to tell someone "crap, I'm an asshole" or even "sorry your dog died." I have some more handy lessons I've learned from today's printing on the Pilot:

Lesson #1: Don't clean the Boxcar base with oil.

After my last printing session, I guess I got a little carried away with the canola and wiped down my Boxcar base to get the last traces of ink away. In my letterpress classes they always warned me not to be tempted to wipe down the base with anything really, even mineral spirits. Sure enough, when I went to stick the plate back on today it went sliding around, totally unsticky. So I had to use some serious elbow grease to um, de-grease the base before the plate would stick again.

Lesson #2: Distribute the ink on the disc and rollers BEFORE putting the chase in.

This probably seems obvious, but is a small breakthrough for me because I had been cranking away on the arm to distribute the ink after putting the chase in. This meant I had to be very careful not to let the rollers ALL the way down or I'd ink the tympan. If you work it out before putting the chase in, it's a lot easier. Duh.

Lesson #3: Slow pressure yields better ink coverage.

I went through a lot of test prints before arriving at the method that ended up working pretty consistently, and found that a slow OOOOOMPH on the print yielded better results than a quick SNAP. Not really sure why.

Lesson #4: Rubber bands are your friends.

It took some practice, but finally I got the rubber bands across the grippers in a place that was helpful and not in the way of the print. The only problem I ended up having was that the rubber bands I found were old and a little sticky, and the paper kept glomming onto them as I pulled it away from the plate, whacking out and creating interesting random ink stripes from hitting the rollers. Eventually (as in, after I took this picture) I ended up taping a piece of paper to the top rubber band so my cards slid free more easily.

I'm still not ready to discuss gauge pins, but clearly I had a bit more success with them today as I was at least able to produce consistent prints. I probably just need to investigate some pins that are easier to work with - perhaps the ones I have are particularly irritating.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/27/09: Talons (Bloc Party). We're going to see them tomorrow night at the Aragon. YES!

Lessons From The First Day of (Attempted) Printing

2009-03-20T15:39:00.012-05:00

Wearing my trusty Friday overalls and acceptably indie/chic This American Life tee, I set about my first real day of letterpress troubleshooting on the Pilot.

Lesson #1: Me and gauge pins? Not friends. I'm assuming that since we don't know each other very well our relationship can only improve. But right now we're not really speaking to each other.

I'm super paranoid about denting my Boxcar base, and I'm not really sure which parts of the pins should absolutely NOT contact the base. I'm also not 100% sure about which parts are supposed to hold the paper, and they just never seem particularly secure to me. I'll probably do a whole post specifically about these little fuckers, but right now we need some space.

Lesson #2: Taping the rails is fairly painless, and has fast results.

When I first started inking the plate for my "shit / i'm sorry" notecard, ink was getting all over the place. In the Boxcar video on taping the rails, the guy uses some fancy nylon strapping tape, which I don't have at the moment but may look into. Instead I added about 4 layers of scotch tape to the rails to raise the rollers a bit. This improved things dramatically, but there were still some places being inked that shouldn't have been. Another layer or two, and the plate was inking perfectly.

Lesson #3: I have a lot to learn about packing a platen press.

The first couple of prints I pulled, there seemed to be good ink coverage around the edges but not in the middle. So, I kept adding more and more packing thinking it must be the problem. However, the more packing I added the less even the print was. After a few hours, only about the bottom half of the print was coming through clearly. What the hell? I even tried using makeready buried under the tympan just under the top half of the print, but then things got even screwier. Finally, I thought "this can't be right" as my packing bulged and there was barely any OOMPH when I pulled the arm to print.

So, I went backwards about 11 steps and left only a small amount of packing. This did the trick for the most part, and I didn't even have to use any additional sheeting under a specific section of the print. I'm sure all of this has some very technical explanation to do with pressue distribution, but I'm just not used to such things yet having mainly worked on flatbed presses. Exhausted but somewhat accomplished, I finally produced a mostly acceptable print:

Lesson #4: The jury is still out on print quality and smudginess, but water-based ink cleanup sure is a breeze.

Seriously, 90% of the ink came off using no solvent whatsoever. I used a small amount of vegetable oil towards the end just to make sure everything was ship shape, and no stinky mineral spirits (which I'd like to avoid in the interest of preventing future flipper babies). I'll have to wait for the test prints to dry before I can really speak to the smudginess factor, and I'm not 100% thrilled with the ink coverage. However, the colors are nice and I think it's worth continued testing.

Lesson #5: My neck hurts.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/20/09: Take Back The City (Snow Patrol), Don't Drag Me Down (Social Distortion). Yeah, Mike Ness rocks balls. I wonder if he needs anything letterpressed.

A Sticky Situation...

2009-03-18T17:46:00.010-05:00

Anyone have any suggestions?

Don't worry, this isn't turning into a "vlog" or whatever the term is - I just thought this problem would be best illustrated by moving images.

And now I proudly introduce a new blog feature, The Pulp & Press Soundtrack. Otherwise known as what's occurring in the room or in my head during today's work and/or blog post, maybe this will help to get my dear readers in the mood.

Pulp & Press Soundtrack 3/18/09: Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution (AC/DC)

It Goes!

2009-03-16T21:34:00.007-05:00

I was remiss in my documentary duties last Friday, forgetting to bring my camera as Paul gallantly helped me take my big press off the pallet using only a car jack and metal pipes. I snapped a few (unintentionally artsy) photos of said tools with my phone:
Yeah, you can just pretend you know what's going on there. Today I took a much more exciting vid of the press GOING:

This is pretty much the sweetest, most badass thing I have ever seen. Alan at Roll Crafters has offered to have both my Pilot and 8 x 12 rollers reground to the proper truck size, so those went off yesterday. Now I suppose I'll just have to wait another few weeks, twiddling my thumbs, before I can print anything. I should probably get to work on redoing the Tweedle Press website in the meantime...

And So It Begins...

2009-03-06T17:14:00.021-06:00

The water based inks don't come in Pantone mixable colors, so I decided just to pick 4 basic colors to test with. There could be some issues with post-drying smearage, if the prints are handled by anyone with "sweaty hands," so I didn't want to invest too much in a lot of the stuff just yet.

I finally sent in my Dead Things artwork for film and plates, and picked it all up from The Evanston Print & Paper Shop today! They look great of course. I cut up one of the beast bones stationery for test printing on my Pilot, and stuck it to my brand new Boxcar base. I did a quick first lockup in the chase, but realized after it was in the press that it needed to be shifted so that the base and plate were in the upper right hand corner. I'm still not quite used to the idea of printing with a platen press where I'll need to use gague pins to hold my paper in place, as I've got much more "real" experience on a Vandercook. I'm taking things really slowly because I do NOT want to dent my base.

Anyway, so finally I got the lock looking good so that the gague pins could sit in the lower left hand corner of the tympan paper and not hit the base, which is in the upper right hand corner of the chase. I started to realize it was going to be hard to get everything exact with this particular print because I've only got about 1/4" between the print end and the edge of the page. Also at 5.5" x 8.5", this size paper is really pushing what the Pilot can do - so this stationery might be better left for my 8 x 12.

Regardless of whether I continue with this big print or test something smaller, I've still got to figure out how to prevent my grippers from smashing into the base. Supposedly I ought to be able to turn the little cranks to loosen the gripper arms and adjust them, but they're in a really awkward position and extremely tight. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to loosen them, so I posted on Briar Press and will hopefully get some suggestions.

Brad suggested that it also seems like my new rollers may be a bit oversized. They're even being lifted off the rails as they pass over the chase, so I may have to investigate taping up the rails to prevent over-inking and roller sticking. Oh, the troubleshooting begins!

In more successful news, the other day I went about trying to make some paper that remained consistent in color and thickness. I decided to stick with mostly black and white junk mail like credit card offers (though they are fewer these days...), and it actually tured out pretty well. After following some drying advice from a group of paper makers, my press bar / sponge time was greatly reduced and I came out with fairly flat, nice sheets.

My favorite thing about recycling paper is that if you don't blend it up TOO much, you're left with a few letters scattered here and there.

A Fresh Start

2009-02-27T15:38:00.022-06:00

Today I spent most of my time cleaning and reorganizing my office/studio, which really needed to be done. I've been attempting a massive purge of unused craft supplies in order to create more empty surfaces upon which to work. I'm pretty much done, and as you can see my closet now closely resembles the one in The Berenstein Bears And The Messy Room. This book clearly marked me as a child, and I blame all my perfectionist tendencies on it.

My letterpress and paper making studio area is small, but working for now. I've got the most basic (and cheapest) table from Ikea holding the Pilot, drying rack, and composing area. Below is boxey storage for paper, furniture, paper making supplies, and other stuff. Above I've just installed a nifty wall shelf unit that's very functional but also cool looking. I use it to store design related books, letterpress bits and bobs, and a few objets d'art.

On another side of the room I've got another desk (this one nicer, from Crate and Barrel) that holds my paper drying press and paper cutter. I intended for the Ikea table to also be where I could make paper, but now that I see the arrangement I might be a little nervous about getting so much water so close to my cast iron press. So, actual paper making may be relegated to the dining room until I can get a "real" studio.

And speaking of other spaces, today I received a text message picture of my 8 x 12 C&P, which has now been officially moved into it's "home" in the warehouse at my design job. It looks like from the picture that it's near a big window, which will be nice and maybe not make me feel too "warehoused." Storage above and to the sides - now I've just got to get Paul Aken to come help me get it up and running. Very exciting!!

Next order of business: I got my new rollers in from Roll Crafters. They were very nice and helpful on the phone, and a few weeks back I shipped them my existing rollers so they could use the cores and see the trucks before making new rollers. They finally arrived this week, and boy did they do a job with the shipping packaging! It took me a solid 10 minutes to unwrap the layers of cardboard, which were literally screwed into end blocks of wood, which themselves had holes drilled in them to keep the rollers steady. I certainly appreciate them making sure they wouldn't get damaged during shipping. The first picture is what the rollers looked like when I finally got them out of the box, with my trucks taped to the ends. Next is after I popped them out of the wood blocks, and finally after I unwrapped the paper around them. Beauties!

I did a quick ink and print just to test them out, with the same type I had locked up earlier. I'll definitely have to do a bit of troubleshooting - there were a few issues with the rollers inking the furniture in the chase, and the whole process being a little sticky. I think I initially may have had the rollers in the wrong graboids (technical term) so after switching them things seemed a little smoother. This was after I had already cleaned the press, though, so I didn't test them again yet.

I can't remember if this was happening with the old rollers, but they seem to get stuck at the bottom of the chase before the arm is all the way back up. I can push the arm up, but I feel like they should be able to continue all the way to the bottom by themselves. I'll probably ask Paul when I see him.

Here's right where they get stuck:

And here's where they end up when the arm is all the way up:

The trucks appear to be mostly in line with the pieces they roll against, though slightly off. I wonder if this has something to do with it.

All in all, a very productive day...and I can't wait to start pressing my "Dead Things" onto these nifty coasters I just received. I'm waiting on my Akua water based inks to arrive to test those out - though they mentioned there could be some concern with the inks smearing from "sweaty hands." Obviously not the best choice for coasters, but I'll try them on some note cards and gift tags. I've also recently been told that rubber inks can be cleaned with crisco and vegetable oil, so that might be an option too. WOO!

The Benefit Of Working At Home

2009-02-06T16:26:00.011-06:00

I'll just let these photos speak for themselves:

Today I worked on cleaning up the images for the gift tags, coasters, stationery, and envelopes in my "Dead Things" series. I need to have 3 sets of film/plates made, so I filled in the extra space with 2 cards I'm working on for the "In A Word" series. Here's what it all looks like squished up together for the film:

After the plates get made, I'll cut it up and stick the polymer to my lovely new Boxcar base. Then it's into the Pilot for printing! I sent in my old rollers with cores and one set of trucks each (both Pilot and 8 x 12) to Roll Crafters to have new rubber rollers made, which should take about a week. Now all I've got left to do before printing is buy some of the Akua water based inks to try out!

A Quick Note

2009-02-02T19:44:00.006-06:00

My new base from Boxcar arrived! Man, they did it fast too. I went with the size they recommended for Pilot presses - 8.5" x 5". However, now that I'm looking at it with my press I realize I probably should have measured the distance between my grippers because it's only 8". Maybe there's something I'm missing here and it will work out - but I do NOT want to dent my base. Oh well...I suppose if it doesn't fit in the Pilot I can always use it with the big C&P.

Actually, now that I'm looking more closely at the grippers it looks like they're probably adjustable - just held on by bolts. Hopefully I can move them so I can use this size base! It would be just perfect for a flattened out A2 size card (4-1/4" x 11"), provided I don't do a full vertical bleed on both sides at once. Most of my cards just have the Tweedle Press logo centered on the back anyway.

Tomorrow I'm planning to call Roll Crafters to see about getting some new rollers for both the Pilot and the 8 x 12. I've pretty much decided on rubber, on advice both from some folks at Briar Press and Akua Water Based Inks . These inks are supposedly non toxic, and can apparently be cleaned off using vegetable oil (instead of water which could rust the press). I'm going to give them a try to see if they work well. This Friday will be my first official day that I begin taking off from my "real job" (aka the one that pays me) to work on Tweedle Press and Chicago Locavores, so I'm psyched!

My First Project

2009-01-25T22:43:00.001-06:00

I've been working on the designs for a new collection of letterpressed items called "Dead Things" for my shop, Tweedle Press. The sets will hopefully include gift tags, coasters, stationery, and file folders:

I'll be printing several of the items on chipboard, because I love the way it feels and looks. Here are the 2" x 2" gift tags:

My ultimate goal would be to print to stationery on some of my hand made recycled paper:

But I'll have to see how much of that I can actually produce. The junk mail is piling up, but each sheet just takes so long to make! Here are the stationery designs:

First, though, I need to see about getting new rollers for my presses and some ink. I may just go ahead and buy the starter pack from Boxcar Press since I'll need a base anyway for my polymer plates, but I do want to do a little looking into other types of ink first. If I end up choosing a different kind of ink, I may need a different kind of roller. So much to do!

It's Official...

2009-01-21T22:37:00.006-06:00

...My Pilot does print. Not that I doubted it would, but it was awesome to actually do it myself. Just a quick slap of black ink and some old rollers that need replacing. Here is the line of type locked up in the Pilot:

And here it is:

Too much ink, too much impression, too much everything...but I love it.

Successful Transport Of My C&P 8 x 12 Press!

2009-01-17T18:13:00.026-06:00

I suppose you have to be a tad insane to try and move a 1200 pound letterpress, and maybe just a tad more insane to try and do it in a Chicago January. It was in the 20s today! That's awesome compared to the few days before. Anyway, I took my trusty camera to document the experience. It took a while and wasn't too stressful, but all the same I'm glad it's over and the press is now in it's new home in Skokie.

Tied down on a mini-pallet

Closeup of the C&P tied down

Paul Aken clearing some of the snow away from the loading area

My press was amongst many friends at The Platen Press Museum in Zion, IL

The motor, detached

Tied up and ready to roll

The arrival of the moving truck

The lift gate wouldn't quite go all the way down...

So Paul had to scrape some ice away

My pallet jack or yours?

Paul and Paul using the pallet jack to push the big baby onto the lift gate

Adjusting placement on the lift gate

Well positioned on the lift gate

Lifting, lifting...

Need a letterpress moved in Chicago? Try Anything Heavy! Everything went smoothly and I would definitely recommend them.

Inside the truck, all 1200 pounds

Secured and ready for transport!

Up goes the motor

Arrival in Skokie

Down she goes

The "enabler" i.e. allower of warehouse usage (Ben, I told you I'd put you on my blog)

Temporary position until further warehouse rearrangement

Me and my C&P!

I love my big baby.

Along With The Pilot...

2009-01-17T17:05:00.011-06:00

I acquired a whole bunch of nifty items to get me up and printing. I bought a "Letterpress Starter Kit" from Paul Aken at The Platen Press Museum. Paul is a great guy and a collector of all types of printing equipment, but mainly platen presses. I took photos of all the things I brought home with me:

The opened package of gauge pins

What the package of gauge pins looks like on the outside

The first line of type I intend on printing, locked up in the chase

Another shot of the type locked up

Yeah, a closeup of the locked up type

Spaces for the font I got

My first font, 14 pt. Typo Upright, is a nice serif

A tiny tin of black ink

Tympan paper

Furniture! I love furniture. It sounds like Lincoln Logs when it clinks together

Leads and slugs

Reglets and nonpareil

Wedge quoins and quoin key

Composing stick

Planer

Line gauge

Also gotten was some pressboard and an imposing surface. Oh! And Paul also gave me an awesome old cut of a rooster. Even though I need new rollers for the Pilot, I should be able to run a few prints of this line of type soon. Maybe tomorrow!

The Pilot Is Home!

2009-01-11T18:17:00.007-06:00

More details and pictures to come, but here's a shot of the new beauty in it's spot in my office/studio. I didn't realize it was going to be and Old Style Pilot, so it's MUCH prettier than I had hoped and I just love it! I also acquired a whole slew of other necessary elements, and will probably try and run my first print this week. YAY!

Ian and I managed to get it inside from my car (all 200 pounds of it...my knees are not amused) without too much difficulty; luckily we live on the first floor and so there is only 1 mini-staircase to get up to our door. Oh, it's so pretty. Sigh. Now I'm off to try and find a serial number so I can see how old it is...

What To Buy Before Printing With A C&P Pilot

2009-01-08T20:25:00.009-06:00

OK, I've been doing research into the additional items I'll need to purchase along with my new presses in order to actually print on them. I'm hoping some of the smaller items will come included, but it's possible I may have to hunt down everything myself. I'll start with the C&P Pilot, because that's the one I'll likely have first since it won't require any special shipping arrangements (it "only" weighs about 200 pounds). If everything goes well I could be bringing it home this weekend!

I found this awesome Operating Instructions and Parts List for Chandler & Price Pilot Press on the Dolce Press website (thanks guys!) which has helped a lot.

Needs For The C&P Pilot Letterpress

1. I've been told that it needs new rollers. I've done a little research, and come up with these options for where to buy them:

NA Graphics (Colorado) C&P Pilot 6 1/2x10 Form Roller, new core, rubber, $101.20 C&P Pilot 6 1/2x10 Form Roller, new core, vinylith, $87.30 So, I guess I'll need to find out if the rollers need new cores as well - I'm inclined to just buy new everything, but I suppose I should try to save money where I can. The prices on the NA Graphics website are "estimated," so I'd probably have to call them to get actual pricing.

American Printing Equipment (New York) 6-1/2 x 10 Pilot Press Letterpress Rubber Rollers Set/2 with Steel Core, $145 Definitely seems more expensive than NA Graphics, but I guess I may not have the real NA Graphics price yet.

Republic Roller Corporation (Michigan)
These guys are listed on Briar Press, and it's always good to find suppliers in the next state over. I'll probably give them a call to see if they have what I need and how much it would cost.

There also 10+ other listings on Briar Press for people supposedly selling rollers, so if I don't have any luck with the ones I've listed I can always check for more there. There's a good guide on rollers too.

2. Tympan Paper: according to this discussion on Briar Press, there are a lot of alternatives. However, due to my love of rules I may opt to at least start out with the real thing before I start experimenting. It looks like I can get the correct size from American Printing Equipment.

3. Gauge Pins: these little buggers are one of the main reasons I've been reluctant to buy a platen press at all. I'm sure my relationship with them will evolve, as I really haven't done too much platen printing compared to the amount I've done on Vandercooks. I just feel like there's no possible way gauge pins can reliably hold the paper in place for proper registration because they're just so tiny, yet I know it must be possible. So, I suppose I'll just have to get over it. I'm hoping to acquire a few of these with the purchase of the presses. If not, it appears they're readily available and not too expensive.

4. Furniture: even though I'll likely be doing most or all of my printing using polymer plates, I'll still need some furniture to lock up the Boxcar base in the chase. Probably only a few pieces - but I do really like the big furniture cabinets so I'll probably just go ahead and get one. Plus, I can see myself buying some type eventually, and you never know when you might find a perfect woodcut you want to print with.

5. Speaking of Boxcar bases, I'll be needing one (or several) of those. I dealt with Boxcar one before when I had them make some plates for me, which were kind of expensive but they were really nice and helpful. Dang these things are expensive! Looks like they recommend a 5 x 8.5 for a Pilot ($175) and a 6 x 9 for an 8 x 12 C&P. That page I just linked to also has a lot of good general information about using Boxcar bases with platen presses. I'll definitely be poring over that. The Boxcar Printing Manual also has a lot of good tips.

6. Roller gauge(s): I hadn't really thought of these, mainly because up until now I have pretty much judged roller height based on how prints look. I suppose it would probably be a good idea to grab one, though, plus they're pretty cool looking and not that expensive. Also, the Boxcar base letterpress starter packs come with one anyway, which sounds like a good deal.

7. Ink: I'll probably go with rubber based ink to start off with, but will likely end up experimenting at some point. These starter ink packs from Boxcar sound pretty cool, so I'll probably end up getting one of them. There is an interesting (and at times unnecessary aggressive, as internet discussions tend to be) thread over on Briar Press about ink alternatives and possible effects of various toxic letterpress substances. This is definitely of interest to me, as I will likely be having my own minis in the not too distant future. Someone mentions that water based inks work well for them on their Pilot, so maybe I'll investigate even though I'm not sure they're meant for use with polymer plates.

8. Cleaning supplies: another area in which to consider possible non-toxic-ness, and one in which I'll certainly have to experiment based on the types of ink I end up using. I'll also need to procure some of those nifty rags all letterpress studios seem to have, as well as figure out how to get them cleaned. I'll probably be asking my friends over at The Evanston Print And Paper Shop for suggestions on this one.

OK - that's all I've got for now. Is there anything else I'll need to start printing on my Pilot? I'm assuming, of course, that all the parts will be working and I won't have to do any major repairs or replacements. I'd like to clean and restore the press to it's best possible working condition, so I suppose there may be a few other things I'll need to get (oil?) to keep it happily maintained.

Pulp & Press is up - WOO!

2009-01-05T20:07:00.008-06:00

After reading a few blogs about the troubleshooting of letterpresses and the process of printing, I decided it would be helpful and/or entertaining to chronicle my own process. I first began letterpressing almost 2 years ago, and up until now I have either been taking classes or renting press time at places like Evanston Print and Paper. I have finally collected the money, space, and time to buy my own presses and although I'm excited - I'm sure there will be lots of trial and error and some frustration involved. Here's one of the babies I'm going to test out next weekend, a New Style (motorized) 8 x 12 Chandler & Price platen press:

I'll need to get new rollers for it, but those are supposedly readily available. I'll also need all sorts of bits and bobs - furniture, ink, boxcar base, key...I'm going to try and make a more comprehensive list soon. The other press I'll be buying is about 1/4th the size of this one, but since it's more portable it is highly sought after and costs more than twice as much: the Chandler & Price Pilot. That guy will be going in my office/studio at home, whereas the big fella will be parked in a warehouse I'm thankfully being given free access to! Only problem with that is that it's a big warehouse, and the heat/AC factor is pretty minimal. Might have to see about erecting some small walls and getting a space heater or something.

I've done most of my printing thus far on Vandercooks, which seems to be the press of choice for most schools. Maybe they're less intimidating because there aren't as many motorized parts, and maybe it's also because there's less potential for you to get a body part flattened. I have to admit that platen presses still make me a little nervous, so I'm just going to be printing reaallly slowly until I fully get the hang of it. The great thing about platen presses, though, is that they're so much more versatile. I'll be able to set them up to print, die cut, AND score. And hopefully my shoulder won't feel like it's about to fall off like after doing 400 prints on a Vandercook. Perhaps my next posting will be dedicated to the pros and cons of platen vs. flatbed presses...

I also intend to post here about making paper, which is another one of my favorite things to do and something I will be selling in my Tweedle Press shop as soon as I've made some more.

Anyway, readers, I hope you enjoy this blog - and please get in touch with me or leave comments if you have questions or general input - I'd love to hear from you!