Cow Cards

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.

Mimi's Organic Exchange

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.

So Speedy!

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

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).

must. kill.

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

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).

How To Throw A Rockin' High Tea Party

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)!

Letterpresser or...mechanic?

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.

It Goes!

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...

A Fresh Start

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!

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

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.