Success!

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.

Pulp & Press is up - WOO!

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!