We have progress on the broadside

After printing my first pressure print layer on the letterpress at Diane's last Wednesday, it took me 3 tries before I had a plate that I was happy with for the 2nd layer. In the process, I completely destroyed the plate for the 1st layer, so that's officially cancelled.

My first attempt, using pva on cardstock, buckled the paper. My 2nd attempt, again pva on cardstock only this time I pressed it between release paper under bricks, I tried to lift up the release paper a bit too early and completely peeled off a layer of the paper. The 3rd time, I left it under bricks for overnight and that was ok.

I printed this layer at home, and had a heck of a time achieving any kind of a control over the situation. Everytime I changed the packing, things changed in ways totally different from what I was expecting. Everytime I inked up (with very little ink), the next print got way darker, and then 2 prints later, it seemed like I needed to ink up again.

I went through my 56 sheets of paper and it wasn't clear to me that I was going to get 40 good prints for the edition. But at this point, I really can't start over again.

I took a break from the broadside on Sunday, then on Monday I added the leaves and the white in the bark. So now there are 2 layers of pressure print on the letterpress (1st layer—gray & yellow background, 2nd layer—blue & orange over that), 2 layers on the gocco (the leaves & the bark).



Today, I looked at the bark and decided it needed to go white still, so there are now 2 layers of white over the bark, and here I'm printing the gray areas in the tree bark. The paper size measures 20"x13", so it's hanging over the edges of the gocco.



Now this is 2 layers of pressure print and 4 layers of gocco. I still have the text, patterns over the leaves, and maybe a rabbit to print.



The print is too large to dry on my drying racks, and I do like seeing them all lined up like this:

The first layer of the broadside

After a few days of proofing the plate, I finally printed it at Diane's last night. I had never done rainbow rolls before, so I thought it best to have some supervision. I made some potstickers and we had a potluck at her place with her family. The potstickers were a huge hit with the kids. After dinner, we went to work.

So here's the final version of the paper plate for this first layer. This is a single sheet of cardstock (probably 80lb cardstock) that I have either cut out some shapes or removed layers of the paper from it (without making big holes).



And here's the printed result. Pressure printing is just so incredibly sensitive. The image is completely created by the various thicknesses throughout the single sheet of cardstock.



I have yet to make the plate for the 2nd layer, but I hope to do that tomorrow.

The roofers finished putting on the new roof this afternoon. The garage (where the letterpress is) had to be cleaned up (again) before I can use it again. There was debris everywhere. So now it's beautiful and pristine (on my side at least, we're not looking at the Good Prince's side).

Pressure print, day 3

I'm getting warmer still. Here I'm peeling off more layers of paper. You can see the hawk shape in the lower left corner of the paper:



With the light shining through it, you can see the different thicknesses in the parts of the image:



And here's the result. I think I must've worked on the plate more after I took the photo above.



I had a hard time getting a completely even print. I printed just the solid block many times, trying to get all the unevenness worked out, but never really could. So I just went with it.

Since making this proof, I've removed even more paper from the plate. Although, I'm thinking, there must be an easier way to print this. And I'm hoping that the plate will last though the print run of 50.

Pressure print, on my own

Hey, things are moving right along. I got the MDF, the plexi, adhered the plexi to the MDF using Duromount, which worked beautifully. Here is the base set up in the print bed:



I prepared the plate using the cardstock I got from Diane. The cutouts are the leaves in the mockup. (Picture of mockup in this entry.) You can't see, but the backside of the cardstock had been scrapped in the places where I want the ink to gradually fade to white. And after phone conferences with Diane & Andrew (during a layover in SLC) to make sure I've got everything correct in my head, I went to work.



The print. Obviously, I have not achieved the fade to white, but I'm getting there—you can vaguely make out the shape of the hawk's shadow on the bottom right. And that's done just by removing a layer of the cardstock from the back, leaving the hawk shape intact. The middle of the tree trunk is also supposed to go to white, and I can see a slight difference. More paper removal and experimenting is necessary, but I'm a lot closer than I was yesterday. I'm also a lot more tired. Running the letterpress is physically much harder work, although you're not bent over the press like you do with the gocco, so at least my back doesn't hurt.



I do have a couple of problems that will need conferring with Diane or Andrew, but hopefully, by Wednesday, I'd be printing and not just experimenting.