6 posts tagged “letterpress”

my first "official" letterpress good are now available in my tweedle press shop. i made them as the first in what (i hope) will be a series of seasonal fruits and vegetables, with half of the proceeds being donated to my non-profit organization, chicago locavores. here is acorn squash, available as a single card or a 10 card pack:

next is sweet dumpling squash, also available as a single card or a 10 card pack:
you can also get a combo pack of both squash, with 5 each:
these would make great gifts, and by buying them you're supporting both a small business (me!) as well as an envorinmentally, socially, and economically responsible and organization.

i just wanted to show you what the film and plates looked like for my current 3-color letterpress job that i'm working on. you design your stuff on the computer, then send it in to be made into film:

then you take your film and your sheet of photo-polymer, stick it in the magical machine and ZAP!! 20 minutes later, here is what the plates look like:

if you remember a little while back, i went about explaining the process of registration for a letterpress project i'm working on for my chicago locavores group. well...i got a little sidetracked but finally made the first attempt last night. after working through an odd squeaky roller problem, registration for the first 2 colors went swimmingly! here's what it looks like:

you'll notice that two of the bottom crop marks are missing - something i had to do to get the piece to fit in pairs on a sheet of paper. since i've got all the other marks, though, cutting these up shouldn't be a problem. i'm pretty happy with how i mixed the colors - the scan doesn't show them 100% accurately but they look great on the paper. if you look closely you'll see how the green and blue crop marks line up fairly well - well enough for this particular registration anyhow. i used french paper speckletone in true white, cover weight.

when i add the 3rd color and the back, i'll post it.

...we salute you.

actually, this is for anyone who's interested in this mysterious "registration" process. i'm designing a flyer for my new chicago locavores group (dedicated to eating locally), and i've decided to embark upon an ambitious 3 color letterpress print. so far i have successfully registered 2 colors - so why not try for a third?? here is the flyer broken down into its 3 parts:

so, if you've not of the designerly or printerly type and you've heard people talking about registration, here's what happens. in the case of this printing (which i'll be doing on a letterpress), i'm going to have the above images turned into photopolymer plates. although they are shown in the ink colors i intend to print in, first black and white film is made. then ultraviolet light is shown through the film onto a sheet of polymer (plastic) and wherever light goes through the plastic hardens. that's the basic process anyway.

you then cut up your plastic so that the three images are separate, and load plate #1 (smushy blue text) onto the press. print a whole bunch, because you'll need extra (or "makeready") sheets to practice registration. after you've cleaned the press of your blue ink, you load plate #2 (green text) onto the press. you then run you blue prints through the press again, adjusting placement until your crop marks all land right on top of each other. clean up again, load on plate #3 (orange), and go through the adjustment process until your crop marks all line up again. theoretically, once you're done you'll have a lovely 3-color print like this:

all ready for trimming! and there you have it - the magic of registration. i'm going to attempt this print next tuesday - i'll post about how it goes.

i have completed my first "official" tweedle press letterpress job. custom invites (especially of the traditional wedding nature) aren't really my cup of tea, but this was more of a favor and also a good excuse to practice registration on a vandercook press. here's how it came out:

i've blurred the crucial information, just cause i thought it would probably be weird to advertise someone's personal party info on a blog. obviously from this scan you can't see the neat letterpress texture i achieved, but i went for a pretty deep punch to give is that "new" letterpress look. i used paper source luxe cream cover stock because it's no nice and squishy and takes the punch really well. even though the registration between the dark brown and the lighter goldy brown isn't very tight, you can still tell that it's lined up well by the centering. and trust me, those crop marks were TIGHT, baby!

this was a fairly small run (only 40), and i managed to escape with only about 25% makeready (that is, "practice" prints). this was done using photo polymer plates, and i'm pretty happy with how crisp everything came out.

ok, after doing some test runs with these papers from french: