This weekend Joe and I drove four hours south to pick up a new addition to the studio that I found on Craigslist: a Chandler and Price letterpress. It was quite an adventure; we borrowed a trailer and drove the GPS's "most direct route" which went through winding back roads and unmarked paths (I think it's time for a new GPS). When we got there, the door needed to come off the studio it was in, and it took us two hours to roll it out and onto the trailer. Then we hauled the one-ton press back over the winding roads, to it's new home in the garage.
With all the orders coming in, it has been impossible to keep up while printing everything by hand. So in order to speed up the process, some of the prints will now be done on a letterpress. First it needs to be cleaned and oiled and it needs new rollers, but once we get it going I can start printing blocks on the press!
And the second new addition: our puppy Luka who we adopted a week before the Stationery Show and likes to sleep in random places:
There's a lot going on here, and I can't wait to get the press all cleaned up and ready to go! I can't even imagine how nice it will be to print 500 cards in a run rather than 50. If you want to see how it works, Elizabeth from Sugarcube Press has a great video here.
Katharine,
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you will get this comment/question as this is a fairly old post, but I have a couple questions about the press.
Are you able to use your linoleum blocks on the press?
If so, when you use your block on the press--is this now considered a block print or a letterpress print??
My confusion, I think, surrounds the terminology I guess.
My understanding is that block printing (by hand) produces a raised image on the paper whereas the letterpress will produce an indented image on the paper (due to the pressure) is this correct? Is this how your press works?
Example, if you used your block to hand print a card this would leave the ink on top of the paper= block printed card.
if you use your press with the same block, would this leave the image indented=letterpress card
2 different things???
Thanks in advance if you get this question and respond :)
Leticia
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