Happy Hour 08.08.11 (Featuring Handmade Photopolymer)

Fun Happy Hour last night! Erica came to print a linocut she'd carved:

Meanwhile, everyone else decided to experiment with making their own photopolymer plates. Here's everyone scratching away at their negatives:

Molly's project:

Erin hand-inking her plate (everyone inked by hand to save on clean up time):

Her negative and the print:

Laura planning out what she wanted to do for her design:

A cute heart in a speech bubble (in dusty pink):

Loved Erika's trees:

Great job everyone! See you in two weeks!

Happy Hour 3.16.11

Hello there friends!

Better late than never.... I've finally gotten around to posting pics from last week's Happy Hour! The card above was printed by Miranda on the tabletop. Here's really cute action shot:

The yellow "hi" was printed using some wood type here at Pyramid. The "hello there friend" was a bit of type that Miranda added to a photopolymer order that was going to Boxcar.

Steve and Morgan came to work on some typesetting projects. Can't wait to see what each of them cooks up!

And lastly, Melanie and I spent most of time prepping for printing.... Mel worked on an inventory of all the various papers she has and I worked on cutting my 22" x 30" paper into 4.5" x 6.25" sheets. We're both preparing for our upcoming Grey Moggie/Orange Tabby joint ventures!

In the studio...

Earlier this week, I was in the studio with Melissa Livingston printing a passage by George Bernard Shaw so she could get her remaining hours for certification.

Melissa inking up the Universal:

Her first color:

Her inked photopolymer plate for her second color:

And the resulting print (this beautiful initial cap was made from one of the files available at Briar Press):

Obligatory drying rack shot (doesn't everything look great on the drying rack?):

The extra fun part was that it was Melanie was teaching Jeremy Lin how to use the C&P at the same time!

Next Saturday: Photopolymer class!

Intimidated by the process of designing and printing with photopolymer? No need to be! I’ll be teaching my photopolymer class this coming Saturday March 19. This class is designed for those who’ve printed with metal/wood type before and want to learn the basics of using photopolymer, which allows us to print digital designs on the presses. I’ll go over how to set up plates on the press and everyone will print a page of useful tips to take home with them. Then we’ll go over how to design for printing with polymer, how to order plates from Boxcar Press and take a look at individual projects. Register for the class here!

Here are some photos of a photopolymer project taken by Aly Hurt. Aly was a student in my polymer class last year and designed the January page in the 2011 Pyramid Atlantic Letterpress Calendar:

 

 

In the studio...

Here's a great "Thank You" card by newly certified printer, Miranda Anderson as a part of her sister's wedding suite:

I was prepared to go over the ins and outs of printing two colors on the Vandercooks, but amazingly the registration was perfect on the first try! See more photos of the process at Miranda's blog!

Members Only Workshop

On January 28, we held our first Members Only letterpress workshop! This workshop was a part of a series of monthly workshops that are free to a limited number of Pyramid Atlantic members (registration is on a first-come, first-served basis). For our workshop, Leslie had the idea to have people scratch designs into negatives to create their own homemade polymer plate for printing on the Vandercooks.

Unfortunately, I was a little busy during the first half of the workshop and forgot to take pictures. Here are the few action shots that I did get!

I love Leslie's expression in this photo as she's making rounds checking on people scrubbing their exposed polymers:

And here are some photos of the prints that were made. We inked up the presses with Pantone Warm Red and Process Blue and had a variety of papers available to choose from.

A lovely heart design made by Melissa Livingston, printed on handmade paper:

Dawn Hershberger's design, printed on wheat-colored Canson Edition:

A really interesting design, also printed on wheat Canson Edition. I didn't catch the name of the artist:

Clare Winslow's space-inspired print, on handmade paper:

Gary Arlen's print on champagne Canford card:

Bonnie Lee Holland's print on French Muscletone Kraft paper next to her scratched negative:

A photo showing the three stages of Juraj Mihalik's design:

Marj Hollis's turtle. Originally, two of the flippers didn't show up because the lines were scratched too thinly on the negative. Luckily, Marj had time to go back and scratch a little more into the negative and make a second plate:

Morgan Ward's self-portrait on Stonehenge:

Here's the same plate printed on bright red Canford cardstock (though the photo doesn't really do it justice!)

Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get everyone's prints before they left. But overall, I think everyone had a great time and came away with some pretty amazing prints!

More workshops:

• To be attend these free monthly workshops, you must be a Pyramid Atlantic member. Sign up here! The next Members Only workshop will be on Friday, February 25 (topic TBA).

• Check out the schedule of our other letterpress workshops here!

In the studio...

Amelia Smith of Amelia Irene Design usually prints on her tabletop at home but sometimes comes to Pyramid to print larger things on the Vandercooks. I bumped into her today as she was preparing for her bridal showcase this coming Sunday.

A poster she printed:

And below are photos of some pieces of a set of wedding stationery that she's featuring.

The invitation:

A table number (still needs to be trimmed):

The thank you card:

I love the color she used. It makes me think of drizzled chocolatey swirls! Come to think of it, it'd look great on a cake as well!

For more info about Amelia and her showcase, check out her website: www.ameliairene.com.

Happy Hour 1.19.11

Another batch of photos from Happy Hour!

Heather dropped by to do some test prints to decide what color to use when printing her wedding stationery. Some test prints on her kraft paper envelopes:

And some test prints on white scrap paper:

Aly came to print some type she'd set at the last happy hour:

Meanwhile, Leslie, Melanie and I tried to make some homemade photopolymer plates made by scratching out an image on a negative. Here's Leslie's plate after inking:

And her print:

We're really excited that it worked!