I printed the first & second runs of the Dept of Energy Promo Poster I’ve been working on. Being a tease, I’m only going to showcase the first ink pass today. You’ll have to wait until Monday to get the pictures from the second ink pass.

Shown above is how the split fountain looks on press and on the large block I used. (It should also be noted it was * gasp * sunny out!) If interested in more photos continue on into the post.

The block locked up on press.

I printed this segment of the poster on a Vandercook SP15. We call him Harry in the shop and he always treats me right. Sure, he has his quirks, but each press does, especially one that is almost 50 years old. However, I’ve been printing on him for over 4 years now, so I know how to work around his grumbles.

My inks for this pass, as well as a a stack of prints.

Working Harry on a sunny spring day in Seattle in my printers apron.

Stacks of prints drying on type cases (leading seen above ‘em).

You can tell from these 3 stacks, the difference between each print. That is part of the joy of letterpress-literally each print becomes one-of-a-kind. In this first run, the differences are caused not only because of varying ink levels and paper personality (the general cause of each prints uniqueness), but also because of the split fountain technique I’m using. The roller oscillates slightly back & forth as it turns round & round to ink it. Therefore, it is constantly changing the dynamic of the ink colors where each new color meets. Also, each time I have to re-ink the rollers-every 3 prints in this case because I was covering a very large surface area & the paper I am using is very absorbent-it contributes to the varying relations where each color meets.

Stayed tuned for images of round three!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 4:57 pm and is filed under design, letterpress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.