Letterpress progress

My letterpress project is nearly done now. I managed to fill up every spare moment I had in October with wandering around the library looking for ideas, sketching them up, setting type, setting the same text in half the typefaces in the shop, and otherwise getting things ready. Those things took so much time that I had to basically pick out paper and ink without thinking about them; I just went with the one clear vision of it that I had, which was black type and a dark blue linocut on light blue paper. I was thinking of more of a dusty cadet blue paper but oh well. Practically everyone recommended the Magnani Pescia, which was brilliant. Thick and soft and beautifully-textured and squishy, the type bites right into it and gives a very pleasing impression.

Getting all the rest of it together, especially setting my colophon (good lord, did I test a lot of typefaces for that) took so long I ran out of TA-supervised shop time to actually cut my paper. I was getting kind of concerned about that and considering who I would have to beg (probably Jynn) to help me cut it between then (Sunday afternoon) and my press date on Tuesday. But after leaving the print shop, I ran into Gabe from my class at Uptown Espresso, and as I was explaining my predicament I realized that we have a perfectly good print shop with a big paper cutter at work, so I went in Monday morning, picked up my paper, and took it in to work. Robert asked Matt to show me the ropes, which he very kindly and patiently did. I now know how to run a Heidelberg hydraulic paper cutter; that one must cut the edges that one wants to keep with the back side of the blade, so the pieces you want must be cut long and trimmed; and lots more, although there are still plenty of buttons that I have no idea of the purpose of. Thank you Matt! I owe you a broadside and a beer!

I took the day off of work Tuesday to mix my ink. Amy was there and helped me a great deal. She made me feel a lot better about using plain old black for my type pass, pointing out that not only would the play of light and shadow created by the impression of the type be as good as having a third color, black would look very handsome and not dull at all on the fine blue paper. She was exactly right.

Finally, with only a short sandwich and coffee break, I was ready to go on press. Robert (one of the TAs) and Brian (one of my classmates) assisted me on the Vandercook Number 4. Getting everything set up just right took a long time. Now and then, things like this make me realize that I take a long time at many, many things. Getting the alignment just right was hard, and I couldn't get the measurements to all add up, so I was convinced that the page or something was crooked. Robert had to gently upbraid me for trying to do everything with measurements and arithmetic and not just setting the thing up, straightening it up on press, and printing. I wonder who is right and in what context. Certainly I like to be meticulous and precise in my measurements in woodworking and that kind of thing; otherwise you wind up with crooked kayaks and downdraft tables that don't seal. But when in Rome...

We got through the first pass, producing 48 good pieces out of 60 that I cut. About a third of the spoilage was the expected test pieces during setup, while we got the alignment and ink coverage nailed down. Another third came from not adding ink until a piece came out without enough ink, which one can learn to avoid by listening to the inking rollers and adding ink before you run short. I need to work on that. Finally, I wrecked a disgusting number by forgetting to set the trip/print lever to print, producing only a faint and smudging impression.

That left about half an hour in class, so we cleaned up and Amy scheduled me to print the second pass—just the linocut, with my blue ink—with Robert on Sunday. Twelve hours away as of this writing. I went in today, got out my blue ink, brayered it onto my lino block, and pulled an ink proof onto one of the almost-but-not-quite-fully-inked spoiled pages. I was concerned about whether my blue was going to look good on the blue paper. It is. I've got a beta copy (I pencilled in a beta where the edition number would go) and I'm very happy with it. I only hope there's enough blue ink to get me through all 48. If not, I'll have to see if I can squeeze in another run later. At least if that happens I'll have a chance to use a different color, which would be interesting.