Final Polymer Plate and Crash Printing

It's sad to say that this semester is over. I had so much in the class and learned a ton, most specifically within the final production pieces. I learned to appreciate and respect the challenges that go along with hand done printing, i.e. that of the inadequacies of the pieces. I experienced several blocks to not be type-high but lead me to utilize strips of masking tape to raise the blocks. During crash printing, the wood type takes the rubber based inks in an uneven fashion and when printed creates a very exciting texture which is truly specific to the medium of wood type. Also, the issues with registration (as seen in the second image in the triptych) that are so specific and precise. As a designer, I want it to be perfect and points and picas are just not small enough to get it right! But that goes with the medium and I appreciate and welcome the challenge.

I chose to leave out the word "ready" on some of the prints to retain the integrity of the design and detail of the polymer plate itself. As seen in the bottom image of the triptych, the dimension of the image is highly detailed and the polymer plate medium makes this possible as it can support such a small dot within a halftone image.

My internet connection is not fast enough to load the final images of these pieces so visit my website and see this, and all of the finished pieces from this semester! READY-made final page

Again I loved this class and will continue to blog about my processes in later classes because ultimately the process dictates the final piece and I feel that is important to document.

Crash Printing!

I was so excited after class on Thursday, I just had to blog about it. My experience with crash printing was great! I left class with ink dyed hands and a smile on my face. The images included are simple cell phone images and I apologize for the quality, I will update as soon as I am able. Laid out are the prints I made with the headline "Type SET!, Press" and "Ready, SET!, Press" which is a contradiction to the amount of time the prints actually take to create.

It took quite awhile for things to come together, what with non-type-high pieces that are older than I am. In order to make things sit at the right levels, I first tried using strips of leading underneath the pieces and that was even too much. So, from there, I used only two strips of masking tape which worked really well. Also, when I realized I wasn't pulling the arm back far enough on the Ostrander press, things worked even more effectively. It's over 100 years old, naturally I will be a little tentative.

Again, I will add more images once they are available, I was just too excited!