Ok, here I am, ink under my fingernails! Work on my letterpress project, “Choices” has begun!
As mentioned last post, I had mounted my yellow-printing plate – the sign background – on my block and racked into the chase. Today, I again came face-to-face with my old press. It took a while to get the press rolling: the rollers were stiff and cranky, I needed to check the packing – remove old packing, etc.. But, elbow grease, WD40, and blessings from On-High (a consistently successful team for problem solving) got it clacking with that loud, telltale “clank… thud…clank” that only a letterpress makes. Gotta love it.
As plates go, this is a very easy one to print: it’s only detail is on the edges, so no hassles with details plugging-up … over- or under-inking isn’t much of a problem. The next plate I print, the black-printer, will be more difficult.
So, the press run went well, I mixed the right quantity of ink (in the past, I’ve had to re-mix … not easy to match …). But it went well. I ran about 60 sheets of Rives BFK – so, with some lost in setup and to mishaps, I’m hoping this limited edition run will be around 50.
We’ll see.
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