Let’s Press

Let's Press from Strawberry Militia on Vimeo.

Strawberry Militia and Graphic Fury presents in association with the University of the Arts London ‘Let’s Press’ a film about letter press.

via simon goode

Testing paper on the Adana 8x5

Saunders Waterford cotton 300g Rough and 300g NOT, printed with some 60pt Gothic Condensed which measures 78mm x 20mm using hard packing.

I get lots of emails of Adana owners who can't get impression, well you can get a very good impression on a 8x5 press without using extreme force, but bare in mind the size of your text or block. A good way to get a feeling of what your Adana is capable of is to practice locking up different sizes of type and illustration blocks and printing without ink (blind impression).
The A6 card below is printed with wood type on the Adana 8x5 but the only way to get 
an impression was to split into two colours that way pressure is displaced not in one solid area. Also bare in mind this will eventually lead to well worn blocks as you are pushing into the paper, the wood type used here is well worn so the impression is not as crisp.

Printed on 300g Somerset Rough 100% cotton

Lots of water colour paper is good for printing on, the better it is the more expensive! Bockingford is a less expensive range but still good quality, your local art suppliers will stock plenty of ranges to experiment with before trying out more expensive papers like Cranes Lettra.
It's also worth noting that all the lovely letterpress work knocking around on the internet has been done mostly on larger presses that really pack a punch, your Adana hasn't got the same pressure but treat it kindly and don't ask to much at once and you'll get some lovely results ;D

play with type

I was honoured to be included in Jens’s mailing list of his recent Christmas work ‘a play with V’ featuring the use of some intricate formes of locked type on the cover and pages. Above is the forme for just one of my favourites, the house of cards, using brass rule and Victory 

You can see more pictures on Bogtrykkeren’s Flickr photos HERE

Are you inspire to have a play?

There are no rules start simple like this one here or go crazy like this one here and this one or this get more technical. If you are new to letterpress just follow the tip below and HAVE FUN!

LETTERPRESS TIP

When you tighten your quoins, tighten each one a little a time starting with the outside ones first (if using more than 2 quoins) and working in, alternating between each one. Don't just tighten one quoin up as tight as you can before moving to another and don't over tighten or you might find your forme lifting and springing outwards. To test wether your forme is locked up tight enough, gently lift your chase a LITTLE, if there's one little bit just not holding, loosen your quoins and add a metal thin or card, tighten your quoins again, repeat until it holds.

The really crazy ones are best done a flat bed press (less chance of things dropping out) but it still works on a platen. More inspiration in the group pool Letterpress Forme on Flickr