My first impressions

I finally finished my first lino-cut this weekend and decided to spend some time Sunday afternoon locking it up in the chase, inking up the press, and trying it out. Not too bad for my first attempt. I have alot to learn about how to get a consistant impression and better coverage. During the make-ready process, I made a print, and rotated the paper to try another impression so I wasn't wasting paper. What I ended up with with a cool overlapping image that I really love! You gotta love those "happy accidents" (thank you Bob Ross). I ended up printing the rest of them the same way. I only have black and white ink at this point. I think I might take another stab at this with some different colors overprinting. I think it would look really cool.

The metal bits in the third photo are called "quoins" pronouced like "coins." They are designed to lock the artwork into the metal frame or "chase." Two of them were given to me by my friend Allison Chapman at Igloo Letterpress and the third quoin and the key (which is really hard to find) was purchased on-line last week. Not only is the press a beatiful machine, I'm finding that the accessories are every bit as eye-catching.

Figure drawing Fridays are back!

Well, I guess I should restate that headline: "I'm back at Figure Drawing Fridays." They have been going on without me for a couple months. The end of 2009 was so crazy I had to take a two and a half month break. Getting back into drawing as a scheduled part of my week has awakened my senses and reminded me of why we started that group in the first place. My friend Patrick Crawford and I started the group in his old studio back in 2007 and it has gathered a following of devoted sketchers ever since. It has not only been a place to advance my skills with a pencil, it has become a time to connect with a group of good friends, a place of weekly meditation, and a break from the world of creating client-driven content. Drawing for myself helps me be a more creative person for my clients. 

If you are interested in drawing with us, please drop me an email and I can send you the details. You can also visit my flickr page which documents the good, bad and ugly over the past three years. I've come a long way!

Chelsea is Superga!



I needed a model and I needed one fast. Fortunately, one phone call to my friend Chelsea Perkins was all I needed. Despite the sub-freezing temperatures she did a fantastic job. I plan to use her again in the future. Thanks Chelsea!

Superga is a classic Italian shoe company that is relatively new to the U.S. market. I recently had the opportunity to work on the branding for their U.S. distributer, thanks to the fine people at R.G Barry who brought me in to design this project.

 

Igloo prints Seagull

This afternoon I stopped by to watch Alison at Igloo Letterpress crank out the new hang tags and business cards for Seagull Bags. I love that place! I was joined by my friend David Yugovich from Ydesign. It was a good opportunity to show him the presses and geek out about paper and ink and how cool letterpress looks. I think we'll be printing his new cards there as well.

The red ink is printed and drying. Next comes the brown ink and then die cut. Everything will be delivered to Dan next week. I can hardly wait.

More to come...

 

 

Old press, new feed table.

About 4 years ago, our old 40-foot black walnut tree in the back yard took one for the team. Being the highest point on our property, it sacrified itself by taking a massive lightning strike. A thin strip of bark peeled off all the way down one side of the tree and the leaves began dropping mid-summer. We knew that the tree our kids loved to swing from wasn't going to survive.

A few months later, when the tree guys came to cut it down, I asked them if the wood was worth keeping. He said for $50 he'd have it board-cut and bring it back. We didn't hear from them for over 2 years and I had kinda forgot about it. One night at dinner, completely unannounced, appeared the tree guy with a truck full of board cut black walnut. Thanks to a friend with a planer and a big heart, we took 2 full evenings last summer to plane it all down. Sad to say, this is the first piece I have used so far. I can't think of a better place to use it.

Our first linocut prints

I hope my mother will forgive me for my comments from the previous post. My 8-year-old son begged me to allow him to cut his own block. Even after explaining the likelihood that he'd jab his finger with a gouge, he insisted. So, I took some time to show him the proper way to cut, helped him with a few of the details and let him do the rest. Not only did he NOT cut himself, he managed to cut a pretty sweet piece of art!

I didn't have any ink yet so I called my friend Allison Chapman at Igloo Letterpress. She hooked us up with some rubber-based inks in black and white. I accidently left the black ink at her shop so we tried the press with the white. What fun! Caleb's prints look great. They will be even better when the new rollers arrive; I placed an order last week. Can't wait.

Carving linoleum, not my thumb

My mom bought me a linoleum block set when I was young...far too young to be carving linoleum blocks. I recall getting the kit down and using it long enough to run a gouge into my thumb and bleed all over myself. It would go back up on the shelf long enough for me to forget how bad it hurt and I would try it again. I wasn't a very fast learner. I'll spare you a similar story with my wood burning set. Sometimes I wonder whether she was trying to encourage my artistic abilities or scar me for life.

I forgot how bad it hurts so I got the kit back out last week. This time I'm remembering to cut away from myself. I have found several sites on-line that show how to print linocuts with a letterpress. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

More to come...

Self-promotion is a family affair

Thanks to my wife and in-laws, we have been cranking out some hand-made, personalized notebooks for self promotion. We spent several evenings over Christmas stamping, gluing, and assembling notebooks for the new year. Becky's mom was master of the rubber stamp and rubber cement, her dad can punch rounded corners like nobody's business and Becky did a little bit of everything. It's been a crazy Christmas with the new business startup and working on several projects at the same time. 2010 will be the official launch of my business and there's been alot to do to. Details like registering as a corporation, setting up finances and setting up healthcare make my head spin. My wife has been eager to do all of the above as well as run errands, send invoices and print business cards. She totally rocks.

Letterpress update

I picked up a bead blaster from Harbor Freight and set up a small blasting booth in my garage to catch the flying debris. The gun did a great job removing most of the grime and surface rust. Compare this photo with the one below! It also did a good job getting in my eyes despite wearing safety goggles. It has the beautiful dark patina of 100 year old cast iron so I decided to hold off on the painting. A press like this shouldn't look brand new. We used a brass wire wheel to remove rust and paint on the chase and smaller parts and gave the whole thing a good coat of mineral oil to protect it from growing more rust.

It looks like the handle was broken at some point and welded back together so the previous owner tapped a new hole to tighten the handle to the press with an allen wrench. They also drilled a small hole in the shaft for the screw to set into so it wouldn't slip. Unfortunately, they didn't make the hole deep or wide enough to accept the screw whch caused it to slip when pressure was applied. So I grabbed my drill and took care of problem by enlarging the hole. It holds MUCH better now.

Next step is to find some money to buy a new set of rollers ($200!!!!). I don't have the cash to buy rollers and boxcar base so I'm thinking about trying to do some linoleum prints.

More to come...