Rustnstuff: Letterpress gift cards

Showing posts with label Letterpress gift cards. Show all posts

Sunday, July 9, 2023

A big effort

After just under 600 pressings of the lever on the Ardana press I produced 138 celebration coasters and 36 celebrate gift cards. But the final result of cards, such as in the opening photo, starts with cutting up heaps of coaster board-paper.

Setting the type.

Proofing the type and testing the set up.

Then it is on to just printing and printing as you can see from the following photos.

Of course as you can see from the last photo there are usually a couple of casualties - but even these look beautiful.

Thanks to Fiona for doing the clean up of rollers and ink plate at the end. These coasters and gift cards will all be used at the end of the year.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Some production can be playful

Fiona and I spent Saturday and Sunday morning working in Deckled Edge Press studio-workshop-gallery. We are continuing to make product for sale; and test the set up of the space, systems and equipment before we open in a few weeks. Of course the opening will have to be done in accord with the Covid-19 requirements including numbers.

One of the fun pieces was the card below - it could be a birthday card; but could also just be an everyday card for folk who love riding bikes. We loved the joyful play on words.

I finished a few more book marks.

I packaged up the gift cards - a stash as you can see from the photo below.

The isolation time is not being wasted.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Gorgeous purple

Fiona had been doing some experimenting with rolling three colours on to wood type. Rather than waste the ink I decided I would do a couple more print runs of gift cards using more of those ornaments.

The purple I created by mixing the dark purple into leftover white created a gorgeous purple where the white was fairly popping out of it.

I did a press run in purple; and then managed to print some in red today.

I did not quite get time to finish the series - only a couple more; and then the tray of ornaments can be put back into the cabinet ready for use by us or students who may come to try their hand in the Deckled Edge Press studio.

Friday, May 15, 2020

Not done until ....

Though Fiona and I put in quite a few hours in the letterpress studio today there is not a lot to show by way of finished product. In fact in our diary for today it said - stocktake, inventory, cull - so that meant no play until the tedious work was completed.

We have moved our entire print studio into our new premises in town; and we intend to have a studio-gallery shop that not only sells Deckled Edge Press products; but also Fiona and my bits and pieces of art. So we had hauled them all our stuff over to the new premises and spent the day sorting, culling, writing the items up etc.

My first job was to sort and do an inventory of my small sculptural work, metal work and jewellery. And of course I needed to sort the online shop items from the actual shop items - hence the blue line in the photo below.

I did get a bit of time to sort more of the ornaments and chose some pieces for my next series of gift cards.

©2020 Barry Smith - I think I mentioned that many of the pieces of ornament are dirty and if you look closely in the first photo some pieces have dents - I will see if I can find replacement pieces before doing a proof.

All in all a satisfying day.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Sorting, cleaning testing - leads to production

Over time Fiona and I have acquired lead and other pieces that are known as ornaments - not word type but rather bits and pieces that are decorative in nature.

In the past Fiona had inked up a few pieces and stamped paper by hand to see how they might print; but we really needed to sort the tray and just check how they would print on a press.

Amongst our Adana presses we also have a wee 5inchX3inch press. So I decided I'd do some printing to test out how the wee Adana worked; and see how some of the ornaments printed.

©2020 Barry Smith - Small Adana chase with rose ornament locked in - you can see in a past life the ornament was not cleaned after use. The locking on this small press chase is done using inbuilt grub screws in the bottom and right hand arms of the chase - quite ingenious

Once I knew how the Adana worked and how ornaments might print I decided to print a series so we have a bit of a sampler. But as you know one thing leads to another - so I decided I might as well print 20 of each in gift card size.

In the end I printed about 13 individual and clusters of ornaments.

I'm cleaning the ornaments as I go and re-organising the type tray they have been stored in. I have quite a way to go but it is worth it - rescued history.