Rustnstuff

Sunday, July 26, 2020

More printing ornaments for DEP

Fiona and I did a couple of trades with our friend Nola over the last couple of weeks. One trade was the ornaments in this post. Nola had bought the ornaments many years ago; but had not used them a lot.

I needed to raise the height of all the ornaments by between 1.5mm and 2.5mm so that they were type high and would print in our presses.

I did a test run on a few pieces once I had adjusted the height.

A few photos of the groups of ornaments follow.

I think there are quite a few that will give folk joy to print with.

Friday, July 24, 2020

Grabbing bits of creative time

There is quite a lot on in our lives at the moment so we grab bits of time to create when and what we can.

I cut some metal for the pendants in this post when I was making the small metal books. I got all the pendants stamped, drilled ground and polished; and managed to assemble three as you can see from the opening and following photos.

A few process photos follow.

I might finish assembling the others over the weekend; or not.

Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Home and away and other fragments

Fiona and I have been way from the mountain for a couple of days of work-work.

What a contrast between the colours and outlook of the valley from our back deck; and the view from our accommodation window.

But Graham's orchids and other blossoms are little fragments of joy and restful colour.

Lovely to see bees at work on a sunny day.

Sunday, July 19, 2020

An artists' book

Fiona an I have set ourselves a challenge to make an artists book based on certain parameters including it will not be bound; and it will include words such as a poem.

I chose to do a book from a single sheet of paper. This sounds simple but when you combine it with the fact that there will be 8 pages (not including the back of the sheet); and the goal is to do one print and therefore one lock up of the type. I have never made a single sheet book before; and I never did the type setting for such a book - what could go wrong???

Well as you can see many things can go wrong. The layout and sequence of the pages is a challenge - odd sequence and half were upside down as well as back to front. Strangely I followed the set out I had on an instruction sheet - but of course that was how it should look once it was printed; and of course the end result was wrong.

Fiona and I did a brain storming session and we (mainly Fiona) worked out the correct typesetting layout. I used the challenge as an opportunity to improve the layout and lock up.

The outcome was right sequence etc - the proof was used to fix typos and slightly improve the alignment. Back to proofing - good outcome and now ready to print: but first chose the best paper. Fortunately I have an in-house paper consultant (Fiona) we tested 5 papers for print quality and folding flexibility.

In the end we chose two papers for two limited editions: MAP paper for the regular version; and synthetic vellum for the version that meets the transparency parameter of our project description. I printed about 19 for the regular version (I want an edition of about 15); and 8 for the vellum version (I want and edition of 5). I used the 1890 Lightning Jobber press for the printing.

The backs of the books will be printed towards the end of next week; and folding will occur when the ink on the back is dry.

Friday, July 17, 2020

Precious small metal books

I have managed to finish the 10 small (3.5cm w by 4.5cm h) silver-plated books. The books are made from metal salvaged from high quality silver-plated placemats. The contents are only one word stamped into the third page (hope, believe, love and peace).

I needed to open the riveted books; and give them a final grind and polish and remove sharp edges.

An example of each book follows.

These precious inspiration books will now make their way into the gallery-shop at Deckled Edge Press studio-workshop.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Revisiting my sculpture, dawn light, micro eco-systems and other fragments

My blog post today is a bit of this and that. Fiona and I had an early meeting this morning so no time for a walk. It was such a gorgeous blue sky day that we decided to take a drive to a nearby town and check my Little Yabba Creek sculpture on the way.