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Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Admiral has landed!

He is here indeed. Bloody big one too I knew the size but wasn't expecting how imposing it is. Impressive stuff. I have nick named him 'Admiral Gordon' - dunno why the nautical theme.

Stats:
Model: 10x15 Chandler & Price Old Style (spokes of wheel are curvy)
Weight: 2,500 lbs (nearly a tonne)
Serial #: 1008
Production date: 1887/88
Condition: bloody good - gears unworn, both feederboards in ship shape, rollers are ok - one quite swollen am unsure how /if will effect printing.
Motorised: slow motor
all spins freely and surprisingly easy - no dodgy sounds or casing spots.
What next: a really good degrease and clean, re-oiling, surface rust on wheel brushed off and a lick of paint on the wheel. I'm not planning on painting it all since the only surface rust is on the wheel.

Careful!

Safe!

Must do some research on its history, It appears that Edwards Dunlop imported presses into Australia 

Size comparison between 2 presses (and me) The girls are so petite aren't we!

Just slightly larger than the Pearl...

Tiny hands - big boy

Love these photo of my eldest. He was 'forced' to be a hand model if he wanted a milkshake. Bribery works a treat. Keeping him still for more than 30 seconds was challenging and his grubby hands perhaps could have been cleaned first...

Friday, February 3, 2012

Features this fortnight.

Well, I has been an eventful 2 weeks! Australia Day, Back to school, Valentines day promotions, a new press (more to come on the new press)

(I apologise for the boastful pats on the back but this is good form my self esteem!)

Here are some places Fluid Ink has been notice!

Etsy Face Book (betst # of hits from this!) 

Etsy Australia weekly digest newsletter:


Etsy Finds Daily newsletter 27/01:



Madeit weekly newsletter Tuesday 31/01- featuring green tree of life card:
Etsy Front Page Monday 30/01

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Designing for letterpress

Thinks to keep in mind when designing for letterpress
Taken from Boxcar Press

WIDTH OF LINES: Lines should be .25 point (or .003”) or thicker please! No hairlines!

FONTS: Letterpress excels at printing type and handles most fonts very well. We recommend using type no smaller than 6 point.

NUMBER OF INKS: letterpress printing traditionally uses 1 or 2 spot colors; 3 or 4 spot colors make for an extravagant and lavish production.

SCREENS: Letterpress excels at printing colors at 100%. If you’d like to incorporate a lighter color, we recommend using a second lighter ink color instead of a screen. Screens are more suited for offset printing, not letterpress.

REVERSE TYPE: Depending on the size of the reverse type, your reverses can clog up on the press. Because of this, we recommend a type size of 12 point or larger for reverse type, though this does vary depending on the typeface that you use. You may have to add a small stroke to the reverse type to compensate for letterpress ink gain. Also, if we're printing text and the solid area around your reverse type in the same color, we may need to print the solid area in a separate print run. Extra press runs do increase the cost of printing.

LIGHT INK ON DARK PAPER: With letterpress, we tend to print dark ink on light paper, because that is letterpress printing’s strength! Light ink on dark paper is really best suited for engraving. When a client wants to incorporate a darker color, we might suggest printing an offset flood on the back side of a light colored paper, or duplexing a dark colored paper to a light colored paper. That said, if you really want light ink on dark paper, just be prepared for paper show through. With letterpress, we use translucent inks. Printing light ink on dark paper will be like using a thin coat of white paint on a brown wall: you’ll see the brown color through the paint. If using a pure white ink or metallic ink, we can run a piece through the press twice, at an additional cost, to create a more dense color.

LARGE SOLIDS (large solids are areas larger than 0.7cm thick):Letterpress printed solids look different from offset printed solids. The paper tends to show through large solids, creating a slightly textured look that’s almost suede-like (we think this is a beautiful look by the way!). If you have a large solid and thin text in the same color, we’ll need to print the solid in a separate press run, to give the text a good deep impression and proper inking. Extra press runs do increase the cost of printing. Large solid areas can cause buckling of the paper, especially if using a thinner machine-made paper stock. You’ll also notice the depth of impression may appear less noticeable on really large letterpress solids—it doesn't have the contrast that line-art or type would have.