(If you haven’t noticed already, I’m on a kick to photograph the letterpress invitations that I’ve created…there’s more to come)
Here’s a wedding invitation that is elegant but with a playful pop of pink that I’d like to share with you today. I letterpress printed the invitations on 100% cotton paper using my antique Sigwalt table top press. Enjoy!
{ PS. I will always be grateful and inspired by Steve Jobs ideas and words everyday. }
Finally! These Save the Dates that I designed and letterpress printed took a lot of time and effort since I did them on my tabletop Sigwalt press. After printing, I stitched the belly band on either side with light lavender thread. Matching them with kraft brown envelopes with our return address letterpress printed, these invites set the tone for the wedding.
My sister and her fiance are having their wedding in Lancaster County, PA in a barn so using hex signs was a good visual element that was fitting to the location and folky atmosphere. Whew, finally finished!
A couple of things learned from the second part of the save the dates (here was the first part):
1. Pressboard, pressboard, pressboard! I had no idea how important pressboard is for the packing. I hadn’t used pressboard before because it wasn’t convenient or cheap to buy it so I just had a substitute of poster board which was just ok…until I bit the bullet and bought the pressboard folders. The ease of pressing now is amazing! The ghosting of the plates is gone!
2. Big plates with a large surface area do not press well. At least, I don’t know how to get it to press consistently and deep. I had to break up those hex signs and do 3 runs of them instead of one. :( Does anyone have any tips on this? Or because I have a tabletop press, I’m limited to the type of plates I can use to have a successful press?
3. Bleeding: Well, of course I should have made the hex signs have a bleed so I didn’t have to be perfect with lining it up with the edge of the paper. Oh well — it just took a bit more care.
4. I found some success using tissue paper in the packing on top of the pressboard when trying to press the largest surface area hex sign. Not sure if that was a good idea, bad idea… anyone try that before?
My photographically talented boyfriend documented the process of the save the dates creation and compiled them into a little movie! Wanna see?
(Clearly, I’m very excited learning and completing a letterpress piece!)
What I worked on this weekend (a work in progress):
My sister’s save the dates! I still need to do two more runs ( I know, I’m crazy ) but I think they’re looking good so far. I had BIG help from my family and my dearest friend Claire who was my apprentice for the weekend. Even though I’m still an apprentice myself! Yay teamwork!
Lessons learned for those are starting out like me:
1. Black ink is like the plague. Avoid it as much as possible when mixing it to make a color. For the brown, it need 4 parts of black but all I needed was a drop.
2. Watch out for the arm grippers! This was my first time using the aluminum base and hah.. classic mistake. My gripper was hitting the base and I was wondering why no ink was spreading on the left side.
3. My Sigwalt press is a beautiful machine but its rollers are not. I think one of the previous owners had used rollers from another press and tried to make it work on the Sigwalt. Result: inconsistent rolling and trucks not perfectly aligning with the rails. Siigh..I think it’s time: Anyone know a good Sigwalt roller supplier?
Another question for other letterpress printers out there: Is there an alternative to taping the rails? I’m using electrical tape and it captures air bubbles at the bottom resulting in bumps. It also doesn’t stick very well.
Observation about the polymer plates: They are great and easy to use. I love that you can just cut them up! My only complaint, which maybe someone can offer some advice about, is that if I press quite hard (which I like to do to give it a nice bite) I will occasionally see some “ghosting” imprint around the design. Is there a way to avoid this?
One tip/trick I’ve discovered regarding the plates: I’ve got some small type on the plates where ink builds up into (especially the descenders of the type). I started off by cleaning it out with a Q-tip but sometimes it left cotton bits or was still too big. The solution are the SofStick Disposable Sponge applicators thanks to my sister who’s a dentist. They’re teeny tiny sponges on the end of a stick so no residue for your type (or your teeth)! Stay tuned for the final production next week!
I’ve been wanting to share this for awhile but I was waiting until I finally got a good example to show…
I got a letterpress!! It’s an ancient tabletop Sigwalt (built during 1900-1950) that I got from Dolce Press.
It may not look pretty but it does the job. (Also heavy, weighing in about 120 lbs! )
It still has some of the original paint detailing. From that style, I’m thinking it was made closer to 1900 than 1950.
For those who aren’t versed in how something like this works — here’s a 15 sec video with a similar tabletop on how the press works:
Pretty nice, eh?
And after countless hours (approx. 20 actually) I finally got it to make an even impression! Here are my results:
I chose “Hello World” because I also am a web designer and when you write your first code ever, it’s tradition to write “Hello World” as your first words.
I can’t stop looking at it! I love to learn things on my own — figuring them out through trial and error, research, and a few questions asked. But all in all, it’s really gratifying to figure things out. (even if it takes 20 hours!) This was a product of my persistence, patience, and tenacity.
