Weddings!! Part 2: Invitations Printed!?!!

I just finished printing up wedding invitations for some good friends of mine. (You may remember a post a did where I gathered up some other wedding invitations to use as inspiration.) I printed the invitations using a combination of hand-set metal type and lino blocks, using four different ink colours in all. There were two pieces - an invitation and an RSVP postcard that the invitee will mail back to say if they're coming, if they're a vegetarian etc. I'm not going to show the finished invitations, because obviously they have names and addresses on them, but I do have a few pics of the printing process and the RSVPs in progress.

Here we have some metal type, set up with leading and spacing material and ready to print. Setting type is useful if you want to learn how to read backwards and upside down.

All the type set up in galley trays to be printed later. The font I used here is Centaur (12 point), which is a fantastic serif font. It has a lot of subtle personality, and the numbers are great, too. (Invitations have a lot of numbers - dates and addresses.)

I printed at Emspace Book Arts Center, which has some wonderful letterpress facilities, and everyone there is very friendly. As you can see, it is bucketing it down outside.

This is the Vandercook SP15 proof press, which I used for most of the printing. For small pieces like the invitations I might have used a platen press, but this proof press could accommodate the lino blocks as well as the metal type.

The RSVPs, printed with metal type, drying in a rack. I used oil-based inks, and left the prints to dry for about 24 hours.

The SP15 inked up and ready to print a lino block.

This is going to add a little colour to the RSVPs. I'm pretty pleased with the turquoise ink I mixed - it looks nice and bright on the rollers.

The final round of prints. By the way, the paper I used was a natural white cardstock with eggshell finish - can't remember the weight, but it feels great, and printed nicely. Envelopes to match.

My Book

Hello all, and a Happy New Year to you. 2012 is a good number, amirite? It has a good feel to it. Nice solid name for this year. Some good stuff is going to happen in 2012.

Anyhow, I guess this is one of the first things I made in 2012. (Although I may have started this in 2011, these things take flippin' ages to put together.) It's a notebook that I made for myself. I wanted something sturdy, with lots of pages, to last me a long time. It's for my printmaking notes, so I intend to keep writing down information about printmaking techniques and referring back to them (provided my notes make sense in the first place).

I used a variety of different kinds of paper in here, but it's mostly a range of leftover paper and offcuts from printmaking - screenprints, linocuts etc. Some failed or damaged prints torn up and repurposed.

The spine cloth is made of something I printed a while ago onto scrap fabric. It's one of my linocut designs in white ink on pale blue.

Again, I kept the deckle on the outer edge of the papers.

The front is kind of a turquoise blue, the back is a darker blue. I don't see why the covers have to match.

The card covers over the book board are made from salvaged file folders. It's a good, hearty card. Got them from SCRAP, I think. (I love that place. Enough materials to keep you going forever, for like $1.50.)

The binding is your basic linen tape binding.

This elastic band sewn in to hold the book closed is made out of a hair band - super inexpensive. The page marker (very useful) is just an extra length of linen tape; I sewed it into the spine cloth to keep it secure.

So there you go, one book made. I am pretty pleased with it - it may be my best yet, and I think it will suit me well for writing my notes.