New Acquisitions

Since I brought home all sorts of goodies from the Printers' Wayzgoose in Mt. Pleasant, I've wanted to test is all out.  Here are a few shots of some of the things I brought home and have been testing out.

APA Wayzgoose!

Some of you may wonder exactly what a Wayzgoose is....so here is the definition (via Wikipedia):

"Wayzgoose was at one time the name for an entertainment given by a master printer to his workmen each year on or about St Bartholomew's Day (24 August). This marked the traditional end of summer and the point at which the season of working by candlelight began. Later, the word came to refer to the annual outing and dinner of the staff of a printing works or the printers on a newspaper"

From September 18-20 I attended the Amalgamated Printer's Association's annual Wayzgoose at Printers' Hall in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.  Printers' Hall is a working museum, with nearly thirty pieces (if not more) of working printing equipment.  They coined this Wayzgoose as a "Play-goose," as everyone was encouraged to "play" with the equipment.  

While I was there I got to print on a Uni-I Vandercook, as well as watch and listen to many older printers and some young ones alike.  Overall it was not only educational but a great time.  And I also came home with a bunch of new type and equipment!  

Anticipation.....

is not only a Carly Simon song.....it's what I'm feeling right now!!!  In September the Great Northern Printer's Fair along with the Amalgamated Printer's Association's Annual Wayzgoose will be held in Mt. Pleasant, IA and I will be attending all the days this year! There will be demonstrations on printing (even registering a 7 color job I'm told), bookbinding, and even paper marbling.  I've really been needing some time for myself lately and I can't can't wait for it to come!  

To check out some of last years awesome-ness (and pictures of me printing things) click here and here for my old post.

I guess I'm a bad blogger....

but look I updated my etsy shop!

And I promise more posts coming soon! There are lots of projects on the horizon.

Whew!

Well I think I've finally recovered from the Des Moines Art Festival! It was a long and pretty warm weekend, but overall I had a good time. All my preparations and planning finally went into full swing.

I saw a lot of great people and had a lot of help from my family and friends (thanks you guys!!!!). I couldn't have done it without you.

Since I was one of the Iowa Emerging Artists, I was required to do a demonstration during the weekend festivities. My prints are generally printed with my Nolan proof press, but due to its weight, I decided to just print by hand. Thanks to Grant for his lovely "arty" photos :)

I brought a bunch of my tools and even had the linocut locked up in a galley to show during my demo. I had quite a few people stop by and hope they enjoyed learning a little more about printmaking.

A Tiny Press

This was too great not to post!

via Printeresting

Letterpress Set-up

When I describe my interest in letterpress, many people have lots of questions and can't really visualize the process. Today I finished up printing some new business cards and thought it would be a good opportunity to "show off" my set-up.

For my business cards, I started out designing in InDesign. Once finished, a pdf is sent off to get a letterpress cut. These cuts are made of magnesium and are reflected so they print correctly.

Mixing the ink color comes next. For my business cards, a dark orange was appropriate. This is where my background in painting comes in handy to mix up the right color. I use a Nolan Proof Press, so I hand ink every pass of the press. After inking the cut, I place the stock on the cut, apply the packing, and pull the roller across the cut. And then I repeat and repeat.

Since each piece is hand inked and pulled, one consideration to keep in mind is registration. Each color on a piece has to go through the press a separate time. In addition, the paper has to be registered properly to ensure proper placement.

There are many ways to handle registration, but thus far I've been using masking tape to eyeball the placement. Thus far it has been working fairly well, but tight registration does pose a problem with my masking tape system. I hope to look into a better registration system as I get into more complicated designs, but for now it works.

There's a short overview of letterpress. Hope you all enjoy :) Back to making more prints!

Where as all the time gone????

Obviously I've been a little pre-occupied to post any time recently...........here's a quick update of the past few months.......

I graduated in April with a degree in graphic design

ALT went to publication and was distrubuted throughout Des Moines

Matt and I went to the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans.

I'm still working with Main Street Iowa, but looking for full time graphic design work

I joined the Prairie Book Collaborative

And I've been busy busy busy preparing for the Des Moines Art Festival coming up here near the end of June.

Today I took the day off to work on some printing and such----found it kind of ironic that my finger nail polish looked all nice just to get covered in black ink :) But I like it none-the-less.

When Your a Jet....Snap, Snap, Snap

Etsy user frillz made up this wonderful treasury using one of my prints, with an awesome theme of West Side Story. Thanks frillz :)

For the Love of Posters

Chicago Printmakers Gallery
Originally uploaded by Threadless Chicago

On January 15th, Steve Walters of Screwball Press will be giving a demonstration and presentation about his screenprinted posters at Grand View University. His show looks awesome in the gallery and I'm way excited about going. Rumor is, if you go, you get a free poster :)

I'm Famous!

Well kind of.......by Ossian standards......... :)

I've been accepted as an Emerging Iowa Artist for the Des Moines Art Festival, so I made the front page of the Ossian Bee. I've yet to see the actual newspaper but you can check out the online edition here. Thanks everyone for the kind words about my acceptance as well :)

Great Northern Midwest Printer's Fair

Today I took a little roadtrip over to Mt. Pleasant for the Great Northern Midwest Printer's Fair. I was on the lookout for a press, but alas I did not find one. I did meet some nice people and got to see the Printer's Hall which was pretty cool. They even have the press and paper folder from my home town newspaper. The giant Babcock Reliance. Maybe by next year's Printer's Fair I'll have my own press.

When I grow up...

I want to be like this girl! This print is from Elizabeth House and I stumbled upon her blog and love her stuff! She's into printmaking and bookbinding and also is a new fabric designer! Maybe when I grow up I can be a fabric designer too (or just be printing and bookbinding in my "studio" aka the basement :)