No Ctrl+Z

The last post about printing was full of excitement and glee about the Adana 3-5 and how much fun I was going to get out of it. Well, something happened to bring things to a temporary halt; after cleaning up the press, much oiling and fettling (boy, those adjustment screws were gummed up!) I got all set up for some trial prints only to find out that I was missing a crucial part. Well, four really – a set of roller runners for the new set of rollers – little round ‘wheels’ that hold the rollers at the right height to ink the face of the type!

I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t spotted this before, but I hand inked a few small blocks because I was SO eager to do something. Just  few postcards using the postcard block I bought earlier this year from Portobello Market. I sent one to Christian (the press’ real owner and damn fine fellow – looking forward to having you back at College soon!) to mark the first printing from the press, but haven’t included it here.

So in the meantime, I thought I’d do a little typesetting in preparation for when roller runners come. I had found a small print-related piece of text on the web and decided to set it using the first metal fount that I bought - 10pt Univers Medium.

So line-by-line I pieced it all together:

I must admit, I wasn’t very proficient in my setting – if my old print tutor saw me he would have exploded and grumbled something in an unintelligible Scottish twang! (Sorry Mr. Kirkwood!)

I set up three or four lines at a time and transferred them between some wood strips and a hand clamp for safety. I didn’t want to bumble them out of the composing stick by accident, or knock them over whilst setting the next part!

Eventually, I got all ten lines set.  Now for the tricky part – getting them arranged into the chase and locked up into a forme.

By now, you may have wondered why this post has the title it does. It is because at this point I did something stupid. I had all but three lines set into the chase, but only loosely whilst I fettled with the last couple of lines. Instead of sliding the chase over to where I needed it, I picked it up. Yes, you read that right. 

No Ctrl+Z. No undo. No quick fix. B****r!

Luckily, not all was lost, but a fair bit had simply dropped out:

Of course, it wasn’t as simple as just picking up the text in order and slotting them back in. I was so hacked off by making such a stupid mistake, that I clumsily began to reset it and sent most of it clattering across the table and onto the floor.

The air turned a shade of blue that would have made a corpse blush, and I put the kettle on and made some VERY STRONG BLACK COFFEE. A bit later, and all was restored (my mental stability and the type), and locked into a forme:

As much as I was frustrated, I was still pleased with the end result. I am still quite in awe of the visual power of set type and always try to recall the old adage about “twenty-six soldiers of lead”  by Benjamin Franklin, or was it Karl Marx? I can never remember which. This then gave me an idea for the topic of another post, but whilst looking for the text to include here I found an excellent post here that goes some way to exploring the origins of this often misquoted quote.

As I sat back and sighed, I cast a glance over at my workspace and thought it looked, well, right. There is a great sense of satisfaction on completing a time-consuming and frustrating task, especially one that you have made more difficult for yourself. No Ctrl+Z – oh yeah! Bring it on!

Just a close up for you get a sense of scale, before pulling a test print by hand to do a right-reading check:

Ah.    Well.    Erm.    Ok, so I still had some work to do; correcting the mistakes and getting everything flattened and tight. I’ll need to do some ‘spotting up’ too when I get to print properly. I have also set up a second forme with the title to print in a second colour, but more of that text time.

And finally…

I have been quite busy with a CD design job that is almost complete and will be posted here soon – and very digital it is too! A real return to vectors!  I’ve also been linocutting too, and printing the base colours for some greetings cards. I will be printing the design in a  second colour next week and you will see them all in good time. It seems like a while since I posted anything other than metal type and printing, but expect to see some new ceramic work appearing over the next month or two…

It’s also the time of year for my second year students to get busy on their final major projects and consequently, their end of course exhibition. I too will be busy over the coming months, producing work for the exhibition, and may post a little less frequently for a while. I still hope to post something each week, and may also feature some student work for the first time on this blog. Keep calling back, won’t you?

Wallpapers!

Yes, you too can share in the delights of letterpress – on your desktop! Download your pick of four, yes four delightful and slightly humourous wallpapers all from the wacky Lestaret press. Just set one as your desktop background and away you go!

There are two formats of each; 1024×768 & 1600×1200:

1600x1200

1024x768

1600x1200

1024x768

1600x1200

1024x768

1600x1200

1024x768

All originally hand set and printed and transferred to your screen via the magic of the internet!

Little Press’s Big Brother

As the weather has improved, so have my letterpress possibilities. Yesterday I collected a new press and various equipment on a long-term loan from my good friend Christian (I have mentioned him elsewhere on this blog, and will more than likely do so again – he’s a splendid chap!) who has had this stash of goodies lurking unused for a few years. Earlier this year when I was talking about getting a press, Christian offered his up on loan as he would rather see it being used than sit gathering dust. I wholeheartedly agree – these things were made to be used after all! The image above shows the scale against my one – and makes it look really tiny, which it is, but, well it looks a bit puny here. It’s basically the same type of press but the construction/mechanism is  bit different. It can print up to 5 x 3″ (126 x 76mm) – hence the name – these were called the Adana ‘Three-Five’ (mine is a diminutive 3 x 2″ [76 x 51mm]) and this one has a little counter mechanism attached which you can see at the foot of the image below, operated by the press arm pressing the lever to advance the wheel numbers.

What was nice, is that the press was still full of type from the last job it did. (The rollers are not installed in these images)

A barn dance? The perfect opportunity to break out the Rockwell Outline! (and three others!)

There were also two chases, again one still fitted with the last job printed – a little letterhead strip, probably used for invoicing. Before I could get using my new press, these would have to be taken apart and redistributed…

There is a fair bit of type with the press. Mostly well organised in little cases, but there were a few tubs full of pied type. I have only just finished sorting and redistributing my own collection too! Ah well, I can think of worse things to do on a sunny sunday afternoon than sit under a parasol sorting out type!

Well I think it must run in the family (much to Mrs. Lestaret’s horror!) because I had both of my children helping at one point! It was the youngest, Lowercase, who got really stuck in though. We sorted out a tub of pied 12pt Spartan, and a tub of mixed founts - 12pt and 6pt Spartan, 12pt Times Bold, 10pt Times Roman, and a whole bunch of bits from just about every other fount, plus a load of spacing! Bless her, she’s got a good eye for reading text in reverse for an eight-year-old!

In all, there are nine cases full (some with more than one fount) that are largely sorted out, but will get a fettle as I use them.

And also this quirky drilled case which makes ten in total…

…and a full box of Times Roman!

And with the wooden furniture, spacing, rules and such, this makes a fine resource. As I was going through the founts I inkstamped a couple of characters for reference:

As I said at the beginning of this post, Summer seems to be here, and as well as my offspring wanting in on a little letterpress action in the sunshine, so did this little bug which had taken quite a fancy to a Spartan M!

Even the bugs have got the letterpress bug!

What the F…riday!

 

It’s the simple ideas, when they are executed well, that always make me smile. If anyone finds any “Emergency Chardonnay” or “Swiss Style Lager” let me know!

The Message Is The Medium

When I bought my little press a few weeks ago, I posted a bit (!) about it and the box of goodies that came with it. Now that I have the press up and running, I’ve turned my attentions to what is in all those little boxes. Yes, I know it is type, but what sort?

These little ‘pin’ boxes were elegantly labelled in a fine copperplate hand, each containing between three and eight characters in both upper and lower case. I was using a little ink stamp pad to get an idea of the style and quality of the type. Although these are pretty scruffy, they appear to be still quite sharp:

There were also a lot of old matchboxes, some marked and I guess that the other markings had rubbed off along the way.

I went through each box and re-labelled them. Incidentally, there were two matchbox designs; the ‘Pioneer’ one above, but the majority were all these quaint ‘Punch’ brand:

Each box contained a similar number of characters as before, but instead of upper and lowercase there were two sizes of caps:

I don’t know if this is just saving on storage space or whether these were deliberately put together to form a small caps fount. There is a tell-tale angled serif on the apex of the cap A – I’ll send some prints to whoever identifies it first!

One of the boxes was chock full of spacing too.

There are also four wooden type cases, again labelled in a fine hand.

Two cases of caps and two of lowercase. I can’t tell the difference between them yet as they are very small and the labels have been amended and scuffed, so I will need to get some samples set up and print them off.

The ink stamp prints were not great and didn’t help in identifying the fount, but it’s a start!

I suppose I shall just have do some printing then. Ho hum! First off, I dug out one of my larger blackletter founts – I have three – and this one probably the most formal of the three. I don’t know what the fount is called. I have tried to match it against a number of samples, and it is similar to Wedding Text and a bit like Festival Text, but exactly either of them. I have put out a request for help on Briar Press (honestly, those folks are truly letterpress experts – if they don’t know, I think I’m stuck!) and also checked out the Script Font Identification Guide on Bowfin Printworks excellent site, but still left in the dark.

Anyway, I set up a headline and then used the tiny type from the little round boxes I showed you earlier.

It didn’t look in great condition as I was setting it; quite well-worn in places. These shots were taken just as I finished setting them and were thoroughly cleaned prior to printing. I like the quality of the images when te type is grubby!

Well, with the press inked up with Prussian Blue, I got quite productive. I used far less paper in setting up than I did previously, indicating that I had learned something from the last print session!

I was still a little heavy on the bottom right, and I was right about the small type being a bit worn, but I like the contrast between the sharp, fine lines of the blackletter script and the rather tired roman.

I went on to set up another forme almost immediately afterwards and decided to try out a couple of other, as yet, unused founts, namely this rather handsome Rockwell Bold Shadow and Univers Bold condensed italic. I also put in some nifty little border characters across the top, and a solid bar beneath.

Again, I love these close-ups showing many years of grime and stubborn understains!

And there you go, this time in a very dark grey (I must get some more colours!)  These were printed about an hour ago – still have ink on my fingers!

I got a few decent prints too. The lines are crisp and sharp – I am more impressed by this press every time I use it!

I also ran quite a few lightly pressed versions – the idea behind this one is that it is deliberately incomplete to suggest that it is actually ‘still loading.’

Intend to make these available digitally as wallpaper for desktops, as well as package them up as a series in little envelopes and leave them around for people to stumble upon.

The border characters were pretty successful too. Not bad for 4mm blocks…

These prints were done in a much more leisurely fashion, probably due to the confidence built upon previous trials and not worrying too much about the time I take. My approach this time was much more practical – I know that the press works and that it isn’t a mammoth task to get set up, print and clean up again, so I just went for it. Each print run last for about an hour, including setting up and cleaning afterwards, but not the typesetting – that took much longer because I tend to faff about too much and keep changing my mind.

What the F…riday!

Hi everybody! Hi Dr. Nedoff!

This tin came filled with 6pt type in the goodies with my press. I love it! Dr. Nedoff must be really proud of this one; it appears to only be prepared by him, as his signature proves that this is no imitation. I wonder if the market was awash with fake or inferior branded ‘Stomachic Tea?’

Perfect? AND pure? You bet! And with it’s thick, rich flavour, You can sleep easy knowing that even those guests with the most aesthetic of tastes will enjoy it.

Is there a tea that is not suitable for all hours of the day? Or indeed, would you wish to be invigorated last thing at night? Methinks Dr. Nedoff may be trying to hit too many targets here.

Yes, that’s right – NO flatulence! None. Not even the smallest tommy squeaker will issue forth after consuming this digestive beverage!

I think this is the first and only time I have seen the words ‘appetising’ and ‘flatulence’ together as a sales pitch. This raises some questions:

Is any kind of tea particularly prone to causing flatulence?

If you were suffering from flatulence, would you seek some sort of pharmaceutical assistance, make a pot of Dr. Nedoff’s finest?

Would you buy any other product that so proudly displayed its non-flatulatory powers?

By buying such a product do you, merely by implication, announce your inclination to be overly flatulent?

Is flatulance such of an issue that ordinary products need to modifed to account for the flatulent part of the market?

All consumables are required to be clearly labelled for allergens, vegetarians, organics, GM’s, calories, units and the like. I would like to see all foodstuffs rated on a flatulence chart as passed by the EU. I will be writing to my MEP.
_____

In total, the word flatulence (and it’s derivitives) have been mentioned 12 times in this post, including the ones in the pictures. I like that.

Top Secret!

For your eyes only. Burn after reading, Etc., etc.

So what the heck is so confidential to warrant some large red Bodoni bold italic on it? It is this; a service manual for an old Philips TV from 1954.

These were issued to the service engineers who were called out to on the spot repairs – not supplied with the set itself. These days we are used to the concept of using a specialist to service our home electrical appliances – after all, many of you have shelled out big time for additional warranties (not me though, it’s against my religion!) and for most people, doing routine maintenance on their washing machine or car is unheard of. I can’t tell which bit of the plastic casing covers which part of the engine in my modern Japanese marvel. Indeed, I don’t know where most of the engine is; surely it’s bigger than that little plastic coated thing under the tiny bonnet?

During the 1950′s Britain was still recovering from the Second World War, especially economically. People adopted a ‘make do and mend’ approach to all aspects of their lives, and many manufacturers were building relatively simple products that could be serviced and repaired by the owner, making all the parts available through a network of local hardware shops and mail order. This being a newfangled luxury item, I guess that Philips decided that it could lever some control from the ‘handy with a screwdriver’ brigade and charge for the cost of repairs and spares through its dealers, gauging that those who could afford the £100 or so to buy one (£2116 in todays money!) , were also good to pay for its servicing.

Anyway, enough of this nostalgic waffle. I posted this here because of these:

 

These are beautifully executed schematic diagrams, all hand drawn, many with hand lettering:

After the schematics you get these fantastic top-down single point perspectives. I guess these were for the engineers to visually identify the components as they removed the top of the set.

There are also a couple of three-quarter views. I reckon I could fix one of these with this information, eh?

The last bit, is the dealers stamp on the back of the book: J.Woodbridge & Son, Ironmongers. Ironmongers? TV’s from the ironmongery? Yes, this is from a time when this sort of stuff was really new, and was sold as furniture alongside sideboards and dressers.

And if you are interested in what the Philips Television Receiver Type 1114u looked like, here it is in all it’s 15″ screen glory:

I found this image here along with one or two bits of information…

Who needs flat screen plasma HD technology when you can have one of these bad boys?

Further Adventures in Letterpress

So the first prints weren’t great. I knew that it was unlikely to be dandy on the first strike after ‘who-knows-how-many’ years. I did some more cleaning and oiling and tried again. It felt good to be beyond the will-it/won’t-it work stage and trying to make improvements.

After much fiddling with the adjustment screws on the back of the type bed, I began to get a reasonably decent print. By reasonably decent I mean that all the letters were visible and there was an even covering of ink. Again, I think I need new rollers, but these still are working in that they are rolling out the ink on the plate and transferring it to the face of the type. I’ll come to quality in a little while!

I was getting  a definite unevenness as was setting up, but further adjustments to the screws evened this out after a while.

There was a lot of setting up, and quite a few problems with the rollers putting ink where it didn’t want to be, and fouling on the gripper finger. There is an issue with the gripper arm – I don’t know if I have re-assembled this right, the spring is past it’s best or whether I have overlooked something else, but I can’t get the arm to return with the platen.

Removing the gripper finger temporarily solved the problem and using a delicately positioned human finger I continued and began to get some consistency in my results.

The large Franklin type has not printed solidly at any point but I think this is down to the ink I’m using, which is water-based. The finer type held onto the ink much better, although I did end up inking up with a brayer at times and over-inking . I’ll try some proper ink soon…

I was using a lot of pressure to get these and thought I was being a bit too heavy with it at times. I have no reference to how much pressure should be used, so may have to get on to those excellent folk on the Briar Press discussion board to see how others fare.

I printed about 40 or so quite good prints (and about the same amount of poor ones in setting up!) and gave my students one each when we visited the British Museum on Tuesday:

After a coach breakdown on the way, we had a great day exploring all the collections and getting excited about hieroglyphs, cuneiform, roman inscriptions and the like, and even got  a peek at the Rosetta Stone. From the ridiculous to the sublime in one day! Thanks team – you made it worthwhile!

Valve-O-Rama

It’s took a while, but I’ve got these images together now. No message here, just good old fashioned graphics for old fashioned stuff. Huge images – just click…

Reading List

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
The Crimson Petal & The White by Michel Faber
Cross Channel by Julian Barnes

and

The Penland Book of Handmade Books
Word Into Art: Arts of the Modern Middle East by Venetia Porter

and a book about learning Dreamweaver, but this was so tedious that I’ve re-employed it to shore up a rickety pile of other books by the bed, of which it is doing a very fine job indeed and will probably stay there forever. Note to self; no more b****y books on software. Ever.