Epic Fail!

Sometimes things go wrong and I had an epic fail a few days ago when I was working on a new Letterpress piece at Swansea Print Workshop. I spent ages setting up the type, I really liked how it looked in its wooden state so I inked it up with a rainbow roll, using CranfiedContinue reading “Epic Fail!”

Setting The Type.

I spent a happy couple of hours at Swansea Print Workshop this afternoon, experimenting with the vintage wooden typefaces to design my next little experiment in letterpress. I had more or less settled on this one but then I couldn’t find any quoins to hold it together, so I’ll have to go back to finishContinue reading “Setting The Type.”

Double Vision.

I tried this neat trick with the two letterpress pieces I did recently at Swansea Print Workshop. After the first print, I moved the paper slightly and put it back through the press and it picked up the ghost from the remaining ink on the wooden blocks.

Grrrr!!

I played around with Letterpress again at Swansea Print Workshop this week. Last week I did a piece using Intaglio Printmaker’s relief inks and this week tried out Cranfield Caligo Safewash, both times using a rainbow roll. I found little to choose between them, to be honest. The Safewash is slightly runnier and less stickyContinue reading “Grrrr!!”

Rainbow Type.

I printed the type form I put together at the weekend, using a rainbow roll of Pthalo Green and Rhodamine Red oil-based relief inks. I printed with Swansea Print Workshop‘s Columbian Press onto Kent paper. I love the way the well-worn vintage letters have dints and dimples and rough areas that add to the characterContinue reading “Rainbow Type.”

If You Knows, You Knows.

A print from antique wooden typeface reading FAFO in a horizontal line with a question mark and exclamation mark lying horizontally beneath.

This is NOT PPE!

I’m finally getting to grips with the lino blocks of text I started back at the beginning of lockdown 2020. I’m making mask shapes out of cotton and printing them with the words and phrases I carved into lino, reflecting my feelings and observations over the period. But these are not masks. They are NOTContinue reading “This is NOT PPE!”

Modernists At The Gallery.

I scribbled this little one hard at work creating a collage at GS Artists last Friday. The group was inspired by an exhibition supporting a new book by Catrin Saran James, “Modernist Swansea”. In the background is a quilt based on some iconic tile designs around the city centre, sadly disappearing, by local artist LauraContinue reading “Modernists At The Gallery.”

Kitty Print Experiments.

I’m experimenting with making my own stamps from Toyobo photopolymer letterpress plates. I had a try the other week with a different make, which didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but this material is much better, much crisper with more detail. I tried out three exposure and three curing times and then printedContinue reading “Kitty Print Experiments.”

Experimenting

I’ve been experimenting with a material new to me, Toyobo photopolymer plastic plates, to make my own stamps. It seems like a fairly easy process, but of course it isn’t. My first try (above) didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, but that’s life. It might have been the exposure time or maybe IContinue reading “Experimenting”