Wood Type Print

Fooled around again today with my mismatched wood type.  I couldn't think of anything to print so I used the name of a friend who has a little pottery home business.  I'll mail her a copy she can tack to her wall.  (Or not.)

Here's the lockup.  It took a while to puzzle together because the type is odd-sized and some of the corners aren't square.  The lines aren't straight but it's pretty close.  Even if I wanted to use one font I don't have enough of any of the fonts to fill out all the letters I needed.

The wood type really shows you where you missed the ink.  (Or the type is low.)  I meant to keep running copies without inking before I finished, just to get that old-fashioned distressed look, but I forgot.  Plus I ran out of paper...  Here's some copies:

And a close-up of probably the best copy:

There are some problems.  The letters aren't straight - "pottery" has kind of a tilt to it.  I need more space between "girl" and "pottery" but I really didn't have room in the chase to add much more, but I should have added what I could.  I could have brought "dirty" down so it was closer to "girl" but the "y" extends down so far I would have had to push it up above the line.  And the centering is off.  What else? The curl in the "y" doesn't show up well because it's broken and been repaired with a couple of small nails.  I guess I could have packed some paper under that spot.

But since I'm just fooling around I don't feel too guilty.  The best part is probably the funky "r" in "Girl."

First run

OK  - here is the first run of the press.

I am doing a prop card for Briar Press to register my (hobby) press.  I did a very large card, rather than business card size, since my only type is 24 point it just looked better.

Things learned:

• That rubber ink is rubbery.
• It's hard to ink with a brayer evenly and without getting ink in places you don't want it.
• It's really hard to clean a brayer - I never did get it really clean.
• I had a typo on the first run of course.
• My text didn't line up absolutely square - the bottom lines appear to be at an angle.
• It was fun though.

Inked up

Very first fun - Winchester lacks an e and way too much ink.

Some corrected copies

Cleaning Up

I cleaned up with some Simple Green and took some crud off with #00 steel wool.  Some of the stains in the bed are still visible, but the Vanderblog moderator (thanks Paul) advised me not to sand the bed because it would cause low spots.

He also had some advice about getting to type high, since this is a galley-high press.  I don't know at this point if I'll just use packing or try and get a steel sheet to use.  Here's a couple of photos of a cleaner press.

Here's a $2 find from the antique mall today - couldn't resist this vintage postcard in a Coca-Cola holder.

Written inside the "N" is "From Louise."

And here is the first thing I ever printed at a Pyramid Atlantic workshop on a big Vandercook.  It's a quote (from memory so it's probably wrong) from "Franny."