My Letterpress Chronicles: Day 6

Welcome to another wonderful post about letterpress... :-) .. The sixth day of class was great.  We didn't learn any new machines but we got to finish working on projects on our own.....so there won't be lots to say or type just a few pictures.

Last class, which is posted as Day 5, I began working on my shirt, but I was one of the three students who did not get to complete their shirt. Soooooooooooo, I completed it on Day 6. 

Of course as always I cannot focus while hungry so before class began I ran to my now staple Thursday meal at Chipotle.  Tasty brown rice, grilled chicken, black beans, lettuce, a little cheese and some spicy red sauce...YUM...   

In the last post, I showed you a picture of the letters I put together for my T-shirt....here are those letters inked up 

So I came up with this phrase "Southern Girl + Breuckelen Swag."  It kind of speaks to who I am as a person. ---you know just a little of my history....  Southern Girl speaks to the fact that my family roots stem from the great state of South Carolina.   I used to live down there with my grandmother once upon a time.  Because of it I do have some southern ideologies and mannerisms. Breukelen Swag speaks to me being more of me.  I did most of my growing up in East New York, Brooklyn.  I chose to spell Brooklyn the old dutch way on the shirt just because.... So my South Carolina ways and my Brooklyn demoneour make me more .Meagan..... sooooo here's my sample shirt....more .Meagan..... sooooo here's my sample shirt....   

The State color for S.C is Blue as well as NYC...NYC has a secondary color which is yellow so I chose that...I think the two colors work well together...I just swapped them

I began working on some other things but I will share them in a later post...well that's it for this post...hope you enjoyed it...

Til Next Time,

Meagan

My Letterpress Chronicles: Day 5

For Day 5 of class last week on 12July2012, we moved from the Vandercook Universal 1 to the Vandercook No. 2 Proof Press.  This proof Press rocks for printing on cotton T-shirts.  We also use wood-type instead of metal type.  The reason for this is:  wood-type doesn't collect cloth marks like metal type.

                                                      Happy WoodType...LOL

The Vandercook No. 2 Proof Press can be used with a plastic sheet, but it was designed to be used with a galley tray.  Although you have the ability to use either a plastic sheet or a galley tray- - you should never use both at the same time.

A Large Galley Tray

Moving right along to printing, you need blotter paper or a piece of cardboard to be placed inside of the shirt. (the size of the cardboard/blotter paper depends on the project)  Once you have this you should already have nicely rolled out ink to ink your letters with... Note:  when inking the roller lift at the end of each stroke

                                   Blotter Paper Inside Shirt

Inking the roller

                                        Inking the Letters


After your blotter paper/cardboard is placed in your shirt, you remove all of the wrinkles from the location you will be printing on.  You then place the shirt on top of the letters. Lastly place an etching blanket (or some felt material if you have it lying around) and place it over the t-shirt before rolling.

                           The Etching Blanket Over the Shirt

I had soooo much fun learning how to use the Vandercook No. 2 Proof Press.  I must admit, it was a bit easier to learn how to use than the Vandercook Universal 1.  How cool is it that you can use the print to letterpress T-shirts?  The entire class made shirts. I was one of the 3 people who didn't get to finish their shirts on Day 5 so you will see the finished product on Day 6....but...I will give you a sneak peak of what my shirt will say and how the letters will be arranged.

                                                       Some Finished Products
                                       


                                            This is what my shirt will say!!!!

                                                      


'Til Next Time

MEAGAN

My Letterpress Chronicles: Day 4

So this post is rather late.  YIKES.  This post is about my class that took place on 28 June 2012.  So late would definitely be an accurate description.

A couple of weeks ago in class, we stepped into the world of collagraphy.  Collagraphy is a printmaking process in which materials are applied to paperboard or wood.  While collagraphing, you can use all types of objects to create your collage-like work of art.  We used all sorts of items like:  bracelets, zippers, placemats, and even bobby pins & an earplug (courtesy of me #hehe)...

In Collagraphing 3 things are very important to the process when using a Vandercook Universal  1. Those things are:                                                  

                   A Wood block to make sure the objects are type high, 

                A Type High Gauge to measure the height of the objects ensuring they're all are the same or around the same height

                Double sided tape to stick the objects on the woodblock (Good Quality Double-sided tape)

     Type High Gauge w/some items being measured on a wood block

           
Once you have all of those things included the objects you want to put onto the woodblock you are pretty much ready to go......

Some items with doublesided tape inked and ready to go

As you can see some items include a     paperclip, a coin, a piece of material

        

Woodblocks with our selected items ready for print

Once we finally began printing, we created different variations of collagraphs from our selected items.  The collagraphs may be similar but no two are alike... Check out some of our prints!!!!

Can you tell the difference between each collagraph ???

Or do they all look the same to you????

Well I hope you enjoyed Day 4 of my Letterpress Chronicles....I'll be writing really soon especially since this post is uber late......

Til Next Time,

Meagan