Skylab Letterpress Internship: Week 6

Day 17
First thing I loaded ink into a press, packaged up a run of business cards for shipment, and reprinted a sign that I made for a reminder when making plates. I got a plate put on the press to be printed with chipboard, and adjusted the pressure and impression. We had a bride come in to okay the progress on her wedding invitations. After lunch I worked on my project designs on illustrator which included cleaning up my hand drawn and scanned art and designed the logo of one of the business cards.

The labels I made taped onto the tins.

 

My reminder when making plates...

Illustrator in action.

 

 The wedding invites.

Day 18
I made a plate for Bob then spent the rest of the day on the computer finishing the designs for my two business cards and greeting card. I also got the formatting and fonts figured out.

 

Day 19
I made the three plates for my projects as Bob was able to print out the film the night before. I selected the stock and got it all cut down to the appropriate size. I called a client in regards to her job and clamped a different run of business cards that would get edge painting.

Day 20
I started with getting the press prepped for the first color on my business cards. This included making sure the guides were straight, loading in, inking the rollers, loading the paper, getting the plate onto the chase, and making adjustments so that the plate would print on the paper straight. Bob was in the office working while I was running extra paper (a.k.a. 'make ready') through the press as I adjusted the ink to get it consistent as well as get the paper to feed without it feeding wrong and stopping the press. Two hours of tweaking and being slightly stressed, I finally figured out how to make the minute tweaks that Bob has down. After lunch, I got both sides of the cards printed. Afterwords, I cleaned up both presses for the next jobs, then worked on packaging up the recently edged cards. The last 30 minutes were spent blocking out parts of film the make a plate.Bob said it sounded like I was having issues in the shop in the morning and asked if I learned anything from being alone with the press. I said that it was indeed frustrating trying to figure it out; however, I learned valuable lessons that probably wouldn't have been learned any other way. It was hard! He said it's a learning moment for him as well as he now knows how valuable it is to let the intern have some time to be frustrated and figure it out.

Here are the designs for the business cards!

 I also printed the designs on chipboard which turned out nicely!

Packaging up the edged business cards.

Skylab Letterpress Internship: Week 5

Day 14
Today was the new intern Laura's second day at Skylab. She shadowed me a lot of the day and I explained what I was doing as well as had her step in occasionally to try out the task. The first task was prepping one of the presses with ink and a plate and making adjustments so that the crop marks on the paper and on the plate match. It was a tricky one, especially as the plate is an older metal one rather than polymer. It was also a little tricky since I am not used to explaining what I am doing to someone else, but it made for great experience as well as instill the information that Bob has taught me. After lunch, we packaged up a business card job and then finished tweaking the press for the reprint. Once all was straightened out and the crop marks matched, I ran the job while Bob spoke with a client that came in. After the cards were finished printing, I set up the second press with the die to cut the edges of the cards I just printed.

Day 15
I started the day with changing out the water of the photo polymer plate processor. Then got the paper loaded onto the press with the die and tested it to make sure all was lined up still. After a few adjustments, I ran the job through. As this was a reprint of the original job we did a few weeks prior due to the ink being flip-flopped, I unpacked the original set and packed up the new-correct run. After lunch I showed Laura how to block in type and let her lose while I cleaned up one of the presses and prepped it for another run. Once she had all of the type, furniture, lead, and quoins locked into place, I showed her how to ink it up, and dial in the pressure. Once it was dialed in, we printed several sheet.

Day 16
I made three rather large plates and showed Laura through the process of processing them. Once they were all complete, Bob and I realized that I had developed all three with the film facing the wrong direction (the plates would have printed everything backwards). A simple mistake ruined a lot of polymer plates; so I did them all over, correctly. After that, I set up more type with Laura and printed them.

The film of two of the plates

 My poor plates that I messed up.

Skylab Letterpress Internship: Week 4

Day 10
I made a few photo polymer plates in the morning and managed to spray myself down the front with a hose :) In the afternoon I printed out the "get well" cards for my mom. I found the best way to ink this up was to roll the yellow on the daisy with a brayer first and then dab the blue onto the words with my finger. They turned out nicely. Bob shared another book with me which is a compilation of small drawing tutorials from various Hallmark artists.

Day 11
I knocked out a bunch of my own printing on day 11. I used several colors to print up the sheets with "enjoy" and "cheers" which turned out to be pretty fun. Again, I used my finger as well as a brayer to ink up the type. Last week, Bob had me separate a big tub of yellow ink into four smaller containers and he wanted me to print up a few labels for the smaller ones. I quickly threw the type together and got the labels printed in no time. Very little tweaking was involved, they printed great! I then cleaned up the press as it would be used for a job the next day. 

Day 12
First thing I changed the water in the photo polymer processor (without drenching my front with the hose) and mixed up two different ink colors. I got the "get well" cards cut to size by using a guide that I made to ensure the image was oriented correctly. Then scored and folded them and picked out matching envelopes. The final hour was spent getting the holes popped out of a job that was die-cut and packing it up for delivery.

Day 13
I cleaned up the Vandercook press that I have been using to print on this week as it was used the night before by Bob and a former employee to finish up a clients job. I mixed up several inks and set up the two Heidelberg presses with ink and paper. I then got the plate and paper oriented and ready for printing on one of them. Bob had a student come in for a quick tour as she will be another intern for the remainder of the summer. It looks as though she will come with a different skill-set and interests than what I have, it will be a great learning opportunity for the both of us! I look forward to it.

My internship will be continued after a short hiatus...

Skylab Letterpress Internship: Week 3

Day 7
I started off the day by scratching off bits of extra ink off of a set of business cards and then packaged them up for shipment. I packaged a second job of business cards to be shipped to Alabama. I mixed my first Pantone (PMS) ink. It was relatively simple after you do it the first time. The scale that we use to weight the portions of colors needed is so sensitive that we have to turn all of the fans off. After that, I set up one of the presses for a job to be printed on a later day. It's amazing how much there is to remember through the entire printing process, it is easy to forget something!

Day 8
I mixed several PMS inks for a few jobs that we will be printing soon. Bob and I talked over my project for the summer and what it can entail. It looks as though I'll be doing a quick "Get Well" card as my mom will be having brain surgery next week. Also, I will be designing and printing business cards for myself and maybe print a few of my drawings to make cards.

Day 9
First thing, I boxed up masters and prepped a press with ink and paper. I developed two polymer plates, one for business cards and one of a daisy for my "Get well" card. I blocked in the words "Get well" and the daisy plate on the older Vandercook press and will print the card next week. I went ahead and picked out the ink colors I will be using for the card; a light yellow for the daisy and a periwinkle for the words. During lunch I showed Bob a few drawings and concepts I developed for other cards and business cards that I'd like to do for my project(s). I ended up with great feed back, a few books to look through for inspiration, and Bob expressing that I need to further my drawings. He said that the symmetry and unique drawings would work really well for boarders and letterpress printing in general. It looks as though for the business cards I will print 4 per page which will allow for me to have a few different designs.

 Working on the press during the first week. Photo cred. Bob Atkins

This is what the "get well" card looks like on the press.

 Concept for a card.

Concept for one of my business cards.

Skylab Letterpress Internship: Week 2

Day 4
Bob and I packaged up a large business card order that we had worked on last week. There was also a lot of organizing shelves to clear up clutter and have easier access to masters, boxes, and job folders. Around lunch time we jumped over to JB Letterpress for a quick tour of their shop and to pick up a few rolls of foil for him to experiment with. They primarily foil stamp and score the jobs that come in, very little if any actual ink printing.

Day 5
In the morning I finished up the reorganizing by repacking several boxes of masters. As Bob was working on a lot of office work and having a lunch with a few clients, I spent a lot of the day locking in more type, rearranging it, and playing with different fonts. After lunch I inked up all of the locked in type and worked on finding the right pressure when printing. One of the fonts I am using was created by a few of Bob's friends. This gave me inspiration to possibly create my own font and have it cut out on a CNC in the fall when I return to PSU. This could be an added component for my letter press printing independent studies course.

Day 6
I, again, added more type and rearranged everything on the press. I also took note of all of the parts that did not print and added packing. Bob had a client come in to check the placement of the die cut part of the job we were working on. With the "O.K." we got the rest of the cards die cut then punched out each of the cut parts. I prepped the other press for another job by setting up the paper and placing the plate on the chase.

Skylab Letterpress Internship: Week 1

Day 1:
The first day was GREAT! The day was spent getting oriented to a typical day at the shop. My first task was to sort through and organize a box of lead. This helped me get a hang of a few sizes that are used when blocking in type. I watched and helped a little as Bob developed a photo polymer plate which is the main source of how the jobs are printed at Skylab. The client will send their design which is turned into film that will be used for the plate development. I answered a phone call, and ended up meeting the client later that day. After the plate was developed, Bob explained and showed me how to set up the press for a job. I helped him when I could and we printed some business cards. It was noted on several occasions during the week that I am a quick learn and not afraid to figure out how to do something. I believe that restoring PSU's letter press helped tremendously with my confidence and comfort when it comes to getting my hands on the presses. Overall the first day was a success, I greatly enjoy how open Bob is to teaching me as much as he can as well as allow me to experiment and figure out tasks with some independence.

Day 2:
The second day was, again, successful. He let me loose with an oil can and oil gun to peer around the presses for all of the hidden dots that are to be oiled. There are red, yellow, and green points; the color determines how often they need to be oiled. The more I looked around, the more I found. Bob said that still to this day he discovers new ones! After oiling everything up, we prepped one of the presses to print green on a run of business cards. There is definitely a method of getting the ink on all of the rollers, but as all of the printing processes, every printer has their own way of getting from point A to point B. Bob has encouraged me to watch how he does things but do the tasks as they make sense to me. After getting the rollers inked, I was to get the plate attached to the chase and level out the guides so that when it prints, all of the marks are spot on. It is amazing how much preparation it takes to get the job printing but I am enjoying the process. Running the press is pretty much like driving an old car with all of the levers. We packaged up a completed order, started to prep a die-cut only to find the die was wrong, and started a card job. At the end of the day, I was becoming more comfortable with the presses.

Day 3:
The third day, yet again, was so much fun. I started off by inking up the press by myself, once I got the okay, I moved on to prepping the press the rest of the way. When I was clipping a guide back onto the press, I managed to get my thumb wedged and stuck between to metal parts. Through a small bought of panic, I pulled it out... Then, I got to the point where the polymer plate was attached to the chase and ended up ruining it when trimming up the side and the knife slipped across a few words. An embarrassing but educational moment. I ended up putting the next plate on while Bob developed a new plate. He had a few clients come in and I finished the job by myself! It's crazy that I was comfortable enough to do so. Bob told me that it was around week two when he was able to print by himself, I was on day 2 1/2! During the morning he expressed that in the afternoons I can work on a personal project so that he can get office work accomplished. With that, I started looking through type and lining up what I wanted to print. He also told me that I could doodle with a knife on film and make it into a plate. Having a few minutes of free drawing was really nice; however, I did not feel it was plate worthy.

Day 4:

The fourth day was pretty easy going, I made boxes and packaged up masters. I set up and locked in my very first bits of actual type on a letter press, no problems. I just have a phrase and a few images that are arranged into a face. Nothing too elaborate as I am just getting a feel for locking in the type, pressure, inking, etc. While locking in the type, I was cutting a thick piece of lead and managed to get the fatty part of my hand pinched between the two handles and got a blood blister. Other than the few minor injuries and one slightly significant mistake, I'd say I am doing okay! I definitely lose track of time while I am there.

Overall, I feel like I have learned SO much in just four days. I cannot wait to see where I am at, at the end of summer. It is a wonderful feeling to be excited for the day to start. A huge thank you to Bob for having me this summer and being a great teacher.

Here is a peek into the shop...

Letterpress Restoration: Days 11-14 (Completion)

Through the last few weeks, extra hours were put into the completion of the letterpress restoration. It is DONE!

These two are directly after I finished stripping the paint off of the cylinder. The name plate actually exists!

A special THANK YOU to Doug Younger from PSU's Graphics department for donating a large amount of wooden furniture and oil.

Another special THANK YOU to NA Graphics who sent an image of the original shipping information and directions. How neat that PSU was the original owner back in 1928! I also look forward to opening the box of tympan and various cylinder packing paper that is on its way in the mail.

Here is an old image of the press being used at PSU, my guess, in the 50's. SO much history in this press.

Last but not least, the completed letter press! I so look forward to printing on it yet again on the PSU campus come fall. Stay tuned!