St Marys College - Wellington

Students talk about the possibilities and share their ideas in inking up and printing textured backgrounds. I provided some steel mesh and found that a perfectly good print can be made by using the pressure of rubbing your fingers/hands on the back of the paper.

St Marys College - Wellington

The waterbased ink is rolled out onto the glass and spread so the ink is even in texture and has an even hissing sound. Then use a roller full of ink and roll that out on another section of clear glass. This thinned down ink is what we need for inking up the experimental textured surfaces. Ink can be thinned down with a transparent base other wise use this thinner coating with the lighter colours.
The drying rack was full very quickly with many different examples of textures and overprinting as background templates.

St Marys College - Wellington

By running water over the 220gsm incisioni paper and blotting it off on newsprint we gain a paper that will easily absorb the ink, under pressure in the yellowXpress, and produce a fine print. I find each engraving is capable of  between 10 and 20 prints before the burred edge flattens out and will not hold the ink well enough for a good print.

St Marys College - Wellington

Using a dry point stylus the image is scratched or engraved into the plastic sheet.

St Marys College - Wellington

Using off cuts of mat board the Akua ink is squeegeed into the rough surface created by the dry point stylus.I teach using strokes both north and south and east and west to ensure the lines have been filled. The use of a cotton bud to apply small areas of other colours and also to polish areas that need to be clear (they look white).

St Marys College - Wellington

Dry point prints using the 2 yellowXpress 5000 presses and dampened paper and Akua ink.
The St Marys students were delighted with their results. Such a wide range of style and expression!

WWOOfers Keren and Fred from North England.

Fred Hopkins & Keren Gilbert make their first letterpress print on the Royal Imperial Flat Bed Press.
In the background you can see the yellow &. The woodtype is large. 5"  (360 point) or 126mm for the letters and 6.75"  (480 point) or 166mm for the &.

WWOOFers keren and Fred from North England.

A simple statement, so true. 36 point, upper case, Gothic, lead type set and printed on the Royal Imperial Flat Bed Press.

WWOOFers Keren and Fred from North England.

A tale about the ale, set in fancy lead type and printed by Fred.

WWOOFers Keren and Fred from North England.

Keren and Fred  paint the last details around the front doors of the Master Class Printery.