Printing and Bookmaking

Typesetting

This was my first time using typesetting with my woodcuts.

I sized the pages so that the Boxcar Press plates could be printed using my Blick Baby Press. I then aligned the woodcuts and hand printed the images.

The Reject Pile

Not having access to a full sized printing press, I had to make due with what I had. It took several tries to get the alignment to an acceptable point. I also had to get a feel for how much pressure to use on my mini press for the Boxcar Press plates.

For every final print, there is a giant reject pile in the background. Learning involves a bunch of screw ups, a bunch of research, and a bunch of frustration. There have been many times during this project where I was real worried I wouldn’t be able to get consistent prints.

Bookmaking

This whole project came out of a desire to make a book similar to one you would see during the Medieval/early Renaissance periods. Much thanks to Dr. Sara Witty for showing me how to make my first leather journal.

I was also heavily influenced by Prelo Prints based out of Denmark. If I had the time, money, patience, and a replica of a Gutenberg printing press…

Not pictured : smelly burnishing solution and the green stains I got on my deck when I tried to do this outside...

Book mock-up. These are (hopefully) the final pages I'll be stitching into the book. I have to wait on 2 more woodblocks to finish before I can put everything together.

Printing

This was the most anxiety-inducing part of the project. I have gained more respect for printing presses after having to try to align the hand-printed woodblocks to the typesetting plates.

I managed to come up with a system that works well-enough. No finished page is “perfect”, thus any further editions I make of this book, or single pages I print, will be unique in their own way.

I have several images of the process in the gallery below.

Fun fact, I made the cord the pages hang from with a lucet and some twine.

I make two marks- one at the top and one at the bottom left left, in order to center the print to the page.

I hold the page up to a light with some cardboard.

The carboard is protecting the typesetting words from the live print.

I use the marks on the tape to center (hopefully) the page.

This is the scary part- I handprint on heavier paper than I'm use to and hope the print is centered.

Some emblems had longer descriptions than others, which made fitting everything onto the page tricky at times.

The final prints hanging to dry. All I had left to do was stitch in these pages into the book. 99% done!