Emma Mitchell has been working on a poster to advertise visiting writer Bonnie Nadzam. The following is a bit of a photo essay documenting poster printing (significantly lacking a few stages such as a preliminary sketch, setting the type, and printing the image. Whoops) with Emma!
Carving the organic filigree design she created for the poster.
The second print. Emma originally went for a grass green text but had to abandon it (sigh) because the text overlapped with the filigree and wasn't readable. Thus a switch to deep midnight blue. The look of mild bewilderment is no doubt caused by my taking her picture. For those of you who are interested, this is what a locked up press looks like when the type is inked and you're ready to roll!
Mixing colors is a bit of an art. The ink is extremely concentrated so the ratios are very important. In the end you often try a number of mixes before you find a hue that's juuust right.
Jody looks on while Emma Prints. Nobody No-how No-way is allowed to print without the presence of a monitor. We really hate it when people get fingers or sleeves or braids caught in the press and there ain't no-one around to give them a hand. Plus, despite the fact that a Vandercook weighs a couple thousand pounds and looks like a beast, you gotta baby it a little.
The finished product!
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