Thursday 5 July 2012

A Beautiful Impression


Yesterday, I was fortunate to spend an afternoon with my Dad and my Adana printing press!


The main aim of the afternoon? Well, apart from some father-daughter time, I wanted to learn how to use my Adana, and to create some art, especially experimenting with textured paper!


If you read my last post about printing with my Dad, you'll know all about his Arab Platen, and the workshop of type!

[lead cutter]

Well, my Dad refurbished an Adana he had for my personal use! It's a lovely little machine, and I'm already starting to learn it's quirks.

[a beautiful impression]

When thinking about something to set in type, this quote, 'Earth without art is just "Eh"', immediately came to mind.


I chose the typeface Carlton (60 point), and we set the type in the chase.


We initially set it up with a lower case "e" for "eh"...


...but after a couple of prints we decided it would look much better with an uppercase "E"!

Then we decided to add some colour, so whilst the Adana was still inked up in black we did the first print.


A cleaning of the Adana and a mug of tea later, we rolled out the red ink.


And ran a test through!


Thankfully it lined up...


...and printed out beautifully...


...a successful afternoon of printing!


7 comments:

  1. Helen.....what an amazing and moving post....I love your powerful statement, your clever close up photography makes all the texture and undulations of the paper and printed suface stand out, and how cool to spend quality time with your dad making such a simply beautiful piece of inspired art!
    Hope to see some more beautiful impressions!
    Ali x

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Ali! It is a wonderful quote. I'm hoping to find room for the Adana in my art room soon, so hopefully I can do a lot more printing!
      Helen x

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  2. This is definitely different from the posts I usually read, a different activity: printing! You are right, it is a form of art in itself. I loved to follow you through the process, I enjoyed the pictures and the final result is oh, so beautiful.
    I am sure you will put your Adana in good use.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I'm glad I was able to share something different for you to read - I do love creating in a variety of different ways :)
      Helen x

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  3. This really is beautiful! Do you mind if I link to this image on my blog? Let me know, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're very welcome to, just please link back to me in some way :) Thanks!
      Helen x

      Delete

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