Fun With Old Stuff recently invited me to do a guest journal for him, and I thought it was pretty fitting for Creative Chaos too! I have been brought up with a right mixture of old and new
technology – spare moments as a child would be spent either on the
latest Apple Mac (which my Dad needed for his work) or looking at the
old BBC computers in the garage! My brothers loved old audio equipment,
and my Dad would do slideshows and get old reel to reel tapes out on
family occasions. But the biggest secret in my parent’s semi detached
family house? The garage, which is full of printing presses, type, ink,
and anything you could possibly want to print at home!
The
main feature? An Arab Platen Printing Press, which you can see on the
right of the picture. A large machine, which I have marvelled at since a
young age, and which I think all the family are still mesmerised by
(although my Mum would be grateful if it took up slightly less room!!)
My Dad inherited it from his old school, where he used it to help print
the school newspaper. It still has some larger jobs, such as wedding
invitations within the family, but generally it is now used for
pleasure.
When I learnt of
funwitholdstuff’s
fascination with this almost forgotten world of printing presses, I
knew precisely how I was making his Birthday card this year! Let me talk
you through how we did it...
Thankfully, my Dad has been through
most of his collection of type, and created a little book showing all
the different fonts. These are just what he has collected over the
years, so unlike on a computer, just because you have a font in one
size, doesn’t mean you have it in another size, or even have all the
letters!!
I chose “Thorne Shaded” in size 36 (which happens to be the only size he has in this font!)
It
so happened that there was only one “Y”, and we all know “HAPPY
BIRTHDAY” has two... So we did the words separately, and used separate
colours. We began by arranging the word “BIRTHDAY” in a composing stick
as seen below:
We
started with “BIRTHDAY” as we were using red ink, and doing “HAPPY” in
black, and it’s best to use coloured ink first. The word “BIRTHDAY” was
then transferred to a chase (a metal frame which holds the type) on an
imposing block, which is simply a big smooth slab. The type has to be
held in place with furniture (blocks of metal, almost like “padding”)
and quoins, which are adjusted to apply force to the furniture, so the
type is firmly in place.
Following
this, the chase is bravely lifted, and you just hope the type is
securely held! In this case, paint stripper was needed to remove old
ink, white spirit to clean it, and a snake block to smooth the type to
give a smooth print.
We smeared red ink onto a glass plate, and used a rubber roller until it was warmed up and rolling smoothly.
We
used the rubber roller to roll the ink onto the plate of the press, and
set the press in motion to get the press’ polyurethane rollers inked
up. To begin the press in motion, the brake is removed, the wheel given a
slight push, and then the foot pedal allows you to control the speed
slightly.
When
the rollers were well inked, the chase containing the type was mounted
into the press, and held in by tightening the clamps. The type is then
inked using the rollers.
The fiddliest bit comes next, as the paper and the type are lined up.
We simply glued blocks to the packing, and rested the paper on it;
adjusted the bars and elastic bands which prevent the paper getting
stuck to the block when they meet; and started a trial and error
process!
We
set the press in motion, let the rollers run over the ink a couple of
times to make sure the type is well inked, and when ready to print the
impression lever is pushed forward to bring the paper and the type
together to make an impression. When printing presses were in common
use, the aim was to have as little impression as possible, so as to
disguise that it was printed on a press. Nowadays? A very different
story, with people wanting deeper impressions, as a contrast from the
everyday printing we now experience!
It took a few tries, but here is the final “BIRTHDAY” imprint...
Then
starts the clean up process!! Lots and lots of white spirit, rags and
newspaper, a heck of a job! Only to make it dirty again with the black
ink printing the word “HAPPY”, using the same process as above!
The final result is, in my opinion, impressive. And more than worth the time and labour that goes into it.
