All of the COD fees and ink stained fingernails were worth it, because my first letterpress project is complete! I wouldn't call it a complete success, but I did learn a lot and I know that I can only get better with lots of practice. Things I learned {in no particular order...}:
1. My first project was a tad too ambitious. My design used a large surface area, so it was difficult to get even ink coverage and any impression at all. I also should have stuck to one colour for my first go. I always tend to jump in, head first.
2. Green, yellow and white don't make brown. Um. Ya. I need to buy some more ink colours. And thanks to fellow Canadian letterpress printer Snap & Tumble, I've found US Litho Supply, who sells VanSon rubber based inks and has free shipping to Canada on orders of $50 or more. I see a large ink order in my future.
3. Rubber based ink is a bitch to clean up. It's difficult to handle during mixing as well, but I am assuming it will get better with practice {fingers crossed}. Crisco was my saviour in the clean up process {thanks to this post by Erin McCall at Adventures in Letterpress}. I didn't want to use chemical cleaners because I am working in a basement with no ventilation. The ink fumes are bad enough.
4. The dollar store has everthing. It's where I purchased tools for mixing ink, rags, latex gloves and many more helpful items.
5. There seems to be a lot of fiddling and adjusting to be done before you can begin a run. And a lot of wasted paper.
More to come...
