Letterpress magic…

I would like to take you a while and write a few words about letterpress technique which is one of my favourites lately. As you probably noticed a few months ago Studio Calico started to sell fabulous, new designs of plates to create spectacular letterpress prints. This month letterpress is coming back to the shop with some new things!

(inspired by Tom Eckersley LCP Exhibition poster)

Above you can see one two of my favourites plates – the ‘old’ one Constelation (my students looooove this plate so much when we are making letterpress prints during classes) and the newest one – Woodgrain (I am going to use them in Paris and Barcelona!)

You have a huge range of plates to choose and of course you can also find some dies as well!!! These florish ones are my favourite! If you are waiting for the specific plate which is not available right now – I have some great news for you. The letterpress plate will be restock soon!

So once again – what you will need to start creating letterpress prints. One cutting machine (Big Shot, Cuttlebug, Vagabond or other), letterpress bundle, favourite colours of letterpress inks or – whole ink bundle! When you have all the basics you can purchase some extra supplies. And coe back for favourite plates and dies… this is the begining of your collection!

These are the most popular questions you ask me. Here are the answers:

1. Is letterpress ink is a special kind of ink?
YES, this is a special printing ink in differents colours. Usually professional printing inks are sell in huge mugs in a few primary colours. Letterpress ink are the best option becasue you can buy lots of colours and don’t spend a lot of money. They are very efficient.

2. Can I use different kind of inks to make a letterpress print?
YES you can, you can use a custom stamp ink pads, but the colour won’t be very vibrant and usually it’s not waterproof (and letterpress kind of ink IS waterproof that’s why you can mix this technique with f.e. watercolours).

3. How to get a ‘deeper’ effect of my print?
You just have to add an extra layer under your background paper. Or use smoother kind of paper or cardboard.

4. How many times I have to roll the print in the machine?
It depends – I usually make it for four times (two times in both directions).

5. How to clean the plates?
I always use wet wipes (the special ones from letterpress or just custom baby wipes without smoothing balm). Sometimes I also brush my plates using soap and water.

If you have any other question please ask – I will give you the answers in the comments.

I take the advantage of the opportunity and invite the Spanish girls for my March classes in Barcelona, where I will be teaching two different mini album classes with watercolour and letterpress techiniques. The event is organize by lidia from CONESA scrap. I will write you more details soon.