LEN warm up

Sometimes I (Hazel) spend most of my MA Thursday before LEN working on the Vandercook, so it feels like a whole day of LEN, though without the others there to input and advise.  I like to think I usually have an idea in my head of what I am going to print, but that is not always the case.  On those days, if I am booked onto the press anyway, I tend to round up bits of materials, scraps and paper that I have been meaning to use, and any type that has caught my eye recently.  This was one of those weeks.

I started the day coining the phrase 'when in doubt get the shilling strokes out', and thats what I did.  Printing onto offcuts of paper from a previous book project, a sort of reverse skyline, I composed a design using the different sizes of shilling strokes and printed in blue grey.  Then I changed the composition and overprinted in black to give some depth.  I am not sure yet what they will become.  As the paper is pre-scored they are have the potential to fold and be free-standing so I intend to print on the reverse as well.

The next choice of type was this tray that Angie found in the store - Tom thinks it came from the Industrial Museum - with its gorgeous striped backgrounds.  We don't know what its called, and couldn't even agree on the typeface, it looks like a Gill but on closer examination of the tail of the Q Phil said not.  Any ideas?

Of course I decided to print all of the non-text pieces, which always seems like the right thing to do on a day where you have nothing to say.  There was a bit of a bleed on some areas, which I think was down to over-inking.  I gave the type a wipe over with some white spirit and re-inked without drying it off, leading to this much more varied, patchy print, which I really liked - happy accidents in letterpress!