Now I have been to both class and open hours for both letterpress and screenprinting! I was really nervous both times to go to open hours, where I would have to try to remember what we learned and do it myself with minimal supervision. But I’m glad I went. If possible, I’m going to keep alternating letterpress and screenprinting practice on Sunday afternoons through the rest of the term. At least until my final project takes over and dictates what I need to work on.

At letterpress open hours, I finished off my six-word memoir, printing it onto scrap cards a little smaller than index cards. I’m using them for notes and…lists. :) I know no competent letterpress person would be happy with their quality, but I was proud that I went through the process, period! And I think I know what would have helped that fade-out at the bottom: masking tape on the rails so the rollers get up and over just a little sooner and don’t “wipe” the bottom of the type. Next time I’ll be more exacting.

As for screenprinting, it was (heh) a wash today. Another student and I coated our screens with emulsifier, exposed our images on the light table, and then….everything washed out in the shower. No image. We think that either there was no photosensitive stuff mixed into the emulsifier or it was too old and didn’t work. Our instructor, who was there cleaning a letterpress, was very apologetic and said they’d get the supplies straightened out by next week. My goal was just to go there and see what happened, so no worries. Here’s what I printed in class a few weeks ago, an illustration by Elizabeth Enright from The Sea Is All Around:

It was cool to meet someone from the Tuesday class today, and talk about our final projects a little. Tomorrow my class continues working in InDesign, and soon we’ll get to binding. I really must get my revisions done!