by Administrator on February 2, 2012
Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.
Ahhhhhh………I love letterpress!! There is simply nothing like it. I had the good fortune in school to visit several different types of printers and processes and letterpress, by far, has the most lasting appeal.
In my own experience I have replicated the process as close as possible without the actual equipment, with hand pulled prints. For me it is the most satisfying work. Slowing down, having unpredictable, unexpected results!! No delete key, no undo, no computer screen!!!
Just across the river in Newburgh, NY resides Thornwillow Press, one of the leading letterpress binderies in the US. Creating the highest quality limited edition books, restoration and rebinding, engraving, monograms and more, all by hand. We took a tour there recently and it was amazing, historic machinery dating back to the turn of the century! The founder, Luke Ives Pontifell, was a most gracious host taking the time to show us around the 3 floors himself.
Step into the s/pace of letterpress, and enjoy the film.
fkp
by Administrator on June 4, 2011
Having PaperGirl is a welcome change from my daily work. I love my clients, designing websites and print pieces but to have a project with total freedom is a luxury. Since I started participating in PaperGirl last year I have had the opportunity to experiment with many new and different approaches.
It has been so much fun combining hand pulled prints with hand detailing. A departure from my usual pencil or ink drawings. And the biggest difference is the things that happen in the combining of color and texture. As the ink rolls over the plate and then to the paper, ink is distributed differently everywhere. Sometimes the roller picks up a pattern from the plate that embeds in the ink and in turn on the paper creating new shapes and nuances. That would never happen on the computer. Sure, some happy accidents happen in Illustrator or Photoshop, but never with quite the same depth of result as in an actual tangible, analog creation.
Each PaperGirl piece has been one of a kind and the other unusual thing for me is that I have been able to let them go, out into the world to find their own life. That used to be a very hard thing for me to do. Now my only hope is that maybe whoever sees or receives a piece, also receives some kind of pleasure from them.
