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Letterpressed Artwork

kimair

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i absolutely love letterpress printing...
i've used it for invitations, stationery, and my own business cards...^_^
some background on letterpress printing

Letterpress is relief printing. This means that a raised surface is inked and pressed into a sheet of paper. This raised surface can be metal type, wood type, a photoengraved plate made of copper, magnesium or photopolymer, a woodcut or wood engraving, or even a carved linoleum block. The relief is produced by exposing the plate material to ultraviolet light through a negative, and then washing it in a water bath. The unexposed areas then dissolve away, leaving the raised image of the art to be printed. When the plate is dried, it becomes very hard, holding fine details even over long runs. Plates can be made from any computer-generated negative, or any art that can be clearly photographed or scanned.

In the finest letterpress, the printed image is crisp and sharp, because a dense layer of ink is deposited only in the floor of the impression, leaving the walls of the impression clean. The rich texture of light and shadow created by these clean-walled impressions gives letterpress its unique beauty. The quality of the impression gives a feeling for the paper, just as a woodworker's skill reveals the character of fine wood. Well-printed lines sink into soft paper, giving a feeling of warmth, and an impression made in a hard, smooth paper will be shallower and seem almost carved. In every case, the impression in letterpress is not done for effect; it is a real artifact of the process. In a letterpress-printed piece, you can see the mark of its making, which conveys an authenticity absent from most of what we encounter in contemporary life.

Letterpress printing is labor intensive, and printing really well is especially time-consuming and requires a great deal of skill. Years ago, letterpress was virtually abandoned in favor of faster and cheaper printing methods better suited to the mass market. But just as fine cuisine is still appreciated in a world of fast food, fine letterpress printing is still valued for a kind of beauty that can only be created by genuine craftsmen.

julieholcombprinters.com

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coasters by papered together, available at etsy.com

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6x6 centipede print by porridge papers, etsy.com

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cards and wedding invitation from delucedesign.com
 
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letterpressed cards by hello lucky...luxepaperie.com
 
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8x10 woodtype collage by greenchairpress, etsy.com
 
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silhouette cards by paper+cup press...luxepaperie.com
 
oooh...
i love this too...
i didn't even know what to call it...
thanks for the images...
but thanks especially for sharing the explanation about it...

i love how it can bring out the quality of the paper as the explanation says...

i am a big fan of paper in general, so anything that enhances its natural qualities is something i am in favour of...
:p...
 
so great :woot:

i love the extra element that it brings to the paper..
makes you want to touch it...
that tactile element really boosts the whole presentation and can be very elegant..

thanks for the thread kimair :heart:
 
when I was in fine art school we did a lot of lithography and used these methods on the most beautiful cotton rag paper I've ever seen. I still have the artist's proof and a couple of early prints of a bald eagle that I did using a carved wood block, we also had to make some out of linoleum. It was fun to print using old litho techniques.
 
I have things like that at home... and my father is fan, too... He made his four best ones framed... one is a small bacchanale, two are Happy New year card from Yves Saint Laurent, and another one I don't know it's something about geometric (he loves mathematics)... he's crazy about them (that's insane!) the frame is more there to protect from nicotine!... they have a part of a wall only for them... like in a drawings museum (told you insane!)...
here is one (but we cannot see anything because of the flash and the glass' frame) :

my photo
 
some others (from my own collection... but given by my father... i'm not a fan... but they were some sort of gifts...)






my photos
 
thanks for this awesome thread..! and all of the nice pictures. i really like your last ones, berlinrocks! i like prints of people and flora the most than letters...!

the trick in creating relief prints is not to have the relief too high
i'm not sure about the specific size though... couple of millimetres? ^^ it's because the paper is very delicate/wet at the stage when it's being pressed. it will rip if the relief is too high
 

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