Letterpress printing with transparent ink
If you missed class today, you missed Alex Schwartz printing with transparent ink. A common request that I field, is “Can I emboss on the Vandercook press?” My best answer, is “It depends.” True embossing requires pressure from the top and bottom of the piece of paper. Printing on a Vandercook letterpress applies pressure only from the top. When the pieces fall together like they do on this test piece, the indentation appears to be embossed. The paper has a deep impression from a photopolymer plate. It created a deep impression and it feels great, but it is not real embossing. A few factors added to the success of this test. First we used cover stock paper. The cover stock is thick enough to have a deep impression in the paper. Second, the paper is smooth, which helps provide some contrast to the impressed area on the paper. If the paper had a texture, that busy visual texture would compete with the impression from the drawing. Third, we used an image that Sigrid Hubertz created for a current project. Her drawing has bold lines. Finally, the reason for all of this is that, Alex wanted to try printing with transparent ink on different papers. The transparent ink adds a touch of contrast to the illusion from the deep impression. Nothing better in the world than just printing for the sheer pleasure of testing to see how an ink or image prints on different kinds of paper! The paper used in this photo is from French Paper Company. We used Construction cover stock in fuse green.
