Convulsive Editions is learning to screen-print! I pulled so many copies of this cover that, after 20 or so I was printing solely from the left over ink on the squeegee & whatever was pulled back on the flood coat.

And the covers of James Shea's forthcoming chapbook AIR AND WATER SHOW are now half done!

A lead-heavy Thanksgiving!

We're taking advantage of the holiday to do some shop work, typesetting our next project, James Shea's Air and Water Show, a 16-page chapbook entirely letterpress printed & saddle-stitched by hand in an edition of 50. Due to release in March, 2013.

Our printer's devil getting the ink ready to pull some proofs!

Stanley's Weed

We had one last project to finish up this summer, a broadside to celebrate the release of Jared Stanley's second book, The Weeds. I was accompanied in the shop by an Imperial Walker. 

Jared sent me a wonderful image of cheatgrass, which Boxcar turned polymer for us. Here's the run of just the cheatgrass. This initial run was way more trouble than it should have been. Some weird little smudge started appearing on the top of the weed about half way through the run and I had to clean the machine & plate a couple times before it disappeared. Really annoying. 

But once we got rid of the mystery smudge, it was smooth sailing, right? No way. First the text wasn't inking evenly, then, once I got that straightened out, I had a doozy of a time getting the second, darker green mixed for the colophon. Here's the first try:

Blob!

I had to start from scratch and clean the rollers and ink table four times before I got the color I wanted.

In the end I was delighted to see all these weeds in the shop!

Jared Stanley broadside, available for order by clicking here.

The color in this scan is not even close to the thing itself. Sorry, weed!