Busy busy

Thanks to the genius of my husband, the website now works in every available browser. But of course, let me know if you pick any problems.

We've had a great response from the launch of the website, with many people contacting us with comments or quote requests.

This week I'm busy printing business cards and hopefully a couple of illustrations. A designer in Melbourne has created the most gorgeous bird illustration, and I can't wait to show you the printed piece... but I'll have to hurry up and get the plates made first, won't I?

Also, I've been having a recurring inking issue with the photopolymer plates, which may be solved by using roller bearers. So this week I hope to unlock my chase (sigh, it's so perfectly set up now that I don't want to move it again) and lock in some bearers... If I can find some. Roller bearers help the rollers to touch the plates at exactly type high, which inks them up evenly. I have a suspicion that the rails on my press have worn and are no longer perfectly flat, so bearers would help a lot.

Teething problems

Like any new thing, the website is experience a couple of settling in problems. If you're viewing it in IE6, it will appear like a scrambled puzzle. In any other browser, it looks great, but loads a little slow. Never fear, we're aware of the issue and we're onto it :)

Website launch!

After months of planning, and a few last days of tweaking, the Poppy Letterpress website is now live.

.>.>.> www.poppyletterpress.com.au <.<.<.

There's a .com version as well, but give that an extra day or two.

I'd love to hear your feedback on the design of the site and its content, so drop me a comment or email through the Contact page on the site.

Yay!

Kate Luke Photography

After messing up the guillotining on the first print run, Kate's cards are now ready and I'll be delivering them tonight. There's just something so satisfying about seeing a completed job.

Today's tip

My tip for today: when you're printing something small that requires a bleed (and therefore trimming afterwards on the guillo), add a bit more bleed than you think you'll need.

If you do this and you stuff up your guillotining, you'll then be able to fix it because you have the extra space.

Printing Kate's cards today was already a nightmare because of inking issues that I've been having with the press for a while now (that's a whole other story), so imagine my relief when they were finally done and looking good. I wasn't so impressed when the paper slipped under the guillo and there was no way to rectify the problem. So I'll be reprinting the cards during the week!

Gotta learn the hard way sometimes :)

Concepts and cards

I've finally got the chance this weekend to sit down and get some serious design and printing work done. First on the cards are my two wedding designs, and then printing two 2-colour business card designs for Judy and Kate. Business cards are a fun and quick job to do on the press, so I'm looking forward to them.

These are the stock for the cards, sitting in the afternoon sun, all guillotined and ready for printing: