Reaching new heights

Because the Collie is on a palette now, it's much higher than it used to be. A short step would've been helpful for a person of average height to stand on while working the press before, but now it's even more necessary. And I'm only short. I've had a temporary step to stand on since it arrived, but my handyman fiancee has made me not only a big platform to stand on (much safer than a wobbly step) but it also doubles as a storage box. I'm very impressed. I get to paint it tomorrow.

Today I registered my new ABN (Australian Business Number) and looked into the legal side of things. I also got the urge to clean the press up, as it had a fair bit of dirt and grease on the frame, so now it's as close to clean as it'll get. Tomorrow I'll buy new oil for it, and hopefully find all the oiling spots using this guide.

Retail therapy

Well I've had a most exciting letterpress day today. It started off with lots of lovely comments and emails regarding my previous post. Thankyou to all who have shown an interest in my cards so far. They will all be posted tomorrow. After lunch I decided to spend the gift voucher for my favourite store that my adorable bridesmaid gave me a couple of months ago. The store specialises in specialty papers, greeting cards, albums, and the like. It was a place I found solace in during my work lunches, and where I discovered letterpress for the first time. I fell in love with the mix of Aussie and imported letterpressed cards, and soon started a collection. Today I added 4 more cards to the collection.

While I was there, I got to talking to the employees about presenting my designs to the owner of the store. It's been my goal since buying the Adana. Unfortunately, I've only just started producing work that I'd feel comfortable presenting to a retail store, so I've only got a couple of designs. But I showed my two recent cards to the manager, and she's encouraged me to work on some more to present as part of a portfolio. So, here's what I need to do in the next few days before I buy him a coffee:

1. Produce a few more designs, probably using my existing plates, as I don't have the time now to get new ones made. Greeting cards, swing tags and small cards.
2. Create a dozen or so vector artworks for future cards and materials, to give an indication of what I intend to produce in the future.
3. Ring the owner and book a meeting.

Scary, but very exciting. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing your dreams start to come true. So watch this space, I should have new designs up soon.

My bad news for today is my lack of planning and forethought regarding my remaining wedding stationery (menu, order of service, place cards, petal scoops). A certain little Duck helps me out with my photopolymer plates, but I haven't allowed enough time to get them made well in advance, and she's now on holidays. I need to find an alternative supplier for my photopolymer plates. Do any Aussies out there have any suggestions? I'm in dire straits if I can't print these materials...

New base!

I finally got to pick it up today: my new metal base! I've never been so excited about a lump of metal before. $100 from a local metal machinist, and he assures me it's even and ready to go. He's also offered to help out with anything that I need that's metal - which might come in handy with the auto-rotating mechanism on my ink disc. He reckons he could even build me a platen press from scratch if he had something to copy from... but I don't exactly have that much money!

Behold it's shiny-ness!

So yes, all very exciting. This is the first positive in a few days. I've been feeling a little unsure about where this is all taking me.

Things on my mind:

• Will I ever get a decent deboss with my little Adana? Is it a polymer problem?
  
• Is it possible to start a business with a tabletop press, or would I need to find a bigger press, like a C&P?
  
• Is it just me, or is the hobby/art/business of letterpress mostly about troubleshooting?!
  
• Am I using too much ink or too little? I know using less is best, as long as there is even coverage, but so far only heavy ink is working for me. I don't like the feel of it when it dries. It looks more like a lino print.
  
• Will it ever get to a point where I find the sweet spot and then the next 100 prints look just as good, instead of one good, 5 bad, 2 good, 5 bad...?

Regarding the first question, I know that if you have large areas of ink, the impression will be shallow, or non-existent. But I can't get even fine line prints to have a good impression. I've been struggling with the packing, the knobs behind the forme, and the type of paper. I've heard that the similiar model of Kelsey rarely gets a good impression. Is it just not possible with an Adana eight-five either? Are my dreams of having high-quality letterpressed stationery just... well, dreams?