New from Luxe Expressions!

Debra Saba at Luxe Expressions recently sent us a few photos of some cards we printed for her and thought I would share them with you. If you've taken photos of a project we've printed for you and would like them featured on our blog, send them to us. We are currently backlogged with past projects to photograph and post but I promise we are working on them!

Birth Announcement Joy!

Here's another birth announcement we just did for Diedre's sister- and brother-in-law. I've had this idea for a while, but then when I didn't use it for Lucia's birth announcement it worked out perfectly to use it for Grace's! The floral pattern is based on flowers the new parents painted in Grace's room, as well as the bright blue colors we chose. It is printed on our house stock, Crane Lettra 110# Cover in Fluorescent White. We had prints made at Walgreens and then we diecut the photos and mounted them to each diecut circle. We also did a custom envelope liner just to tie it all together.

Check me out. On Paper Crave.

And by me, I mean Spark and a few of our card designs that are featured today on Paper Crave.

http://papercrave.com/spark-letterpress-halloween-and-thanksgiving-cards/

Have a great weekend!

INK: Soy vs. Oil vs. Rubber

Really there shouldn't be a competition between these different ink types, but it seems that we are being asked this question more and more often - and with good reason. Clients want to make sure we are being a friend to the environment and we applaud their concern. So a while back we spent a little time learning more about the oil-based ink we use. While we can use soy inks, to date we have been mixing oil-based inks and also have a few rubber-based inks.

Here's our take on the soy vs. oil-based debate:

• The inks that work best for us are not “soy-based” although they may contain some soy oil. When we looked into the actual composition of various inks, it turns out that soy inks are not vastly different. If not soy oil, most oil-based inks use linseed oil, which has been used for centuries in oil paint, etc. It also is plant based, and time proven. The breakdown of the ink is something like 20-30% oils (of either kind), 10-20% pigments, around 40% resins, and some other things such as drier or varnish.
• In the very small quantities we use, there is no significant difference in VOCs emitted, or other environmental standards. Soy ink shows these advantages in large print runs such as newspapers, national mailings, and so forth.
• The soy ink that is readily available to us is sort of “soupy,” and requires adding modifiers to reach the desired stiffness. Thinner inks make the printing appear sloppy as they “squeeze out” under impression.
• The drive for soy inks came from a marketing council of soybean growers. When a printer of our size proclaims their use of soy ink, we wonder if it is more of a marketing tool than a concrete environmental difference. If the soy oil replaced volatile solvents like toluene or benzene it would be a clear advantage, but linseed has worked well for ages and has no ill effects that we know of.
  
• We mix all of our inks by hand so even though we are a commercial letterpress shop we only have a can or maybe two of just the pantone mixing inks instead of buying a new can of a single PMS each time someone orders a new color. Common print jobs typically use a small amount of ink – about the size of a quarter. This helps us to be better to the environment instead of having a bunch of ink that might not ever get used sitting around.
• We've also decided to start making the switch to rubber-based inks because of their anti-skimming properties. This keeps more of the ink more usable over time.

Did the monkey mail come?

For those of you that are in the same boat as us - weekend mornings spent watching cartoons that are separated by skits with two little monkeys (their names escape me), then you will understand my goofy reference.

I've always loved little monkey illustrations so I had to use it on Lucia's birth announcement. We went super formal for Lily's so I wanted this one to be a bit more fun. We miscalculated the paper we were planning to use for all of the announcement fronts, so we ended up printing on three different stocks.



Lucia Birth Announcement
Design: Me (Valerie) with a monkey illustration by our designer, Kate. Photo by Jim.
Paper: fronts were printed on 110# Crane Lettra in Fluorescent White, 80# Eames Furniture in Pacific Blue and 105# Stardream in Aquamarine (I liked this one the best). We mounted each to Carnival Vellum 80# Cover in Cocoa or 80# Eames Furniture in Pacific Blue. Envelopes were all Eames Furniture in India Pink (policy flap of course).
Ink: Custom mix to match India Pink paper and PMS 4625
Quantity: 200+
Size: 9.25" tall by 4.125" wide
Notes: Each was diecut with half moons to hold a photo in place. Not shown in this photo is the letterpress-printed (one-color) photo underneath so recipients could keep the photo somewhere else but still be left with an intact announcement. We mounted each card to a backing panel and rounded corners.

Windmill Ink Fountain

The ink fountain is crucial to consistency and productivity, especially for longer runs. While it’s possible to add ink manually as needed on shorter jobs, beyond a certain point it’s quicker to set up the fountain so you don’t have to stop the press to run around and add ink. Once set up the fountain also helps maintain consistency throughout the run, and the longer the run, the more this pays off. Of course, the heavier the coverage, the more essential the fountain becomes.

The fountain controls both the overall amount of inking, and the location at which it’s added. The windmill has twelve fountain keys to span the width of the printable area. As the oscillating distributor roller cannot be dialed out of action (as on the Heidelberg cylinder for example), the ink doesn’t stay strictly in line with the fountain keys. In other words, you can’t have heavy inking at key 6 and light inking at 4 and 5. The ink will work its way sideways as the press runs.

When I set up the fountain I usually leave out the ductor roller until setup is complete. First I set the advance control to “8” so changes at the fountain keys are seen as quickly as possible, then begin opening up the keys in line with the artwork to be printed. I try to set the ink level so an advance setting around 4 or 5 results in the correct ink amount. This leaves the most room in either direction to change the amount of advance as needed.

Especially with lighter colors, it’s important to not tighten down any of the fountain keys too much. A very tight setting will actually scrape off a bit of metal over the run, which can turn the ink grayish.

The fountain can also be used to take off ink, as when switching from a heavy form back to one with a small amount of text. If you tighten down the keys and crank the advance up to 8, the ink will be pulled from the ductor roller back into the fountain as the press runs. The ink will always transfer from the more heavily inked roller to the “drier” roller.

Folklore Eye Design

Designed by Folklore Eye
Description: 3-color letterpress business card printed on Crane Lettra 220# cover in fluorescent white with rounded corners. We have a die available to cut the corners on press as the 220# cover is too thick to handle on a table top corner rounder - especially when cutting more than 500 business cards!

Laugh Out Loud

Spark Bittersweet Ink Collection
Check out other Bittersweet cards at the Spark Stationery website!