Rabbit of the Moon Letterpress Printing Design & Gift
A lot of my work depicts rabbits and hares. A rabbit and the moon is a symbol of rebirth and new beginnings. I recently had a very traumatic thing happen to me, so a rebirth for me means trying to get past that experience, and grow.
I decided to create this project for a letterpress plate. It was originally intended for a greeting card, but since I just recently got back into letterpress after about three years, I forgot what is safe to create. You can't design with thin strokes, or points. You can't make an area that is to be inked be an area of just flat negative space. These areas tend to be blotchy. Truth be told, I sold the press of my dreams during COVID. She was a Vandercook #1 poof press that I painted hot pink, much to the chagrin of the old timers. She printed like a charm. But, COVID hit and the price of paper reached astronomical proportions. I decided it was time, and off went about 90% of my entire print shop - cabinets, type I had made in a German foundry that no longer exists, printing elements, lots of ink, many, many font families. It hurt, but I felt like it was time. I watched a woman from a University in another state drive off with my printing equipment. And eventually, I got over it.
Then I saw a company called Provisional Press that make a wooden proof printing press kit. It was not going to be like my pink press, but it was something I was interested in trying. And while I was waiting for it to arrive, someone locally was selling a grocery printing press called a Show Card, which was used for printing grocery advertising posters in the Mid 20th Century. The quality was questionable compared to the Vandercook proof press, but it was ridiculously inexpensive. This all happened last year, and with working as a graphic designer, and working my full-time job, I kept saying I would eventually use one of them. The wooden press had to be assembled.
Along came my current job that required a very long process background check, and I had so much time to spare, I started with designing a rabbit in Illustrator, and filled it in with a zillion little lines. I guess I am crazy. The idea was to make a letterpress design that resembled block printing. And this is what eventually came of it.
But, before the project came about, and knowing that I did not want to spend the money on a long-term temporary photopolymer plate, I was going to go all out for a nice magnesium plate, a metal one. This was going to be my contribution to an antique store when I die, like the one's I find in shops. It was quite costly.
Once I got it, I cursed it out. All the little fine lines kept filling in. It was a printing nightmare, but I insisted I was going to print this correctly. I tried different things. The one additive that finally solved all my issues was Magnesium Carbonite, which thickens the oil based ink. I am still trying to get it to ink more evenly. But tonight, I was really impressed enough to post the image.
While all this was taking place, I sent out for a personalized baby blanket with my design for my granddaughter for Valentine's Day.
Here is the results from this project:
