This is an exploration in type setting and using a letterpress, done at the NID Print Lab during a five day workshop on Letterpress and Relief Printing in May 2019.
Apart from gradient experimentation using the available ink options, a debossed effect has been achieved with the words 'the unseen', by leaving the type uninked.
A composition using various printmaking techniques was created.
Firstly, a texture swatch was made carving foam boards. The texture chosen was created using sand paper on foam board. Multiple prints in various colours were taken using the letterpress.
Multiple stamps were created using foam sheets, which were inked and stamped onto the background texture prints by hand.
The type was set on the letterpress, and some the ink was wiped off some letters every time a print was taken on the letterpress, to achieve an incomplete and fading effect with the type.
Final prints were put together after another round of stamping on the dried prints.
The most fascinating part of the process was seeing how each of the 80 prints that were produced were so different from each other.
Printing explorations on muslin cloth using stamps carved out from a foam board
A mono colour linocut print of Severus Snape, taken on a page of the Harry Potter book itself.
