A Notecard Set:
This was project was a block printing project which was part of a class where we explored different media. This particular assignment require us to make some notecards for a non-profit group and an example of how we would package that set. I took it a bit farther and made a printing press for myself.
I chose to do mine for the Acadian Institute of Oceanography located on Mt. Desert Island in Maine. The island has a rich colonial history in addition to a history as a location where movie stars of the 1920s and 30s had their vacation homes until a wildfire destroyed them all. I chose to go with a more colonial theme, and make some cards featuring various sea creatures.
The packaging features a wave motif and a large window cut out to show off the first card in the set. I chose the lobster. The whole package is bound with twine.
The package unfolds and has two pockets, one for envelopes, and one for cards. The wave motif is carried into the interior.
This is my printing press. I built it out of various parts I acquired from a few different places. For the wood, I took an older version of this IKEA cutting board I got on sale and cut it into the two main blocks, and the arbor. The upright arms that the arbor slides in is a pair of IKEA aluminum shelf brackets screwed to the base. To retain the arbor, I drilled holes into the aluminum brackets using L-shaped brass rods to retain it. I made those from a brass rod from ACE Hardware. The rod was cut in half, chucked into a drill and tapered on the ends with a file, placed into a vice, and gently coerced into an L-shape with a hammer. To get the screw, I took a Harbor Freight clamp, cut one of the screws in half where the thread pitch reverses, took the threaded pin out, and replicated the same setup in the arbor. One of these clamps yields two screws. The leather/pvc cap are there to take some of the blow from pressing, but a small metal plate would be better.
