I know I haven't posted anything on the creative front for a while now (just too lazy to get my photos organized), but this is what I've been working on since the beginning of the year...
My coworker's robin's eggs blue letterpress wedding invites, ta-da!
They have a mai flower (a Vietnamese flower that resembles cherry blossom) theme, and their bridesmaid dress is this pretty robin's egg blue (or at least that's what I'm calling it). We picked this Bockingford 200-lb all-cotton paper- very thick and luxurious but also tree-free (one of my most fav papers). They also decided to go traditional with the design but without all the unnecessary frou-frou stuff (inner envelope, envelope lining, etc). Saves $ and the environment :)
Also we decided on an RSVP postcard (showing front and back), which saves postage and another envelope. Score!
Part of the unglamorous production process- matching swatch to ink to the pantone color chart (which gives you precise yet impractical mixing guide, e.g. 3 g of process blue + 0.03 g of yellow and 0.001 g of black... eh, I don't have an atomic scale) That's why there're all these trial prints laying around, it's hard to get a perfect match... *sigh*
One of the 2 photopolymer plates on the Vandercook press, this one containing the names and the floral motif which printed in blue. The gray text was printed in a second run using a separate plate. So having 2 colors really double the work for each piece- and that's why multi-color letterpress work cost so much more, folks!
But the hard work pays off! It took me a total of 6 Sundays from the design to the last step of the production phase to finish this wedding. I love my little labor of love :)
All in all, apart from the color matching issue, I'm happy with the results, and my coworker just got them and said they love them too. Whew! That's all that matters.
I think I might take a little break from letterpress. And since gocco bulbs purportedly contain mercury (or some other heavy metal a pregnant woman has no business being around), I'm a little leery about starting any gocco projects right now as well...
Maybe I can start sketching out designs for baby announcements (it's never too early, right?) I love this one that I did for my cousin last year, but I think I need some fresh ideas as well... if you have some feel free to throw them my way!
