Me being me, someone who likes to make stopmotion things and having an occasional fancy to make random flash-based toys, I decided to make this this afternoon- a virtual version of Lilly’s letterpress!
It will run by itself, but you can mouse over it to make it work yourself too! just move your mouse up and down over it!
If you know your letterpresses, you might be a little confused by the ink disc ratchet. Yes- it’s something I made myself, out of an old scrap of metal, and a cent I have had knocking around on my desk for ages (it wasn’t heavy enough on its own and Abraham Lincoln was happy to help!). The original one was very broken, too short, and not well attached, so I made this replacement on the weekend. I didn’t have a bolt of the right size though, so it is currently being held on with a small screw and chunk of wood. I’m not really sure if it looks or works anything like it is meant to, but it seems to work!
If you are curious to what we’ve been printing so far, you’ll probably find it on my Flickr. This weekend, we made our first prints with the litho ink I scored last week. Cool!
Tags: Adana, Five-Three, letterpress, stopmotion
Aw man. I can’t stop looking at this. I have an Adana 8×5 coming in a month or so along with a whole bunch of type and can’t wait. Until then, this animation will pass the time until mine arrives!
Great blog, lovely work – It’s great to see other designers getting excited about printing for themselves!
Thanks! I’m glad you like it, and hope your Adana adventures go well
Super animation.
Can you tell us a bit about how you took the photos. The lighting and back drop have been very well done. The press is very clean as well.
Would you be able to share an animated GIF version for those of us who would like to keep a copy for ofline viewing (add your credits)?
I may have a spare ratchet lever on a parts press, will check for you if you send me a reminder mail one day.
Hello! The best way I can show you how I took the photos is by showing you one of the originals: http://www.trickartt.com/imagedump/VA-orig.jpg
I just had it set up on my kitchen worktop on a big sheet of plain paper. I had my camera on a tripod and had my external flash pointing upwards to bounce the light off the extractor hood above where I was taking the pictures, which worked as a good diffuser. I had a ribbon tied into the handle, which I was using to move the lever without my hand being in it- I had to photoshop the ribbon out of every frame.
I don’t think a GIF would be a very efficient way of saving it, but if you drop me an email I might be able to sort out a QuickTime MOV file.
And thanks for the offer of a ratchet lever! I have done some more work on it since I made this though, and my newest hand-made one works as well as I can imagine any original one working, so I should be OK