First go on the proof press

Last night we had our first attempt at printing on the proof press. It went really well. Here it is, dominating our kitchen:

First things first... now we're ready to go:

The GTS (Great Type Shortage) continues, so we had a bit of thinking to do before we could come up with some content that actually seemed worthwhile printing, and we ended up with this:

Basil was on hand to help with the set-up:

Mixing inks is still the part I enjoy the most, we got to use our fancy pants Japanese brayer as well:

We tried a few variations of which elements were printed, or otherwise. The lead type for the 'something' is kinda too fine for the proof press, hence it looking mostly over-inked and messy:

We solved the 'grubby edges on the 3' problem by flipping the chase round so that that open side of the 3 wasn't the first thing hit by the force of the roller.

And here, the finished product! I'm really quite pleased with this, though if we do it again, I think the original orange is preferable to this rather 'primary' red...

I think the combo of the printed 30 and unprinted debossed 'something' really makes this come alive visually, and works better conceptually as well (if we do say so ourselves!).

Right, who's birthday is up next...