Apocalypse Now

Anyone who knows me well, or has had the misfortune to go drinking with me, will know that I have a slightly very unhealthy obsession with the end of the world and related topics.

Apocalyptic or post-Apocalyptic fiction is probably my favourite literary sub-genre, and that's true for films as well, as long as they're not too scary...!

Of late, zombies are what's been on my mind (one of the less realistic end-of-days scenarios to concern myself with, I admit), because Samuel has been playing The Last of Us.

So this weekend, we thought it would be fun to make ourselves a zombie themed print. As usual, we were limited by the type we had available (this really isn't the right font), but I'm quite pleased with this nonetheless.

Locking-up:
(we didn't do this as thoroughly as we usually would, it was getting late and we figured if zombies are approaching, careful letter-spacing probably isn't at the forefront of one's mind...)

Inks:
(only red and black will do, for zombies, really)

A quick proof:

And the final print:

We've done quite a lot of other printing this weekend, but it has been less than satisfactory. For me, this was a bit of a wake-up call slap in the face as to how far we've really got to go before we can consider ourselves anything more than total amateurs.

I think my trouble is remembering that real life doesn't actually happen in a montage. If you want to get good at something you need to practice, practice, practice... and in this case, possibly also seek advice or tuition from someone who actually knows what they're doing!

So, we've booked ourselves onto a one-day Adana course at St Bride's Library in October. Hopefully we can make sure we're getting the basics right, and move forward from there...

Experiments, and our first 2col card

We've spent quite a lot of this afternoon printing (yay!). Mainly experimenting with various bits of pictorial type that we bought in that great big job lot recently. It's hard to tell how they're going to come out until you actually print them, so we've just been inking them up and having a go...

Varying levels of success here, but I've had a lovely time mixing all the colours:

Here's the state of our kitchen whilst the work was ongoing:

Of everything we printed, we liked this butterfly the best:

Decided he might make a nice birthday card design, and had our first go at 2 colour printing:

Winding your way down on Baker Street...

This week we finally had a project with purpose! It's my dear friend Claudia's birthday and amongst many things we have in common, she is a huge Sherlock fan. Over the last few years, we've managed to buy each other a plethora of Sherlock-themed birthday presents (t-shirts, mugs, oyster card holders etc.).

I couldn't really find anything that piqued my interest this year, so I decided we should make something instead. Claudia and her husband are also currently renovating their house, so what could be more perfect than a Sherlock-inspired letterpress print for their wall? Well, I think it's perfect, here's hoping they agree!

Locking up:

Inking:

A few proofs, we decided the black looked more striking than the red:

The finished product:

All framed up and ready to give to Claudia next week:

For those who are interested, this was printed with Black Caligo Safe Wash Relief Ink on 300gsm Somerset Velvet board in White.

Type type type!!

More type! Woohoo! And finally, a full font of decent wooden poster type, which didn't cost the earth. I am very excited.

This came from Italy, so the distribution of letters is slightly odd for the English language, but I'm sure we can muddle through! Cannot wait get started printing with this stuff...

It's sat on the proof press for now until we figure out the best way to store it:

Little weekend gardening project

The garden is the only part of our house that is kinda looking worse than when we bought it. I think we can both now admit that we've bitten off more than we can chew... having a 100ft long garden actually requires some maintenance believe it or not!

In Samuel's case, I think he really is quite keen, and is making a concerted effort, but we're just not home enough to keep on top of it. In my case, I'm a bit intimidated by the whole thing, and what with my debilitating arachnophobia and squeamishness about having muddy hands, I have been little-to-no help. My only real contribution has been hacking back some of the giant bushes with so little finesse that I killed them. Yes, really.

So we set ourselves a little project this weekend, one step at a time you know, to tidy up the area in front of the trellis by the greenhouse, and plant some pretty things in it.

Here's the before pic (incl. Basil, our Bengal cat).

Clearance:

Choosing our layout:

And done!

I reckon I can say we succeeded in our brief. Well, I can't really say 'we'. On account of my stupid back, I've not been in a position to help with any manual labour at all today. I did make a cake though:

It's a rhubarb crumble cake for my Dad's birthday, with rhubarb from our garden of course. Won't know til tomorrow if it's actually edible. Finger's crossed!

Oh, and here are some pretty-itty-bitty dahlias we also bought today, haven't decided where to put them yet: