PCBA Printing

In February, at the Codex fair, I had the fortune to be tabled right next to the amazing Peter and Donna Thomas. During that event, Peter invited me to collaborate with him and John Sullivan of Logos Graphics for a keepsake for the upcoming Makers' Issue of Ampersand, the journal of the Pacific Center for Book Arts. Logos Graphics is presided over by Binky, who is pictured above.

Over Skype and email, we came up with something using Peter's handmade paper and with an image by yours truly. I was a bit nervous to be part of a project by people for whom I have so much respect.

The piece was printed on John's beautiful Vandercook, pictured below.

It was also my first time using rubber ink. One of the things I appreciate most about John, besides being an amazing printer, is his ability to challenge my vocabulary. One word his introduced me to was thixotrohy. This is a word that describes how ink is thick until agitated or mixed, during which is becomes looser and easier to move. I was aware of this quality, but never the word to describe it!

Below is John placing the plate on the press bed.


John's press has a counter, which I'd never seen on a letterpress before - they are more common on offset presses. Here it is on print 199 . . .


. . . and 200! We printed more than that, but this was when I remembered to watch the numbers flip.


The prints are piling up. . .


. . . and a detail of the final result. Click on the image to see it larger.


I'm so grateful to both Peter and John for including me in this project. John mentioned that he was working on other projects for the Makers' Issue - I can't wait to see it!