Video of the two-stage print process

As the grant funding for this project diminished, I was in a bit of bind on how to print the polymer plates from Boxcar Press. Traditionally, these are printed on a letterpress where the plates (which have an adhesive backing) are mounted on a base and the inking rollers just kiss the surface with enough ink to print the text for a consistent and efficient print run. I began to search for printers who could accommodate my needs, when I found a video on youtube were a guy printed his polymer plates on an etching press. I watched that video multiple times and once my plates arrived, I decided to give it a go. Not only did I meet with success on that I created a system to place my tabbed paper into a registration system for my linoleum blocks so that I could print both halves of the paper in one run. The jig shown in the video is an old piece of insulation foam that had some type of aluminum paper that I covered with duct tape. It was pretty beat up and I didn’t want any foam bits getting loose and helping with keeping things clean.

The video runs true to the time it takes me to print one set of pages, with the exception of a little camera set up. Good camera peeps are hard to come by. 🙂