via Makr by Northern Lights. As seen on FormFiftyFive.

Here’s a very interesting video about the Kluge Letterpress. It’s 550 year-old printing technology, set out by Gutenberg. It reminded me of some of Dick Van Dyke’s character’s inventions from the film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I have recently purchased silk screen printing equipment/supplies as I have been wanting to experiment with this hands-on world of printing. There is just something about the process that makes you appreciate the digital methods we are so used to. I decided that for my first test subject, I would create customized “thank you” cards from all the graduation gifts I have received. I am using the left over envelopes from my graduation announcements and purchased cream-colored cardstock. Needless to say, the trial has been an epic fail / major learning experience. From the images below you can sort of see my process, as tedious (read: unnecessary) as it is, and the suspects for the errors.

I am using all Speedball® products as they seem to be the industry standard/best. This specific process involves using a screen (I bought the 10×14) and your design. In my first attempt, I simple-mindedly cut the design out of cardstock and used the Screen Drawing Fluid to paint onto the screen with the stencil. Well, the Drawing Fluid bled everywhere on the screen under the stencil, so that was a no go. I then carefully painted the Drawing Fluid on the design after tracing in on the stencil with a pencil. This took forever and even longer to let dry and ensure it was solid. After it dried, I used the Screen Filler and (as the instructions said) made one pass with the squeegee to coat the entire screen. This dried and I sprayed out the Drawing Fluid with cold water. I was pretty stoked as it looked like this would work well. Little did I know what went wrong. I set it all up, purchased the printing paper, cut it all to size to fit the envelopes, prepared my work space, complete with screen blocks (to ensure I placed the screen and paper in the same place each time), and mixed some water-based ink to a desired color. I placed the screen over the paper, spooned out some ink on the screen, squeegeed, and removed the screen. FAIL. The paper was mostly covered with ink. Turns out the Screen Filler needed a heavier coating to fully cover and mask out the excess. ug.

I have since then looked up alternative screen printing methods. I think I will try this former method again, but with a simplier design. As for now, I was considering contracting out the job of putting an emulsion on my screen to a local printing company but we have nothing like that close by. I cannot wait to move to Dallas. So until then, and for this project, I am going to use the newbie method of cutting the design out of wax paper, place the stencil directly under the screen and over the paper, and ink it then and there. The ink with make the stencil stick to the screen and I should hopefully be able to get 20-30 prints out of it. Here goes and wish me luck…

I am not going to try to explain why I have not posted since forever and a day ago. Let’s just say it was a busy semester. I even kept a post-it of posts I wanted to make. But is definitely a challenge to start up fresh, knowing you need to post like 8 or 10 new things.

So here I am again.

HI.

Thursday 21 May.

A lot of things have and are soon to happen. This is probably the most exciting (event-wise) time of my life. Ever. It was my last semester as an undergraduate, I walked across the stage at graduation last Wednesday, I am getting married in just one month, T and I are moving to Dallas immediately thereafter, and I start a new job in July. Can I get a “woo woo”? It’s a big change, in a good direction, but it is all happening very fast.

I am just now getting a chance to breathe though. I am home with my parents again. Back in the Houston suburbs. Each time I come home I become a little more aware of the lifestyle of the typical suburban inhabitant. It is amazing how different life can be living here versus an urban environment. There are several items that come to mind. Here, you feel like you need a sense of privacy, which is supplied to you by the 10 feet of space between you and your neighbor, made complete with not a shared wall, but your very own, brick-faced and insulated 6 inches of building. Oh and 5 feet of landscaped sod. Grass that is not meant to be grown in southeast Texas. Here, your view out your window is either at a brick or wood-siding wall, or directly into the home of your neighbor. Or it could be to an A/C unit, or simply the standard suburban wood fence. (On that note, I think it’s funny how adjacent neighbors come to building a fence together. They alternate which way the fence “faces” and end up with a sorry-looking excuse for a beautiful garden wall. You could spend half the amount of money on a chain link fence and grow some ivy if you really need the barrier.) Here, at the start, the developer was clearly in charge, placing these cookie-cutter, look-alike doll houses on the land with maximum quantity/minimum concern for the direction of sun or the design of the actual house. Ours faces directly west – excellent for afternoon sunbathing. In the dining room. Here, if you have an un-attached garage, your front and facade – the pride and joy of your home, and where all your money went, is used only by the UPS man and those pesky solicitors. Here you pay someone else to mow your yard for you. You could have native grasses and plants that don’t need weekly trimming but Bermuda Grass is the norm. You fertilize it, killing all chances of future life, and ensure that yours is not 1/2″ higher than your neighbor, God forbid the others talk. Here you pay a monthly neighborhood association fee that goes towards the maintenance of the local pool and the monthly replacement of flowers near the grand entrance. However, with a quarter of the residents with personal backyard pools, what is the point? What are they paying for? The flowers. Oh good.

I don’t mean to hate on suburbs. Or do it? No, no. I have decided that it is the life of a certain kind of person. The baby boomers do fit most of the qualifications, but I do have hope for my generation. That we may one day (sooner than later hopefully) rise above this fixed, manicured lifestyle and rediscover the city and the urban dwelling. The life of living very close to one another, with a slightly more fixed view outside, but with the exciting ideas of community, efficiency, convenience and economy. Where a family owns not 5 cars, but 5 bicycles. They would ride the train to the next town to visit friends or attend school. They would walk down the street to the local bakery and market, bookstore or java house – and it would be good for them too! The average American in a city walks at least 5 miles a day. In a suburb, it could be as little as 1 or 2 miles. Less if you drive your car to pick up your mail from those oh-so-convenient mail box clumps.

We need a change from the norm. We are becoming unhealthy physically, jealous of the Jones’ new Jag and wasteful of the space we have in which to live. My 40-50 minute commute to my last summer’s job was the final straw in my mind to get me thinking that life in a city could be very nice. Think of walking a few minutes to a bus stop, riding 10-15 minutes to work with time to read the paper, do suduko or just relax. What a great start to the day. Better than experiencing a chaotic drive home surrounded by single-passenger-occupied vehicles, stressing you out so much that you don’t have the energy to kiss your honey when you get home. You plop down on the sofa, (after driving through the gated entrance to your neighborhood, and parking in your messy garage) exhausted from work and the work getting home, watch TV and fall asleep because the idea of going out again just makes you even more tired. Sound like fun?