The first printing from our little Adana powerhouse is done and dry!  I ought to qualify that by saying it is the first successful printing because, in fact, we did two other runs first, which were both minor disasters.  As it turns out the press wasn’t calibrated when it arrived and as new printers we had to learn the calibration ropes.  Essentially, I tinkered with it for 25 minutes, got frustrated, had a stroke and then C swooped in and his ever-so-patient self twisted and turned and rotated until the chase bed (where we lock in the type) was adjusted to the right angle.  I opined much of the time about how it would never be right and we had made a major mistake in buying the press.  I get frustrated easily.  C has come to know me very well and was able to tune this out.  But soon he had set the knobs and the Adana was making luxe, deep impressions uniformly on the page instead of the little ghost images it was making previously.  So lucky I am to have a patient, mechanically inclined business partner. 

However, this was only mash-up #1.  Further press calibration was necessary, oh yes.  But this time we skipped the whole part where we let the machine (press) torture and frustrate me into lamenting its existence and C looked up some solutions on BriarPress (the online mecca of letterpress information) for rollers not hitting portions of a type lock-up.  One suggestion was to pack the area behind the chase with some bond paper to raise the type to hit the rollers with just the slightest extra pressure.  At first C used some pressboard, which he thought to be bond paper.  Oh no, no, no, this did not work.  Mr. Sensitive Press had none of it and instead inked the bejeezus out of the type and images and made a thick mess of our paper.  It looked sloppy and undefined.  At this point we were both exhausted and decided to clean up and attack the bad boy another night.  We know our limits.

That other night turned out to be this evening and after some careful consideration we decided to use actual bond paper instead of the pressboard C had packed with originally.  We used three sheets of my lovely resume paper, purchased from Office Depot, tucked it in with some tape and a prayer, inked the rollers and did the first run.  It was lovely, impressed and delicate.  No over-inking, no uneven impressions, just letterpress bliss.  We used all the paper we had left after the previous tries and it was so fast and so easy that we ended up feeling like we had somehow cheated the press system.  But now, we have some very chic, masculine thank you cards to show for it and gosh we are proud of ourselves!  I also decided to line all the envelopes to spice the set up a bit and I really think it adds the sweetest touch. 

So without further ado, the very first (successful) run of the Aerialist Press, Navy Pilot…

Navy Pilot (named after my Papa)

We printed an extra one, which we signed and dated and are framing so we can remember the moment later on when things get sticky and I feel mad frustrated.  We like to plan ahead.  

xox, A