Lasers cut wood! And if you can cut wood, you can replicate the magnificence of the 1400′s.Wikipedia defines Letterpress thus:
Letterpress printing is relief printing of text and image using a press with a “type-high bed” printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century. In addition to the direct impression of inked movable type onto paper or another receptive surface, letterpress is also the direct impression of inked printmaking blocks such as photo-etched zinc “cuts” (plates), linoleum blocks, wood engravings, etc., using such a press.
The horrible part of letterpress is that it’s slow, messy and imprecise. In fact, the only people who print this way on a regular basis are either making wedding invitations for stupid amounts of money or creating short-run art pieces.
The technique is nifty, and because it such a pain, many people never really get to see the beautiful results that can be had. Jackie went to school for printmaking, and ever since we bought the laser cutter we had been contemplating ways to use it for making letterpress blocks.
In the “old days” people created letterpress blocks by casting metal or hand carving designs into wood or some other soft material by hand. With the advent of laser and CNC cutters, we suddenly have a faster and more precise way of cutting printing blocks.
After some experimenting with different materials, we found that the new laser cutter goes through poplar better than any other wood we have thrown in there so far. It’s not ideal for jewelry due to the way the grain tends to cut while doing dithered raster, but it does make nice crisp and deep cuts when doing regular raster or vector cuts.
Tonight, I was bored so I whipped something up quick to give it a shot. Luckily I had a press in the closet from some previous projects and some leftover black block printing ink. I think it worked out pretty well. Anyone have a good idea for what we should try?
EDIT:
I forgot a sweet little detail. When you apply an even layer of ink to the wood block, you use something called a brayer. You can get one at any art shop for about $6. The stores were closed and I was impatient, so I made one myself out of a rubber roller from an old toner cartridge and some wood block. I’m amazed at how well it works.
