Nest, etc. Block and Printing on Handmade Paper

For this block, I typed my text on the computer and then printed it on drafting vellum. On one side of the vellum, the ink just sits on top of the paper, so I was able to transfer it to the block with just a little hand pressure. This made the job of reversing the text for the block very easy.

I only carved around the letters and didn't clear the whole block. I cut a stencil from Yupo (synthetic paper) to keep ink off the unwanted areas. I made other stencils to isolate individual words for printing.

I tried proofing on some paper that I made recently, but the paper had too much texture to print consistently, so I decided to calendar it. The proper way to calendar paper is with a metal plate and lots of pressure on the press, but I used plexi-glass and it worked fine, though I couldn't have the pressure so high it would crack the plate. Here is a piece of handmade paper going through the press to flatten out some of the texture and ready for printing.

Calendaring another piece of paper with pulp paint.

Then, the paper was ready for printing. Below are some of the prints. The ink seems to sit a little differently on the pulp paint areas and the plain paper areas.