..and all as black as Ink

There's no doubt about it, printing with fresh black ink a whole lot easier than using other colours, especially if they are a few years old.

Earlier this year Libre Livre was lucky enough to pick up a range of letterpress inks in colours ranging from standard reds, blues and blacks to more esoteric mauve, lime green and yellow. Some of these inks are several years old, still functional, but needing a firm hand. Getting a sharp clear impression from them takes skill - and patience as the ink is treated and worked to loosen it.

On Sunday the team had an early start: and composing, inking up etc was well under way by time for elevenses. We chose royal blue, oil based ink but despite working it hard we could not get it flowing as loosely as the black we normally use. Matters got worse as we discovered that none of the team had enuogh cash to pay for lunch. Still, by the end of the evening we had some attractive lilac letterheads, personalised envelopes and some printed cards invting our customers to "keep in touch, writing letters is fun".

In the next couple of weeks I hope to be adding some photos illustrating our range of letterhead designs, inks and papers

Wood Type wanted

One of the things we at Libre Livre are always on the look out for is wood type. Do let us know if you have any you want to get rid of (contact details on main website).

We recently bought a very nice font of "Chatsworth" and some assorted ? and ! signs

Wood type has a feel and a density quite different from the lead type used for much letterpress printing. For an example, click here