Presston Cast Master

A little more info about Polyurethane Presston: He will be about 4 inches tall, in a total edition of 30 pieces, possibly in two color variants, light blue (20 pieces) and orange (10 pieces). He will be unpainted, and come in a bag with a letterpress printed header card. Price and release date not yet determined.
The pictures above are of the cast master (I think). Looks good!!

Mike Maxwell--AS Print #18

The Way She Left by Mike Maxwell. This image was created for Mike's current show at The Shooting Gallery.
Details:

•8x10 inches
•Two-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton paper
•Signed/numbered edition of 50

Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

Polyurethane Presston

Two new photos from Arne Industries of the original rough master and the cast master. Arne says the eyes, feet and tail need a little sculpting work and everything needs sanding, smoothing and priming.
Regardless, we think it's AWESOME!!!

Presston becomes something...

Thank the Lord for Arne Industries! We found out about this boutique toy maker from the recent Babe Bunyan figure by Scrappers. We were so happy to discover they're right here in the US of A, in Portland, OR no less, one of LP's most favoritist cities ever. This is the initial sculpt of Presston who will be eventually turned into a hard plastic figure.

Jon Burgerman--AS Card #26

Info soon...

DGPH--AS Print #17

Argentine design duo DGPH's second contribution to LP's Artist Series is this outrageously cute Viking. Printed in gold with a blind debossed border and details. Although this print is part of the Artist Series we have decided to avoid the additional cost and time that shipping to Argentina takes, and offer this print as an UNsigned/numbered edition. This allows us to offer it at a Beat the Recession Series price, and ship immediately to customers!
Details:

•6x8 inches
•One-color letterpress printed &
blind deboss
•Lettra 100% cotton paper
•Numbered edition of 50

Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

DGPH--Sneak Peek

Biskup x Wilkintie

I don't promote other letterpress operations too often on here (there's really just too many to promote, plus I'd like you to think LP is the only one around, haha) but I thought I should give any of you letterpress fans out there a heads up on this print from Australia's own Wilkintie. They have an ambitious print project going on, and a recent contributor is one of my personal faves, Tim Biskup. So, although I wish this was OUR print, I still think you should snag one. Get all the info here.

Jason Limon--AS Print #16

Evil Plug

Jason Limon has been one of the most requested artists for the Artist Series, so we are happy to be able to offer up this cool two-color print.
Details:

•6x8 inches
•Two-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton paper
•Signed/numbered edition of 50

Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

Gary Taxali--Finger Print

We are thrilled here in LP land to be able to offer a print by Gary Taxali, one of our favorite artists, and without question one of the most well-known and respected illustrators working today.
The image was created in response to the current trend of offering illustrators smaller fees for their work. The state of the economy has hit the art-world pretty hard, and as purveyors of such we were drawn to this image and its message.
Warning: this image is somewhat crude! Don't click if you're sensitive to such things. Otherwise, click here for a full-size view.
Here are the details:

•5x7 inches
•Two-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton paper
•Signed/numbered edition of 100

Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

Available Prints

Andrew Bell's Squid Car

Brian Morris' For The Birds

We recently produced prints for two cool artists. They are both now available for purchase. The first is Squid Car by Andrew Bell. And the second is For the Birds by Brian Morris.

Travis Lampe--AS Print #15

Travis is an Artist Series alum, and has been really knocking things out of the park since LP last worked with him. He made this awesome resin figure, had a show at Gallery 1988 (LA), and his super cool line of vinyl toys, Tear Drips, will be coming out soon (I have a Zoltar figure and it rocks!).
So when he sent artwork for this print I was beyond excited to see that it was a Tear Drip!
Details:

•5x7 inches
•Two-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton printmaking paper
•Signed/numbered edition of 50


Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

Candykiller--AS Card #25

Wow. 25 artist cards in a little over four years. Some times I didn't think we'd make it this far. It seems appropriate, and we're very happy to have a design by one of our longest standing collaborators, Candykiller (aka Brian Taylor).
Brian has turned his classic Zombi image into a fantastic card design for us. Here are the details:

•Limited to 500 hand-numbered cards
•Two-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton printmaking paper
•Accompanied by red envelopes
•Five cards/envelopes per pack
•Pre-ordered packs come with one card signed by the artist


Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

Joe Scarano--Old Timey Cat

Another print in our Beat the Recession series of small pieces in small editions at less expensive prices. This one is from Joe Scarano, who previously provided us with the first Trading Card image. As with the artist series products these are limited editions, and will not be reproduced. Since Joe lives in the States, this one will be signed and numbered.

•5x7 inches
•One-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton printmaking paper
•Signed/numbered edition of 50

Visit the Artist Series Store for purchase info.

Ledbetter Process, Step 4

FINISHED!

Didn't take any new pictures of the actual debossing (see previous post) and final trim, but here are the finished pieces:

Buy them at the Artist Series store!

Ledbetter Process, Step 3 pt. 2

Still printing.

Putting the black down after an overnight drying. Went on much easier.

We had to lay the black on fairly heavy to cover the gold where the overprint, so the debossing and trim has yet another day to go. We did the make-ready for the debossing on some test prints (there's some ink smudging, which is exactly why we need to wait to finish the actual prints) so you can get an idea of what the technique is. It will look much nicer on the soft, cotton paper of the real print.

Ledbetter Process, Step 3

The Printing.

Cutting the paper.

Inking up the press for the gold detail on the card.

Printing the gold.

Gold layer for the print.

After printing the gold for both pieces, the press gets washed out, and after a little break the black gets inked up.

Black plate for the card goes on.

Printed cards.

The gold on the print wasn't dry enough to put down the black layer, so it waits for tomorrow, as well as the blind debossing. The card will be scored and trimmed and totally finished other than hand numbering and signing by the artist.

Ledbetter Process, Step 2

Making the plates.

We are now using photopolymer to make the plates. It is a light sensitive material that is exposed and processed much the same way as the screens used for silk-screening. One nice bonus is that no chemicals or solvents are used during the wash-out, just plain old tap water, which makes it a little kinder to the environment.

Cutting the photopolymer down to fit the negatives.

Exposing the photopolymer sheets.

Can you see Mr. Bunny in reverse?

Exposed for three minutes.

Another set of plates going in for a suntan.

Wash out. This is the fun part. The parts of the photopolymer material that are exposed to light harden, and the rest of the material stays soft. The soft parts will be washed away by warm water. Washout takes from 2 to 3 minutes at about 95 degrees (the temp was a little high when I snapped the pic). Mr. Bunny can just barely be made out in this one.

Two of the large plates for the print taking a bath.

Next the plates need to be rinsed off and blotted dry, then on to the drying rack. This is the longest part of the process, taking about 15 to 20 minutes. There's Mr. Bunny, this is one of the images for the card.

After the plates dry, they need to come back to room temp, and then they are post-exposed for about 5 minutes. Here is the finished Mr. Bunny plate.

And finally, we decided to throw one of the plates on the press to see how they turned out and to test the gold ink. This part of the card will actually be printed in black.

Next step, the printing!

Ledbetter Process, Step 1

First step, get the negatives made. This has all three layers of the print and the two layers of the card.

Next, making the plates...

The Joe Ledbetter Project

No, it's not the name of a new Super Group. This is the exciting super secret project mentioned in the previous post: an Artist Series print and card set by Joe Ledbetter; a great artist, really nice guy, and (we'd like to think) friend of LP's. Joe created one of the very first card designs for the Artist Series, probably the one that put us on the map and in people's brains. We're super-duper happy to be working with him again (it's been too long) especially on such a cool project.
Here are the details:

The Card

•Limited to 500 hand-numbered cards
•Two-color letterpress printed
•Lettra 100% cotton printmaking paper
•Accompanied by sky blue envelopes
•Five cards/envelopes per pack
•All pre-ordered packs come with one card signed by the artist!

The Print

•8x10 inches
•Two-color letterpress printed + blind debossed detailing
•Lettra 100% cotton printmaking paper
•Signed/numbered edition of 75


No sneak peeks yet for these, but check back soon for a process pictorial and ordering information.