letterpress – Jes Lee

Another weekend

November 16, 2014 by Jes

The reception at Konawerks Saturday night was lovely. It was very encouraging to me – that everything I am trying to do and juggle is worth it, and there are people who notice.

I love the snow we have been getting – the soft flakes, the not terribly cold weather. I love this season.

Recently, I have spent some time printing again, working on my little press down by the fire place, getting reacquainted with my studio. That is one of many things making me happy.

And my Christmas Cactus is blooming!

Prints 16 & 17

August 5, 2014 by Jes

On Friday I printed the map.

The map shows up on every page of this little book.

I somehow managed to mix the perfect shade of light grey ink.

Today I printed the title page and colophon. That took four runs, and four shades of blue ink. Somehow I only managed to photograph three, but you get the idea.

This little book is far from done. Next comes binding and making covers. But I am so excited to be this far, to do my last press run today.

Prints 15

July 31, 2014 by Jes

Today was a massive day of printing. I finished 6 runs…and the end of the hashtag words in the book. Still to come is the map, title page, and colophon, but this, today, was a huge accomplishment.

I also started a new class at MCBA tonight, that is so amazing, it deserves way more than just a little mention here. Much more to come on that.

Tomorrow begins the month of August, typically true summer weather, and a new journal challenge I decided to try participating in. I am trying to squeeze every creative moment I can out of this summer. It some how never feels like enough though….. I am still working that out.

Prints 14

July 28, 2014 by Jes

On Friday I finished three runs before it was time to be done. I can really feel myself getting closer to the end now. Sunday I stayed up late getting the negative ordered for the last few polymer plates I have to remake. Things are coming together. It will be a few days before I can print again due to a photo job and an appointment to get my hair dyed. But I am honestly quite happy to have a short break.

In other bits, this weekend felt wonderfully long, and I was able to spend a lot of time with John running off to new places, and old favorites. It was lovely. We also managed to finish two of the many yard work projects we have going. Cheers to a new week!

Prints 13

July 24, 2014 by Jes

I know my printing time has been gradually decreasing over the last week. Each color run I finish completed the hashtags for one more page, meaning each run I do there are 32 pages less to print on than the time before. Today was the first day I really noticed that it was taking me less time to print. I finished two color runs in only 3 1/2 hours. I still have 8 more color runs, plus a large run for the map, and three short runs for the colophon, and title page. I am making up the colors as I go.

Prints 11

July 22, 2014 by Jes

I made it past the half-way point today!

Also, it is Holga Week! It has been awhile since I have brought my Holga with me. So, I have it in my bag this week. Today I photographed my letterpress project with it.

Maybe I will get a photo of the river tomorrow with it.

Prints 10

July 22, 2014 by Jes

I managed to squeeze in two word runs instead of only one. Both were runs that had multiple words switching between pages, requiring a lot of organization. I am a bit uncertain about the blue color I mixed yesterday. I hope I feel better about it today when I see it again. I am actually getting very close to the halfway point of printing. Of course a couple of other large deadlines are creeping up on me…closer than I would like to admit. But I do keep making progress, and that is what counts!

Prints 9

July 17, 2014 by Jes

Last run for this week. I mistakenly thought I would be pretty close to the end of printing within two weeks. That is not the case. Now I am quite curious about how long this will actually take me….

Prints 6

July 14, 2014 by Jes

I admit it. I skipped yoga class today to print more. But I managed to get two runs done instead of only one. Two colors instead of one. One single word run, and one run made up of three words. It felt good to make that much progress!

Another day of printing tomorrow, and monitoring the screen printing studio tomorrow night. I love being at MCBA as much as I am right now!

Prints 3

July 9, 2014 by Jes

Too exhausted for words. But the third hashtag is done! And I biked to the library and MCBA today….the fresh air was good, considering all the time I have spent in the basement printing…..

I came home today to see that we have a few white lilies growing in the abundance of yellow and orange lilies. My yard continues to surprise me.