Battesimi (baptisms) are a pretty big deal here in Italy. A Sunday lunch out in a nice restaurant is customary to celebrate after mass. I printed up our little one’s invites for the special occasion. It had been a while since I’d used my metal type/decoration opting many times to use cliches.
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INVITI BATTESIMO | BAPTISM INVITE LETTERPRESS SUITE
METAL TYPE COMPOSITION | TWO COLOR PERIWINKLE & HOT HAUS ROSE
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Needless to say, composing by hand takes longer and to some degree more discipline. I liken the process to building blocks. It was a two color print with a decorative detail off to one side of the main card and a smaller information card to go with it. To print in two or more colors, I first start off with a sketch, then a proof print in one color. This means composing everything just I intend without separating colors yet.
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| LIKE BUILDING BLOCKS-FILLING UP THE SPACE |
Simple enough... then things get a little more intense. With metal type compositions and when dealing with more than one color that aren’t meant to overlay, but are intended to be more structured like invites, you have to absolutely make sure the second run of color will match up where it should. You do this by making sure your paper is cut to size perfectly, keeping your paper registration secure with metal or paper gauge pins for hand fed presses, but
first the all crucial typesetting. Filling up the empty spaces in the composition perfectly so the registration is just so is a must for both runs!
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| TYPESETTING FIRST COLOR RUN |
Color choices were periwinkle and hot haus rose. The second run of color was simply a dividing strip, but the same amount of precision and detail went into it like on the main invite which included a large decorative strip off to the side.
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| FINAL TWO COLOR RUN |
On the front side of the card I printed Maya’s initials. This card would lay ontop of the main invite secured with a soft paper belly band.
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| FRONT SIDE OF CARD WITH INITIALS |
I used a combination of color for paper to add a bit of lightness. I made a duplex with Crane’s double think cotton and antique grey linen paper, the belly band was an ivory and a kraft envelope tied it together.
