Adana 3x2 letterpress...design is iterative man..

Adana Letterpress 3x2

This week I’ve been focusing on getting my mini adana 3x2 letterpress up and running. Bought off of ebay as spare parts..it’s been a learning curve to get it going. What I slowly worked out was that it was missing probably the most vital part..the part you put the letters in to create a relief. But have no fear, the printed word will continue to be backwards inked onto pages in flats in Manchester to come because I think I solved it!

With the help of my partner (thanks Dave) who 3D modelled the chase (bit that the letters affix into) I finally have a working-ish letter press to print poetry. He started building a box on Fusion 360, which is a piece of software I refuse to work out how to use. We super confused ourselves with the dimensions and understanding how high the box needed to be in order that the letters would be run over by the runner thing, depositing ink, for it then to be pressed on the paper. After faffing and a warm tingly feeling in my brain, we worked out that we actually didn't need to work it out at all as the letters were obviously just the right height for the runner aaandd after packing backwards poetry into it, it just fit in the hole and printed. 

There is something so lovely and tactile about printing something on a letterpress, especially after working it out. It also gives me a lot more to work with around mixing new medias in!