Sparrow-Avenue

Yesterday I attended the Platen Press printing workshop.  I shared the class with a very lovely woman, Andy, who also has a thing for birds. This must have been the best workshop I've ever done not only because of the easy-going approach by all of us, but because I could also understand the press itself. I don't usually understand machines and tend to shy away from them, but this Platen Press is very straight forward and very satisfying.

 

The ruler, even though it's in shadow, shows that I'm working pretty small (just over 3").

I was hoping to use the Bodini type face(it has lovely thick and thin strokes with a thin serif) but it was too large to fit on my pre-cut paper so I opted for the size that would fit which was the Univers (not a typo).
I'm hoping to compile my collection of sparrow drawings, linos and silk screens into a little hand-bound book and this will be the cover (or maybe the inside title page).

 
Before even starting on the sparrow though, Andy and I chose to do a complicated composition first. She chose the alphabet and I, the numbers.

 

Always start with something complicated, then everything else will be easy!

This isn't usually my philosophy but it reminds me of when my dad taught me to drive: I had to back out of the driveway first. "If you can go backwards," he said, "you can go forwards."

In this case, doing the House Sparrow printing was a piece of cake.