Inkiana’s Blog
Full of interesting oddities and curiosities, this is where I share my passion for printing!
The Heidelberg Logo
Being a fan of Heidelberg printing presses, I search the internet for things that interest me about them. I found this interesting video made about the origin and evolution of the Heidelberg logo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrZ8KOtU8qw
January 2025
Mobile Print Shop outing
In August 2020 the Mobile Print Shop was loaded for a print job we ran in Browns Bay. It was a sunny day so we tackled it outside. It involved a series of letterpress prints of drawings by Yvonne Todd which were later exhibited at McLeavey Gallery in Wellington.
Entitled Rollerskater, they were 51x 38cm framed, letterpress prints hand made on our 1833 Albion Press, on Crane Lettra 600gsm 100% cotton card.
It was an honor to print these for Yvonne.
Yvonne Todd was born in Auckland, where she lives and works. She received a BFA majoring in Sculpture from the University of Auckland in 2001. The following year she won the inaugural Walters Prize with a series of ten photographs made in her final year of study. Judge Harald Szeemann said it was the work that irritated him the most.
Since then, her work has been in numerous exhibitions including the Edinburgh Art Festival (2014) the Sydney Biennale (2010), and the Busan Biennale (2006). Other group exhibitions include Unnerved at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery (2010), 3.Fotofestival, Mannheim (2009), High Tide at Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, (2005) and Mixed-up Childhood at Auckland Art Gallery, (2005).
Yvonne’s major solo exhibitions include Creamy Psychology at City Gallery Wellington (2015), Wall of Seahorsel at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne and Dunedin Public Art Gallery (2012), and Blood, in its Various Forms at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2007).
Heat Embossing
This is my thermograph machine, or heat embosser. Ink is printed on to the paper or card and while the ink is still wet, the thermo powder is sprinkled over the sheet. Powder sticks to the wet ink, the rest is shaken off and the sheet is place on the conveyer belt. It goes through the heat tunnel where it melts , leaving the printed area with a shiny, raised surface. The powder is clear so shows as whatever colour ink has been used.
Thermography was known as the poor mans embossing, it was an embellishment which was popular for wedding and social stationery and business cards.
Thermal printing or raised printing dates back to the early 1900s. Up until 1915, thermography was a hand applied speciality craft before the first automatic machine was developed. It is said that Virkotype Company was the first business to produce an automated thermograph. By 1920, Carlson Company marketed the Vikotype machine and process in Europe. Because of its easier application, thermographic printing became more popular and lower-priced alternative to engraving copper or steel blocks for adding embossing effects to ink.
After WWII, thermography became more popular. More printers started using the process due to new advancements in superior powders and advanced machines. Since 1900, thermographic printing has advanced greatly and was widely used as a preferred printing process that can add prestige to any stationery piece. But it faded to obscurity as printers turned to digital machinery, which couldn’t do the process.
Inkiana Press is one of very few printers offering this embellishment in New Zealand today.
Printing with Found Objects Workshops
17 & 24 January 2021
These two workshops were organised by the Birkenhead Public Library, each with 6 children, and the two hour sessions were hardly long enough. Thanks to Tristan, a young designer friend from Austria, and library staff for their help, their creative input and willingness to help with the operation of the Albion press was much appreciated. It didn’t take long for the children to get into working out how to set up their designs, using flax and cuttings from native ferns, lego, NZ coins, and thin rubber cut into shapes.
Watch the posted dates for more workshops. Booking is essential.