Kittys Drawings

Hi all!
If you’ve been reading this wee blog for a while you would know I was nominated for the Lithographic Institute of Aus, Graduate of the Year award. Last night was the dinner for the announcement of the Victorian winner….sooooo…..
No use beating around the bush – I didn’t get tha big prize last night

BUT not all is lost! I got a heap of great contacts…the sales manager for Heidelberg Aus. gave me his business card so I could call him about letterpress parts. My friend’s father who owns a couple of newspapers said he has a bunch of stuff for me down in Franklin which isn’t far from Dover where my press is. He’s got a heap of type and even a man who can teach me to use the press! How convenient! So stoked. Everyone was mighty impressed that I had an interest in such an antiquated form of printing. Keeping the dream alive I hope to be!

Now I just have to get cracking and make some calls!

So who won? There were only two girls nominated out of seven and my friend (who’s father has the newspapers) won it. The same girl I mentioned in my original post about this comp who I hoped that if I didn’t get it, she would. And she did! I’m very happy that a CHICK won it, in such a male dominated industry! She is very deserving too – very accomplished and super motivated.
It was kind of obvious she would get it, being a fifth generation printing family. And little ol’ me always the underdog in a way…I wasn’t going to tell lies about what I want. I don’t want to take over the printing industry – or be some big wig going to lots of meetings. That’s not me at all.
I’d rather do my own little thing, and do it well.

And that’s that! Got home last night and today back straight into work. I got a plaque for my efforts and a cheque for $100 which is wonderful. It’ll pay for the lovely vintage dress I just bought. I should really try and get some photos of my awesome new clothes I’ve bought lately to show you all. Must hassle Jonny!

We’re really really busy at work right now. One of the women has left our end of the office to do more admin work. The other has been sick the past week so despite being two people down, no one minds because it’s been beautifully quiet!

About today’s drawing….This one is an unplanned piece. It started with me trying to draw a picture out of my LittleSnapper inspiration folder (fantastic app by the way!) which wasn’t working in the slightest. So I started again and just drew from the top of my head and this is what came out I’ve been wanting to draw a girl with her eyes shut and chin turned upward for a while and it never really worked. Think it might have been the hair issue – but that dilemma was easily resolved in this drawing. This choice just seemed logical.
This took about 1.5 hours. I made dinner in there somewhere so I’m not sure of the exact time

Until the weekend…ciao!!

A post on a fellow Voguette’s blog, Le Blog de Sushi a little while back had some gorgeous images of that chick from Twilight – you know, the cute pixie-like vampire? (terrible terrible movie by the way)….

Anyway, I think she has a beautiful profile and I loved one of the photos. Really nice lighting too. Which I have sketched here Cos I was feeling guilty for not posting in a few days. Does anyone else feel bad for not posting as often as they would like? Compound this with the fact I need to DRAW too and if it’s not kept up, my skills start to wane. Tsk tsk.

So I’ve whipped this up in about 30mins. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination…But I can tell you I am LOVING the new technique! I feel way more ‘free’ in my sketching on the computer. And so, I am quite happy with this…YAY I may be making progress with my skillz.

ALSO!! Big news! Award night time! NEXT WEEK I find out if I win $15K!! Woooo!!! LOTS more exclamation marks!!!!! !!! !!!!

BUT…I don’t know how I will go…..Eeep the nerves will start again! Tune in this time next week for the RESULTS!!

I really really do!

I was soooooo nervous! Though that is normal for me…I get pretty spacko when in social situations that I did not instigate. If you get what I mean? Like, I’m okay meeting new people if it’s a ‘level playing field’ but things like interviews, public speaking or even some parties where I don’t know a lot of people I get really really nervous. And this especially, because there is so much to gain from doing well.

I hope I stressed my versatility enough. As you know, it was the Lithographic Institute of Australia, and the only place I have learnt about litho is through school and my small dealings with getting business cards done for my parents. At work we print flexography and rotogravure. Two quite different methods of printing with each their own special considerations to do with the material you are printing on and the inks etc.

They asked me a lot of technical questions about file formats, resolution and screen angles. Some of the hairy questions which I don’t know if I answered in the best way were about whether the printing terminology is adaptable across the formats. I also not sure I answered what my job description is very accurately. Of course, I know all the answers to these questions! Just the situation you see. Doh! There was discussion about what I’d do with the money and the state of letterpress at the moment. They were of the impression that I might be taking on too much too fast but I’m pretty confident in my ability to figure stuff out – which I am not sure I stressed enough.

When I get nervous, I find it very difficult to keep a train of thought going as my mind gets blank and I forget what I was meant to be saying. I hope they could see through my nerves and I hope I haven’t let myself down. I’m pretty sure I came across more as an artist because that is really my intent with the letterpress stuff. I do love the printing industry in all its forms and while letterpress is not a competitive part of it any longer, it still holds its value as an artform. It’s up to the judges to decide whether they want to support me starting a business in such an antiquated part of the industry. It’s very much alive today but not in the way that litho is.

And I hope I’m not coming off too negative – more I am thinking of the things I could have said better. Don’t we all do that?  The positive notes – I think I past the technical stuff with flying colours. Work is not a problem for me and I can make decisions about what I think will print well. They were also very encouraging of me finding suppliers for the letterpress stuff. One of the judges suggested I look into intaglio printing as he knows someone who is doing it on the same scale as letterpress. Intaglio is similar to gravure in that the plate is etched with the image and then filled with ink, with the excess ink being wiped off the plate. Then the paper is pressed against the plate with pressure from a roller, which transfers the ink to paper with a slightly raised, tactile effect. Pretty much the inverse of letterpress actually, where the plate pushes into the paper.

There will be a dinner next month to announce the winner which should be fun. Now that the interview is over with, and while I would LOVE to win more than anything…I certainly won’t be a sooky sore loser if I don’t get it It’s not going to halt my career that’s for sure. Hehe.

Just before I left for Tassie, the letter for the LIA Graduate Award nomination arrived in my letterbox. Yipee! Except that the time for the interviews was only two weeks away – on the 17th of THIS MONTH!

Cue mini freak-out.
Eep.

But really, its okay. I have been mentally preparing myself for this for a while now.
So – I got back to Melbourne with plenty of thoughts in my mind about what to put in my portfolio. I started compiling some images today in Illustrator. And then, on the advice of my friend, I rushed out and bought one of these this afternoon:

Check out the pretty colours these binders come in:

They come from Bookbinders Design, on Elizabeth Street in the CBD. Such beautiful things in the shop I can tell you! All the pretty colours and quality notebooks, binders, and other stationary – it’s a paper fiend’s heaven
I bought a bright red A3 folder and some plastic inserts to put my art in.
Hopefully the quality of such a binder will help me stand out from the others in the interview.

Oh – and more about the comp….Well I have to pass the Victorian state finalists, which is what this interview is about. If I win, I get to go to Sydney where they announce the winner of the $15,000. I really really hope I get to go to Sydney. The opportunity to set up my own business without incurring any debt is just too awesome! Eeeeeeeee!!!

Anyways…I will let you all know how the interview goes. I am not nervous at this stage actually – I don’t know if I will be at all. I am pretty confident about my technical skills at work and my plans for the future. But then, I have a tendency to be a little *awkward* in a face to face situation with people I don’t know very well. Oh dear. Well – See how it goes!

I’ll also put up my work on the Gallery section of this site when I’m done.
Ta ta for now

For your viewing pleasure.

Well, I have been flat-stick figuring out the WordPress thing. Made a few tweaks here and there. You can see my header has changed (AGAIN omg) – this should be one of the final changes..its how I want the whole site to look eventually. With MY handwriting!
Also, if you click the “About” button up the top there, you can see that page is finished too.

These photos are of my parents’ kitties down at the winery. It can be very hard to take a photo of them as they fidget around a LOT. Possum (the grey and white one at top and bottom) wouldn’t sit still! She just wanted pats! The others I wanted to capture all huddled up in a big kitty-pile as they were but as soon as I walked out the door, they all jumped off each other and ran about thinking I had some food for them.
And Petyi is the big tom – he is a very large cat! And very friendly and placid.

I best get back to drawing – Promise more frequent posting in the week ahead. Even though I do have a lot on. I will be heading to PacPrint on Thursday to suss out if what they mean about letterpress being there, is going to be more than just a teeny stall hidden in the back somewhere. Anyone else going?

…. That needs a little love – but the few things I have to fix won’t be too troublesome I hope!

In all her glory. Whatever shall I name him/her??

The rollers that need replacing. See the big grooves in them? That’s not meant to be there.

Where the ink gets deposited onto the forme rollers – From the tray in the left there, across a bunch of metal and rubber rollers and then finally onto the plate.

I am missing a bolt that holds this oscillating roller in place. At least I think this is where it’s meant to go!

The press from the side on. So many levers and wheels and bits that move!

More of the ink system – there should be another metal roller and 2 rubber ones in there somewhere.

The paper feed – I removed the yucky green card shortly after taking these photos. It served no purpose.

The other side of the ink system. Hope I’m not missing any bits here!

I think this is the serial number and model number.
It says:
Type – H222
Nr – 34635

If this is the real serial number, then according to a list I was given on BriarPress, this press was made before 1950. Much older than the mid 60′s I thought it was going to be!

I would be especially happy if someone knowledgeable in letterpress reading this blog would be able to point out any glaring problems which I don’t already know about!?

I’ll be heading down to Tassie again in early June – only weeks away – so I will see if I can get some rollers by then and get this baby running. Though I’m not liking the look of the timeframe I have to get these things.

Update on the new blog – I now know what it will look like….but it involves a bit of CSS knowledge which I dont have. If anyone would offer their awesome web coding services I would happily draw them something original and unique in return
Until then, I will play with the local version of WordPress I’ve got running on my work computer and see if I can suss something out.

Well – I promised my boyfriend to add some more to the Cult-of-Pop skull so I’m off for tonight!

Guess what!!!!

I just got a call today today to inform me that I have been nominated for the LIA/Heidelberg Print Industry Apprentice Award…or something like that. I can’t really remember – its quite long….

And I am one of EIGHT – in the runing to win a whopping $15,000!!!!! Oh. My. God. There will be an interview in the next couple of weeks where I have to show my resume and some samples of my work. Thankfully there is tons of that but I am a bit worried about my resume because I haven’t needed on in 5 years.
All that aside, I do have a perfect thing to spend $15K on – My letterpress of course! Nothing could be more perfect. I’d be able to buy everything I need to start the business. Thanks to my wonderful parents, I already have the most expensive thing…but I could buy inks, new rollers if I need them, a Boxcar base to stick my plates to, a bunch of plates for some initial prints, paper, clean up equipment….Everything!! And then still have a bunch of cash left over to travel to the US of A to learn how to use a letterpress!
Well, that would take precedence actually. The learning is more important. All the other things I could aquire over time.

Even if I don’t win – the interview and nomination is enough. I’m really happy now that my schooling has paid off. To tell the truth, I was a crabby little biyatch after the RMIT Industry Awards because I thought I had missed out on any of the awards. I was miffed because I’d won in previous years and then nothing even though I worked much harder in my last year than any other. I was also disappointed for my classmate as she wasn’t considered for any of the big prizes either and yet she is already in management and hasn’t even finished her apprenticeship yet. So I really hope she has been nominated too, even though she would be very stiff competition as she’s very accomplished and a much better ‘people person’ than I am.
So this will teach me not to be such a sore loser. Ha.

Fifteen. Thousand. Dollars.

*sigh*

;-P

And here’s a little kitty I whipped up for you. Inspired by Goma