While artists like Warhol and Koons made themselves famous by advertising and celebrating their physical detachment from their work, others commission outside experts only when their ideas reach beyond the limits of their own native physical skills.

The artist Ed Rusha, who first gained art world cred in the 1960s  his text paintings and artist books, combines high concept and high craft, hiring experts to take over when his projects demand it.

Check out the making of Ruscha’s 2002 artist book, Me and The, produced at USF Graphicstudio in Florida. The team was challenged to innovate contemporary adaptations of the ancient tradition of fore-edge painting to complete Ruscha’s book. Their attention to detail and the complexity of the process is pretty inspiring to watch.

And though we put out many cool works, we still felt limited by the size. Well, no more! We figured it was time to hit the extremes and get the biggest base our Vandercook could handle and the smallest base we could get for the C & P.

pretty good, for a block of wood

We had already experimented with printing from larger than normal surface areas when we collaborated with Lite-Brite Neon We used a wood base that had the text carved into it. We then knew how big we could get, but we wanted to print big and perfectly. So we saved our nickels and dimes, turned in all our soda cans, and sold lemonade on the street to allow us to purchase a beautiful papa of a magnet, coming in at 18 ¼” x 24”

Practically filling the bed of the Vandercook, we can now put a plate anywhere we want! And more than that, we can finally print the posters and other large forms we’ve been dreaming of in our spare time. We felt that with our involvement with NYWI, now was the perfect time to explore just how far we could go with large form letterpress. Just having a base that size to play with opened up a whole new world of ideas for our designers, and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve come up with in the next few months.

We don’t want to belittle our little base, it is just as fantastic and ferocious despite it’s 2” x 4” stature. We often print envelopes or projects where the paper is cut to size on the C & P, and you can have a devil of a time trying to make sure your pins don’t hit your base. Remember the bunting bases are precise and delicate and can be smashed and mashed much like lead type. But now we’re going to retire our battle scarred base and replace it with our new Tiny Ajax! We’re finally going to have the flexibility to print almost anything we want almost anywhere. And it’s just so cute too.

Don’t think our old bases are going to waste though. We’ve put them on our recently refurbished SP-15  which we can’t wait to try out on some full wedding suites. The dream of having all the machines here running simultaneously is finally upon us. We’ve expanded our shop, we’ve hired more designers, we’ve found some great printers, and now our only limits are the limits of our imagination and the imaginations of our next generation of printers.

We’re also starting an exploration in printing business cards with the metal type for smaller business card runs that’d be a little more cost effective if you’re just interested in some nice letterpress cards done in the metal fonts that we’ve got handy. Drop us a note (studio@swayspace.com) if you’re interested in learning more!

The first color/lockup on press

second color lockup

fin.

my sister just opened her new salon in chicago. it’s called Sparrow, but she’s not flighty. My sister is effortlessly hip and it shows in the hairstyles she creates.

So if you’re in the windy city stop on by and see my elder sibling, Bathsheba Rachel Nemerovski, for some fixing…and tell her she owes me a call.

Star Trek Lyrics

Beyond the rim of the starlight, 
my love is wandring in star flight. 
I know he’llfind 
In star clustered reaches 
Love, strange love 
A starwoman teaches.

I know his journey ends never. 
His Star Trek will go on forever. 
But tell him while 
He wanders his starry sea, 
Remember, 
Remember me. 

 
he made the right choice

if you like fine art and you like comic books, and who doesn’t, check out this site. It’s basically a blog site with some of his pictures, but they’re awesome.

fresh printing