more learing, more printing

Finally got to printing today and I think I may have outdone myself. I printed more than I ever have! Good thing is, I'm getter better at it everytime. A few things though:

1. I almost dropped the press. Jesus Christ, yes. And in doing so, I almost broke my wrist. I had the Adana on a new table as the one I was using before was a little too high. The new table is narrow and when I pulled the lever down, I leaned on it to the side. It immediately toppled to it's side and I held onto it for dear life with my hand still gripped on the handle. The press didn't fall off the table, it just fell to the side. But because it's heavy for the one hand that was holding it - I was cursing. I know now why these little presses would do well bolted down! For the rest of the session, I pushed down on the lever in one straight, downward motion. And ironically, the paper that was being printed on -survived and it came out just fine.

2. See above photos. A). I have a choo-choo train plate that didn't print it's wheel well on the paper the first time. B). Experience in workshops gave me the solution of putting tape behind the part that needed some padding. C) This was a nice, quick, easy way instead of using packing paper on the platen. D) After one attempt, I got a the wheel!

3. I haven't gotten the rubber based inks yet so I stuck with the Speedball oil-based inks. I love these inks. They dry quickly on both of the paperstocks (coated and uncoated) I printed on today. I've also noticed today that I'm getting a bit better at mixing ink. Better because I'm achieving the colour I want. But I'm not getting better at using less amounts of ink for mixing. I've got to work on that. When there's alot of ink - I feel the need to keep printing as I haven't figured out a way to store mixed oil-based inks. Can you even do that? Should you do that? Please let me know if you do!