Task 4:

Potato Printing

I felt inspired by my location and chose to print the word “WAVES.” I gave myself an easy out by selecting a reasonably simple font and all uppercase letters. The rounded edges of the “S” and the negative space at the top of the “A” were somewhat challenging to carve. There was also some careful planning involved at the beginning to ensure that the letters appeared correctly. To do this, I wrote the word in marker on a thin piece of paper, which I then turned over and copied the bleed through – it was this side that I used to model the letters I carved.

The whole process went smoothly, taking approximately 75-90 minutes to create the print from start to finish, including the wrangling of supplies. Creating the stamps themselves was the most time consuming component, which took about 40 minutes. For the most part, there was a certain amount of forgiveness in creating the letters. My first try at the letter “A” ended up as the final product for the letter “V,” and my “E” started off much larger and had to be whittled down to match the size and style of the other letters.

I started by drawing each letter into potato squares that were roughly the same size. From there, I used a small knife to carve away the material around each letter. To get straight letters and consistent spacing between them, once all of the letters were carved, I established the amount of padding around each letter that I thought would be suitable and chopped off the excess. I used washi tape as a guideline in an attempt to make my printed word as straight as possible. If I had carved the entire word on a single potato, these additional steps wouldn’t have been necessary; however, that would have limited the usability of my stamps. Creating single letters allows other words to be printed (saves, wave, seas, etc.).

Creating the stamps was more time-consuming than writing out the word (think how many times I could have written the word “WAVES” in 75 minutes!). However, it was apparent once the stamps were created that the mechanization of writing was much more efficient for mass printing. I was fascinated by all of the tools featured in Upside down, left to right: a letterpress film (Danny Cooke Freelance Filmmaker, 2012), to ensure that the letters were spaced correctly and to add efficiency to the printing process. It isn’t hard to imagine how the innovations associated with writing and print evolved as materials changed and the need for efficiency and mass production grew. It is not all that different from how the consumption of and change in the function of text led to a shift from scroll to codex (Lamb & McCormick, 2020).

As I was crafting, Collier’s sentiments about the extraordinary uniqueness of the letterpress came to mind (Danny Cooke Freelance Filmmaker, 2012, 05:10); the imprint of the ink on paper and the tactile nature in creating text results in something special and unlike digitally produced text. Something about my prints felt more real and present than digital text. I see similar parallels in the progression of other technologies that increase access but change the degree of human connection involved (i.e., physical books to eBooks, Encyclopedia use to Google Searches, etc.).

References

Danny Cooke Freelance Filmmaker. (2012, January 26). Upside down, left to right: a letterpress film [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6RqWe1bFpM

Lamb, R., & McCormick, J. (Hosts). (2020, May 28). From the vault: Invention of the book, part 2. [Audio podcast episode]. In Stuff to blow your mind. iHeart Radio. https://omny.fm/shows/stuff-to-blow-your-mind/from-the-vault-invention-of-the-book-part-2