Printing, was: Re: [Scriptoris] peerage patents

[Elaine Crittenden]

At the risk of getting some static, here comes the teasing---

A couple of years ago, I attended an exhibition of printing done on a
1450-Gutenberg-style reproduction press. All the typeset letters were
printed with space left for illumination to be done by the artisan of each
buyer of that Bible. (Note I said "Bible" and not "historical document.")

Sometimes, a second color, red, was printed on the page after the black had
dried, they said and demonstrated. No other colors, they said at the museum
exhibition.

If Kinko's or a laser printer is "out," and you don't happen to have a
Gutenberg press in the corner somewhere (giggle), you possibly could use a
silk screen printer from Japan called "Gocco." It comes in sizes for small
scrolls and typewriter paper-sized ones. BTW, the thing can be set up to do
several colors at one "press," providing there is some space around the
color change areas, say, a quarter of an inch.

The larger Gocco printer runs, new, about $600. The smaller one is nowhere
near that and is the first one I bought, years ago, pre-SCA. (I later
got-cheap!-the large one at a garage sale "from someone who didn't know what
they had," she said, smugly.) Finding the ink could be a problem if you
don't have a distributor in your area, though.

If Gocco is the way you want to go, what's to keep from doing erasable
registration marks and using the smaller silk screen Gocco to do areas of a
larger sheet?

Actually, I'm in the shadows with Mistress Serena, giggling about the "much
ado about nothing," since the fru-fru we do on awards wasn't done in Period,
anyway. It seems to be no more Period than xeroxing!

As Serena has said before, (God bless her!) important documents weren't
decorated at all, if you don't count cadled letters done by the scribe.
(snicker, giggle) The fru-fru pages were in books, usually Bibles or
Psalters.

And, again, with Serena's past statements in mind, no one would probably
know the difference, or care much for the Authenticity Police's stamp of
approval, anyway. It just has to look nice in the frame...  ;-)

(Besides, I think fewer people would check the back of a printed piece than
the number who look at the back of embroidery, with framed work solving both
problems, anyway. ;-DDD )

Lete, still amused by it all...

----------
>From: Hillary Greenslade <hillaryrg at yahoo.com>
>To: "Scribes within Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <scriptoris at ansteorra.org>
>Subject: Re: [Scriptoris] peerage patents
>Date: Thu THFeb 10,2005,7:42 PM
>
> --- Diane Rudin <serena1570 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> But period printing would be interesting, although I doubt the kingdom could
>> tell the difference.
>>
>> --Serena the Cynical
>>
> Depends, I think on how it was printed, via lithography or with a letter
press.
> If heavy pressure is used the letter shapes are almost embossed onto the page,
and
> you can certainly tell it was a printed page.
> There is a new printers group started up at:
> scapnt at yahoogroups.com
>
> And a few of us have had some experience at printing - me, very little
> letterpress, but via a
> guild at the Museum of Print History in Houston (note to self - must do
> that again), and Lyonette
> of Steppes does printing professionally on etched plates primarily, I
> think, rather than
> letterpress.
>
> Cheers, Hillary
>
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