One of the jobs we occasionally do is special announcements, including wedding invitations.
This spring, we did a collaborative job with a local couple who were getting married. The bride made the paper in our shop and we did the printing.
This was pretty much her first effort at making paper and it turned out great. The pulp was unbleached abaca beaten for an hour in our Valley Beater, with a small handful of flax noils fibre added in the last few minutes of beating. The noils had enough time to be dispersed through the pulp but were not substantially beaten or cut.
We got her started on how to form the sheets, and gave her the formula for topping up the vat (one scoop of pulp from the bucket for every three sheets made), then let her go at it while I set the type for the printing. The entire page was set in Lydian Cursive 18 point.
She made 8½×11″ sheets which we then cut into three pieces about 8½×3½” with cut long edges and deckle short edges. Needless to say, this paper size left no room for verbosity.
A few days later I did the printing on our C&P press and applied thermography powder to give the ink gloss and thickness.
The test print I made with black ink looked pretty good, but they opted for cocoa brown instead. When seen right off the press I don’t think they looked as good as with the black ink, but once the thermography was done the resulting glossy brown ink turned out to be a great match for the paper.
All in all it went well for both of us, since she found the papermaking very relaxing, and she was there to consult with regarding wording, spelling, and layout as I set the type.
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