Nest Progress

Bet, my sweet and awesome mother-in-law, (how many people can say that and mean it?) has a house that’s full of beautiful things, like old books and quilts, collages of family photos, Alex’s pottery, and approximately a million nests. This little nest is on her new screened-in back porch, and I drew it while enjoying her porch and a cup of tea.

The trucks that came with my press were old and worn down, and one of them didn’t fit on my rollers for some reason, so I bought some new ones. I tested the nest print with just the two rollers, which did not provide the level of saturation I wanted. Also because the trucks were worn down, the rollers were hitting the plate harder than they should have, making the lines blobby. I went back and worked on it again today with three rollers and was able to get much closer to the result I’m going for.

Before: Two rollers, old trucks

After: Three rollers, new trucks

Difference in saturation and line definition before and after.

I still feel like it has a ways to go, but I’m encouraged to see that with a little patience and experimentation, the press will do what it was designed to do – even after 100 years of hard work. I’ll post the final product as soon as I’m done with it.