Oak Knoll

Xerox printed by Russell Maret in an edition of 250 unnumbered copies.

From the artist's website: Printers typically have refined and considered opinions about their favorite typefaces, block materials, papers, and presses, but those same printers, myself included, often incline to head scratching when asked about ink.

When I set up my first shop, I used Van Son inks because those were the inks my teachers used. A few years later I worked for a printer whose shop was in the same building as a Gans ink distributor so I began using Gans inks. It was not long (though also too long) before I noticed that the colors I printed with Van Son and Gans inks tended to fade if hung on the wall. I then asked Gaylord Schanilec what ink he used and, like him, I began using Daniel Smith Litho inks. Before then I had never experienced such vibrant pigmentation, perfect viscosity, or reliable lightfastness. But I had not actually learned anything about ink, I just found an ink that worked for me by asking another printer.

After Daniel Smith stopped making inks I switched to Hanco inks and have been happy with them ever since, except that they dont overprint as evenly as Daniel Smith inks did.

So lately I have been asking other printers what inks they use, and how they modify them, in the hope that I would learn how to get the same results I used to be able to get. What Ive found is that most other printers have had similar experiences to mine. They ask friends and colleagues, and then they just mess around until they get the ink to do what they want it to do. This is an essential methodology of our craftyou just figure it out. When you cant, you ask a friend. This book is the result of asking a bunch of friends, and friends of friends, what inks they use and how they make their ink work for them.

Participants include: Joel Benson/Dependable Letterpress, Inc.; Ben Blount/Blount Objects; Rebecca Chamlee/Pie in the Sky Press; Julie Chen/Flying Fish Press; Jan & Crispin, Elsted/Barbarian Press; Jen Farrell/Starshaped Press; Philip Gallo at The Hermetic Press; Barbara Henry/Harsimus Press; Michael Hepher/Clawhammer Press; Max Hoyt Koch/Koch Printing; Peter Koch & Jonathan Gerken/Peter Koch Printers; Art Larson/Horton Tank Graphics; Peter Malutzki & Ines von Ketelhodt; Russell Maret; Emily Martin; Graham Moss/Incline Press; Pat Randle/Nomad Press; Patrick Reagh/Patrick Reagh Printers; Felicia Rice/Moving Parts Press; Gaylord Schanilec/Midnight Paper Sales; Veronika Schäpers; Richard Seibert/Richard Seibert, Letterpress; Jessica Spring/Springtide Press; Richard Wagener/Mixolydian Editions; David Wolske.