Redesigning my hand printed labels.

So, it has been a while since I have printed any labels. Some of you may remember my labels from a few years back. For those who don't I will repost them below.

I have wanted for some time to redo my labels. Sadly I have not worked in my studio for over a year for work or pleasure. I am trying to get motivated to get back in there, and find the time. Two toddlers has been my excuse thus far...

What is a hand printed label you ask? Well, I hope to illuminate that and the process with this post. I figured perhaps some of you may be interested and I am hoping it will give me some more motivation to press on.

So I will begin with my previous efforts.




These are both hand printed from woodblocks and wood engravings with some linocuts (linoleum). They were really my earliest forays into wood engraving. I have been a woodcut/linocut artist for most of my life, but this was the first time I worked with engraving. I will perhaps get into the difference later if there is interest.

The second print The Spiney Norman's Best bitter received Honorable mention in BYO's Homebrew Label contest in 2007. Personally I prefer the one above it but oh well.

I was fairly happy with them but I do not feel they are any where near my best work. It was all a bit rushed and not very well planned out ahead. Plus as I mentioned I am not as practiced at engraving so the results were a bit wonkier than I wanted.

So, I begin again. As it is only in the sketching phase of the process I figured it would be a good time to detail the process from the beginning. So, here is my initial very rough sketch. I will probably sketch it up a few more times, then start to clean it up, actually measure and lay things out more evenly.



Once I get it were I want it and am satisfied come the fun part. Plotting out how many blocks I will print from, how to register them all, flipping everything into reverse...

Okay I lie. The fun part for me is really the carving. That will be a while yet as I really want to plan this out well this time so as to avoid some of the difficulties I had last time.

One thing that I am trying to better account for this time is the actual appearance on the bottle. Working in 2D for something that will occupy a 3D plane is a bit challenging. I should enlist the aide of my wife as she is experienced in package design however we do not always see eye to eye artistically :wink:

I originally just used the size of a typical beer label and went forth. This time I am trying to plan it so that it will look good on regular 12 oz. bottles and more importantly on the stubby 12 oz. bottle (like Sierra Nevada, North Coast) as I like those and have a good collection of them. As to bigger bottles, well, hopefully but I may have to just make a larger size.

Here are some photos of my tools and some of the blocks from the previous labels for reference. I will post more photos as this progresses.

These are some of the blocks. I could not find them all, but it gives you an idea.


Detail shots.





And the tools.

very cool those are awesome.

This is gotta be the coolest and most impressive thing I have ever seen from you...I've always wanted to do this...

My late father used to wood carve and amassed a huge amount of stuff including chisels to do woodcuttings and blocks...I snagged them.

and prost.

Wow. Impressive. Much more organic than just messing around with Inkscape to create a label. Those are pieces of art.

Wow!..... Talk about impressive. I don't know about everyone else, but I know I would love to see more on this.

I totally saved the labels you sent me during the 10der and Mild swap.

Love the labels...

Do you sketch the negative onto the wood then scratch till its gone?
(obviously that sentence doesn't give the artwork justice but...)

Wow and here I am messing around with MS Paint at work trying to put together some basic labels.
VERY impressive!

Loweface said:

Love the labels...

Do you sketch the negative onto the wood then scratch till its gone?
(obviously that sentence doesn't give the artwork justice but...)

Click to expand...

I aim to show the process in later posts. But at the root of things, yes, you have got it.

The term xylography refers to wood engraving specifically but the process of printing from wood in general. From Greek, Xylos referring to wood and Grafi literally translates as "to scratch" if I recall correctly.

There are many ways of going about creating the image. My process involves either drawing directly on the block of wood (or linoleum) or making a tracing of an original drawing onto the block. Then carving away the non printing areas. It is a relief printing process. All the areas I remove will be white (or whatever color the paper I print on is) and the rest will pick up ink that I roll onto the surface, and then transfer it to the paper when I apply pressure.

To sum up it is the oldest printing process in humanity. The oldest known/surving printed piece being the Buddhist Diamond Sutra from 868 AD printed in China. It involves only 4 things; a matrices (carved wood), ink, a transfer surface (generally paper but can be other flat substrate) and pressure.

Very nice! And a good way to fill the time between brew days I reckon!

mmmm...awesomeness

this is AMAZING

Wow really cool. subscribed.

5 star all the way!

very nice, and very cool! my dad collected original japanese wood block prints which were incredible. do you do different block carvings for each color for the same image? thanks for sharing and i love the style.

Neato. I'm interested to see more of the process when you post it.

Prosted!

Where's the "picking-your-jaw-up-off-the-floor" smilie???

Fantastic.

Dang I miss doing printing like that. I used to do Linocut and woodcut in high school, then did engraving and etching and litho (all by hand) at the university... absolutely LOVE the process and the results... nothing like doing things old school to get a distinctive hand wrought look. Love it!