The American Printing History Association Upstate New York Chapter is sponsoring a keepsake exchange to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the famous Erie Canal. I wanted to experiment with blending Risograph and Letterpress printing for my contribution. This is a glimpse into my production workflow.

• First, I wrote a text about my experience with the canal as a resident of one of its boomtowns: Fairport, NY. I then hand-set the type in Melior foundry type, held at Dry, Inc. in Rochester.

• I proofed my type, and figured out margins on the ~8 x 10 inch page by arranging and taping the text into position. Then I placed furniture into the form to align the type according to my layout.

• I printed on the Vandercook Universal III proof press. I needed some adjustments in roller height and form position to finish the pressrun of about 60 prints on Mohawk Superfine paper.

• Concurrently, I visited the Lift Bridge in Fairport and took some photos with my smartphone. In Adobe Photoshop, I experimented with color separations using bitmap halftones, halftone filters, and the threshold function in image adjustments.

• At Flower City Arts Center, I proofed the Riso separations. I liked the combination of the machine's fine screening function printed with the red drum, followed by a high-contrast black impression. I printed about 50 on my pre-printed letterpress sheets.

• A few AP prints will have the surreal color combinations on the pink, green, and yellow paper.

I work so tightly in the world of fine letterpress where I strive for perfection in impression, ink color, & registration. Risograph is so freeing because you know you can never achieve that level of printmaking precision. I loved combining the two processes and highlighting their unique capabilities in this piece.