As vital as they are, preparing for the show isn’t all about the prints. Framing will take some weeks yet, I have long lists of invitees to prepare for emailing, and I’m getting some extremely valuable help with PR. Today though, was all about text support within the exhibition space, as I made a start on making lettering for the walls and standing panels, using a laser vinyl cutter. The aim is to make the show look as professional as possible, giving visitors the information they need about the show’s theme, but without getting in the way of the exhibits.

Laser cutters are very quick, particularly for large letterforms. My initial fascination with their speed and remarkable accuracy soon wore off though. The process is inevitably slower when there are numerous lines of relatively small text to cut. After a couple of cups and some chats with friends, the cutting work was done, and the machine had cut the text out for the entire exhibition.

All in the detail: lettering vinyls before 'weeding'

After the vinyl cutter has completed cutting a section, the outline of the lettering can be seen

All in the detail: 'weeding' lettering vinyls

The ‘counters’ – enclosed areas within the characters a, b, d, e, g, o, are removed, using a scalpel

All in the detail: cutting lettering vinyls

To finish preparing the lettering sheets, the only thing left to do is to peel away the background and attach some application tape. Hopefully, that will be tomorrow…

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In the meantime, please have a look at a filmed introduction on my printmaking, shot at The Ropewalk earlier this year. You can see it on:

You Tube https://youtu.be/zU8fnbvyJIw
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/152998998

Follow the story of the exhibition at: #Anomalies16

Find all my posts about Art Printworks stories on Twitter at: #artprintstories