A collection of Sherraden's print designs are on display through Nov. 5 in the Rike Center Gallery at the University of Dayton. Sherraden says that because of dedicated people like himself, traditional letterpress printing is on the rise. Shops like Sherraden's Hatch make everything from greeting cards to giant posters by carving letters and graphics out of wooden blocks, setting them in the press, inking them over by hand and press-printing the final product. According to Sherraden, a good printer can make 100 prints in an hour, but it takes almost two hours to set up the press. Color schemes in prints range from relatively simple designs using only one color to multi layered reprints.
Reprints start out the same way as other prints.
However, after the prints dry, additional layers in other colors are printed on top of the first to add depth and texture. Hatch has used these techniques for almost 120 years. The company invites people to visit its store to browse the giant shelves of posters and blocks it's been collecting since the beginning of the century. Sherraden uses these blocks when he creates his own designs. The UD display combines posters that Sherraden created on his own and designs done for events in the Nashville area.