The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1897-02-26
Color Printing.

! day and the sending of valentines, and
! it was the fact that he had used up most
| of his spending money on A.ew racing
skates and other things dear to the
heart of Il 14-year-old boy which caused
him to make his own valentines.
The notion was put into his head by
reading a clipping pasted into scrap
book which told how James Whitcomb
Riley began to write rhymes when he
was 8 or 8 years old because he had TO
| make his own valentines or not send
| any. Being the Youngest of large fam
! lily of children, he had only very small
| allowance of pennies, not enough by any
means to admit of his buying valentines,
| as his sisters and brothers were doing.
This distressed the child, and it was not
till he thought out the plan of making his
own colored valentine pictures and writ
| ing his own rhymes under them that his
feelings were relieved
Although young Bolton decided TO fol-
low in some degree the example set by
the Hoosier poet, he did not incline to
write rhymes. First, he was not at all
sure that he could manufacture good
poetry, and, second, he did not propose
| to initiate anyone too closely.
1t took him a number Of days 10 get
fairly at his work. He had first to ex-
pertinent with Il number of woods. and
he was also obliged to get such IN edge
on his penknife as it had never had be-
fore. If he had been possessed of 4 lit
tie more money, he would have been able
to make much better selections of tools
and materials but. as i'll that case he
would not have made his own valentines
at all. it was perhaps just as we'll as it
was The wood he finally chose was
well-seasonea pine, an unduly soft and
easily splitting wood perhaps, but OEc
which is readily worked and to which
Il very smooth surface may be given.
Before he began on his blocks If pine.
which he had most carefully planned to as
smooth 4 surface as possible, he devoted
again he worked it out on sheets of
paper, and over and over again he threw
the designs away. It seemed 10 him
that he never would be able to get his
IDEAS in good shape, and more than once
he thought of giving the task up alto
gether. But each time he got 10 that
point he remembered that no man ever
won the prize of success without over
coming some serious obstacles. Then he
would begin over again, and after a
;lozen failures or more he got a design
that he thought would do. 1t was not
very artistic, and it showed certain
crudities that even he could perceive,
but it was good enough to enable him to
show what he could do. whether it
would be considered a pretty valentine
or not, and by this time he was more in
terested anyway in the outcome. of his
experiment for its own sake than he
was in making pretty valentine, and
no doubt that was why he perseyered so
we'll.
After the design was finished he had
to transfer it, reversed, to three Of his
carefully prepared blocks Of pine. He
did not use the ends of the blocks as an
| engrayer would use lockwood, but
smoothed each block along the grain
with a plane under the instruction Of
carpenter of his acquaintance. 1t was
his intention to have his valentine print
I'd in four colors, green. red, yellow and
that green could be produced by printing
blue over the yellow and that three
blocks would therefore be enough. He
had considerable trouble in making the
| transfer, and he tried several plans.
| The one he finally adopted was to trace
the design on transparent tracing paper
| with lead pencil. Afterward he laid
each of the three blocks in order and
! then rubbed the back of the paper with
| the smooth end of an ivory paper cutter,
| taking care not to let the paper slip
! When this operation was finished, the en-
| tire design was visible on each of the
| blocks in misty blacks. Then lie cut
away all the surface of one of the blocks
| excepting those parts bearing such por-
| lions of the design as were to be printed
II red. From another block he cut away
all but that which was to be blue and
| green, and from the third all except that
which was to be yellow and green. The
appearance of each of the blocks after it
was cut can be readily understood from
the small cut accompanying this article,
| which shows the block for the red.
After the blocks were all cut the boy
took proofs in black printers ink Of each
To take these proofs he linked the face
laid piece of paper carefully on the
block and then pressed the paper closely
down to the surface with a piece of felt
laced wood, which he tapped lightly with
| nlallet.
| Then the boy cleaned the blocks thor
oughly, and, having got his colored print
| nS ink, he proceeded to print each color
| IN its turn, putting on the red tirst, the
yellow next, and the blue last of all. 1t
will be seen from the pictures Of the
proofs that only the hearts, the lettering
! and the band and arrow ends OIL The
! CULVER were printed in red, that the big
heart and a portion of the vine were all
| that was printed in yellow and that the
| culver and the vine, including the flow
ers. were printed i'll blue. When the
! three printings had been done on each
! piece of paper used, the leaves and stem
| of the vine appeared green.
! The completed design is shown in one
Of the parts of the large cut, and you
| AN understand how it looks if you will
imagine that part printed in horizontal
lines to be blue, that part printed in YER
teal lines to be yellow, that part printed
checks to be green, and that in dots to
| be red. Henry had trouble plenty with
This part of the operation. 1t was neces-
sary to get each color on the paper in
exactly the right place in order to show
the design properly. Color printers term
this the registry" and the presslnan
who is faulty in this part Of the work is
not likely to keep his job long in any
| well regulated color printing Office.
! When the work was all done, the boy
! found that he might have bought valcn-
| tines cheaper than he had made them,
! but he concluded that the experience had
been worth all the bother and the ex-
pense.