Paper Chain Kit

One of the more visually delightful results of our efforts to minimize how much we actually put into the recycling bin is paper chain kits! Each pack contains 25 strips. The strips are cut from one of the byproducts of the printing process, called makereadies.

Makeready is also the name of the step you have to go through when you’re getting all the parts of whichever layer of the print you’re working on – the type and imagery – to look good. Because our wood and metal type is really old, and some letters get used a lot more than others, they wear out at different rates, so sometimes you have to shim a letter with a piece of paper, so it’s tall enough to get ink from the inking rollers, and then transfer that ink clearly to the paper when it passes over the inked type. As you can probably imagine, it is a tedious process!

As you are making ready (to print), it is helpful to gauge your progress by running a piece of paper and seeing how the type and images are printing. So, at each printing press in the shop, we have boxes with makereadies in them, to run through the press. They are also helpful if you accidentally put too much ink on the press and you need to run some off, or, at the end of the press run, get some excess ink off the press before you clean up.

Every once in a while, we go through the boxes of makereadies and pull out the ones that have had lots of layers printed on them and are super colorful, and then recycle them into other things like these paper chain kits. We hope you enjoy how they were made and the fun results!

20 paper strips included per kit. Each kit is different and one of a kind!