Making a press and other questions…

I am a graphic design major and I took a printmaking course at my college last semester and now I am ADDICTED at best.

I am engaged to be married and have designed my invitations and other stationary, have ordered my photopolymer plates from boxcarpress, and am now trying to figure out the paper, ink, and press situation -ha. I found instructions for building your own press (http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Letterpress-%26-Use-It-to-Print-...) which, theoretically should work I’m guessing (hoping). My only problem is finding and choosing ink and paper. I found this ink:
“CLP1832 Caligo O/B Letterpress Ink Graphite Black
150 ml Tube - A soft, metallic black with a lovely silver sheen. Made with carbon black and a hint of opaque, metallic silver pigment to impart a unique “lead pencil” effect to the print.”
at graphicchemical.com. Would that be effective with the press that I will be attempting to use? I know very little to nothing about ink. Also, I’m having a difficult time finding paper that’s printable AND appropriate for wedding invitations, unless I’m just being too picky out of fear of getting the wrong kind.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give and I look forward to being a part of this community!

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Maybe you should ask your instructor from college if you could sneak in there and run your invitations on the college presses, in off hours?

I would do that, but I really would like my own press to use for other things too. And, being the poor college student that I am, I don’t have the funds to purchase a press.

I would still love some advice about what kind of paper and ink to use. The class I took was pretty bad, the instructor was never there, she was really flaky and flighty, so you could never get a straight answer out of her about much of anything… but it did introduce me to print making and I fell in love with it! So any advice anyone has would be tremendously appreciated! Thanks rmg for the suggestion by the way. I may have to go that route if the press doesn’t turn out well.

Bijou- If you search here at Briar Press, you’ll find that several of us have posted descriptions and pictures of presses that we’ve built…. several of which are far better than the one on “Instructables”.

Building a press is not that difficult a proposition really. You have to accept the fact that it will not be as fast a machine as a cast-iron jobber, but the quality of image can be just as good.

Thanks! I’ll browse around and try to find those topics!