I’ve mentioned Maureen and Tim’s wedding suite on the blog before, considering the wedding is this weekend, I thought I’d include some pics of the the finished product!
A few different views of the invitation suite I created for my brother and (now) sister in law! This was a five part two-color suite assembled within an A9 pocketfold.
I have a tendency to make up stories. I make them up about someone who’s path crosses mine just once, even if it’s only for a few seconds, and nearly every time the story is sad. I came up with a story as I visited an old woman’s home the other day.
Her granddaughter was helping her clean out her house so that she could move, and my assumption is that she was relocating to a nursing home. The granddaughter took on the daunting task of listing tons of items for sale online, including her late grandfather’s print shop. And that’s what brought me there.
She had two presses for sale, along with just about any print shop item you could think of: paper cutters, slug cutters, book presses, type specification books, type, typecases, leading, slugs, dies, paper, envelopes…you name it, it was there. As I moved around the basement studio where her grandfather used to work, I tried to piece together his life, or at least this part of his life. I decided that he was a professional printer at one time, but fell on hard times in the late 60s and had to find other work to support his family. From there, he spent time in the basement solely for enjoyment and solitude. I imagined him hunched over on a stool, concentrating on setting type, bathed in a lonely flourescent light, unperturbed by the company of a rogue mouse padding across his row of typecases.
While I was excited at the opportunity to browse and buy some new items for my own little print shop, I felt overwhelmingly sad. I wondered when his visits to the basement print shop slowed. And worst of all, as his body started to betray him, if he carefully ventured into his shop just to smell the wood, oil, paper and metal, unable to use them as he used to. I wondered if he wished that someone in his family had loved letterpress as much as he did, I’m sure he would rather have had it that way than a bunch of strangers rifling through his things.
It brought to mind that ridiculous line from Varsity Blues “I…don’t…want…your life.” Maybe he did want his family to embrace letterpress, but it just wasn’t in the cards for them. No child wants their parent telling them what they should do with their life. And let’s be honest, just about every dad out there has a hobby or quirk that outsiders just don’t get. Maybe printing was his. Everyone has passion, but the tragedy is that not everyone realizes it.
Enough of my sad stories. I hope that he’s ok with me using his slug cutter for a while.
I started letterpress printing in May 2009, and as you’ve read in previous posts, I was absolutely hooked. It didn’t take long before I started dreaming of purchasing a press of my own. I realize now just how premature that was, especially considering that this was before I even knew about resources like BriarPress or Boxcar, so I went to, you guessed it, Craigslist. Oddly enough, within a few weeks of casual searches, I found an estate sale in nearby Arlington where they were selling a tabletop press, type and lots of other old letterpress goodies. On the day of the sale, Jason and I snuck away from work for the afternoon to take a peek, and so, I was introduced to the jarring reality of what it means to have a letterpress studio of your very own.
We walked into the old house and I scanned the room for the press. I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I asked a woman who seemed to know what she was doing, and lo and behold, the press and all the rest of it were in the basement! We walked down the creaky wood stairs and there it was. I had never seen a tabletop press in person. Internet searches had made me vaguely familiar with names like Chandler & Price, Kelsey and Adana, but had never seen this kind before. It was a 3×5 Caxton C&M, a brand I had heard nothing of at the time, and to this day! It was $900, and naive me was completely ready to buy it. It was a press, it was right in front of me, and it was less than $1000…how could I let this opportunity pass me by? Thank God Jason was there and talked me out of it. I know now that if I had purchased it, I would have pretty much been limited to printing business cards which are nice and all, but I enjoy a little bit of variety. He dragged me out of there, not before I purchased a dusty old type specimen book that I have to keep in a box outside because it’s mere presence makes me sneeze. And the search continued.
I wised up just a bit, and started checking the classified section of BriarPress for a tabletop press in the DC area. Turns out they don’t exist…or didn’t for the 8 months that I searched. Then I got an iPhone, and checking for presses became an obsession. I looked constantly, and emailed anyone selling a press from here (Virginia) to the Mississippi. Months went by and I became more desperate and more determined. One night in April 2010, Jason and I were watching something on TV (probably Bones because I wasn’t paying attention and instead tweedling away on my phone) and I saw an announcement on BriarPress that their servers had gone done due to massive storms in the Northeast. Fate made me check again a mere 30 minutes later (it must have been the heavens opening and angels singing that prompted me) and I clicked on a just-listed 6.5 x 10 Chandler and Price Pilot for sale outside of Boston. I responded as quickly as I could, and then the owner responded. I was the first, so she would sell the press to me!
As Jason and I made the long drive from DC to Boston, I truly felt it was meant to be. I had emailed so many people, responded to so many listings and was always met with the same answer – it’s sold, you’re too late, sorry. That was becoming my expectation, I was almost in denial that I was so close to finally having my own press.
When we arrived, it was more than I could have ever expected. The wife (the letterpresser) told me how when she bought her first press, the generous printer had given her enough equipment to start a fully functional shop, and she wanted to repay the favor. Believe me, I will do the same when it comes time for me to sell my press. So they gave me type, furniture, tympan paper, and entire California job case. It was unreal. Although it felt like I had reached the finish line, this was only the start of my journey with my new press.
After buying the press, we wanted to take a day to tour Boston. So my new California job case hung out on top of Jason's car in downtown Beantown. You would not believe the looks we got from people on 95 on the way home to DC, you would have thought we had a pink elephant tied to the top of the car!
About to buy a Press? Here’s a few tidbits:
1. Contain your excitement. Don’t let your excitement or wallet get the better of you. There will be broken presses for sale out there, and their price tags will be very enticing. Unless you are ridiculously good with machinery and/or tinkering, don’t do it, just don’t. Believe me when I say that there are few things in this world more frustrating than manhandling a 60-year-old machine into working order.
Of course it’s your call, but I’d advise against purchasing a press on eBay or any other source where you don’t get to see the press in person or meet the previous owner. There are just too many variables in this scenario that could go wrong. Once you find the press that you want at the right price from a reputable seller who knows that it’s in working or close-to-working condition, go for it.
2. Presses are old. Letterpress printing as a profession is quite old, thus, so are the presses. Most of them are made of cast iron, and believe it or not, cast iron is very fragile. Fragile and unbelievably heavy. If you’re purchasing a press, come prepared with muscles and a dolly. My press easily weighs 250 pounds, and thanks to the mechanisms that make it work, it’s very awkward (and stress inducing) to pick up and move.
3. Have a stand.
Be prepared with a stand unless the press you’re purchasing is already mounted to a cabinet or table. I originally bought a huge workbench from Costco because supporting the 250lbs of the press was my biggest concern. I highly recommend against this. Workbenches are generally too high and too big for the purpose of printing. Now, older and wiser, I just bought and assembled a kitchen cart, the IKEA Beckvam, on the recommendation of many BriarPress users, and I’m very happy with it. It’s sturdy, supports the press, and is the perfect height for printing.
4. Be realistic. Know that you won’t be able to print right away. Oh what I wouldn’t have given to know this. I got home, got the press all set up, threw on my new Boxcar apron, inked the press up and tried to print. It was with much sadness and frustration that I realized that moving the press knocked the platen out of alignment, and I was going to have to fix it.
Come back soon, I’ll get into planarizing the press!
Etsy and I are friends on facebook (we go way back) and I just love getting status updates showcasing the artisans of Etsy, along with other fun goodies and information. On Friday, I was delighted to see that they posted this amazing video by Naomie Ross that explains the letterpress process so quickly, artistically, and thoroughly. So for everyone who I’ve tried to explain letterpress to by saying “you know, Gutenberg…movable type….blah blah” take a look at Naomie’s video and you’ll get a much better understanding of what I do. She even uses the same press that I use at Pyramid!
And now I’m more convinced than ever that I need a Canon 7D. HD video? Awesome.
I have the Vandercook Uni booked for the day tomorrow at my studio, Pyramid Atlantic. I always look forward to a full 8 hours devoted to printing, even if I do look ridiculous to everyone else there as I sing and dance to my iPod. It’s a drive to get there, usually 45 minutes to an hour, which gives me plenty of time to plan my day, and mentally prepare.
A Vandercook Universal press, like the one I use at Pyramid for my larger prints.
There’s an uncertainty and anticipation each and every time that I enter the studio. I have my days when everything falls into place and I feel like I’m rocking it, and then there are days where nothing I do seems to work like it did in my head and I let my frustration get the best of me. After hauling in 3 loads of paper, type, dies, photopolymers, and ink, I always hope and pray that this is one of those days that’s going to go my way.
Links from this post:
Pyramid Atlantic Art Center – http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/
Pyramid Atlantic Letterpress Blog – http://pyramidletterpress.blogspot.com/
Owosso Graphic Arts – http://www.owossographic.com/
Wikipedia describes letterpress as “relief printing of text and image using a press with a “type-high bed” printing press and movable type, in which a reversed, raised surface is inked and then pressed into a sheet of paper to obtain a positive right-reading image. It was the normal form of printing text from its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid 15th century until the 19th century and remained in wide use for books and other uses until the second half of the 20th century.” In a nutshell, letterpress printing presses type/image into the paper, whereas conventional printing lays ink flat on the surface of the paper.
Letterpress may have started in 1440 AD, but for me, it started in 2008. I had been working as a corporate graphic artist for a few years and reached a crossroads – I wasn’t happy in my job, and I wanted out. I researched my options and decided that a Masters in Graphic Design was the only cure, so I started trudging down that path. But before making the leap, there were two things that I felt I needed to do. First, I wanted to build my portfolio. And second, I needed to try taking a graduate-level class while working full-time to see if it was feasible for someone like me (meaning someone who can’t live without a good night of sleep.) So I signed up for a typography class at a local university in the hopes of attaining both of those goals, but unbeknownst to me, began down a completely different path.
The syllabus required “A Typographic Workbook” by Kate Clair. The cover of the textbook showed type locked into a chaise with furniture and quoins. At the time, I remember thinking that it looked cool, I had no concept of how deeply in love I was about to fall, or how painful it was going to be.
No more than a week in to the class, I realized it was going to be far more work than I had bargained for. I quickly found myself overwhelmed with working full-time, attending class twice a week, and completing all of the projects in a way that wouldn’t get me ridiculed in front of the class by our notoriously tough professor. It was a trying time, and I toyed with the idea of dropping the class daily. Tears were shed, “I can’t do this” was said, and many a good night’s sleep was neglected, but I kept going. Don’t get me wrong, I hated every minute of it. But the one thing I found myself looking forward to was our reading assignments, and the history of typography.
Graphic design began with early humans painting in caves, although the term “graphic design” wasn’t coined until the 1920s. But for a typophile like me, it began in 1440 with Gutenberg and his printing press. I had never put much thought into the inception of graphic design before this class, but as I read, I found that it was as interesting to me as any novel. So I googled. And I discovered that there’s a new generation practicing letterpress, albeit not in the way that it was originally intended, but as an art form. I knew then that I had to find a way to at least try it.
I was initially drawn to letterpress by its history. As a graphic artist an amateur photographer, I have a tendency to get wrapped up in the newest gadgets from Apple and Canon among others. Using archaic type and machines that were 50+ years older than me was out of character, but irresistible. I googled some more, took a class at a local studio, and so it began. I was hooked. (And I dropped that graduate idea like a ton of bricks.)
I’ve been a letterpress printer for 2 years now. When I print, I feel a deep connection to the past, and to those in my field before me. Aside from the history, I love the tangibility of the process, and of the finished product. For a girl who graphically designs in front of a computer all day, I can’t tell you how good it feels to manually arrange individual lead and/or wood letters into something beautiful.
Sweet Dee Design 