Octavian

I've officially tucked Bertha in for the winter; oiled everything, gave everything a good cleaning, (well, good enough for the moment) and put a big old sheet over the press to keep dust and grit off while I clean the rest of the studio.

I also brought all the stuff into the heated area that needs to not freeze, like ink and PVA glue.

And a surprise! Octavian in metal 14 pt! (Which, incidentally, is the only size available in metal.)

Ghostly

The press is all wrapped up, because over the next few weeks, the walls will be gooped,* sanded, gooped again, and then painted! This does mean that printing is on temporary break, but after this, it will be so nice in the print studio!

*(I'm told the real word is "mudding," but "goop" is so appropriate.)

Trucks!

The trucks arrived! Go figure, they look a lot different than the old ones. But this means that tomorrow, I will be inking up and attempting to print something!

I painted all of the drawers for one of the type cabinets; changing from old olive green to pretty antique red did mean some serious primer, but that's done now. Just the handles left to paint and the main body.

April Fools' Day

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning the press; there are about 100 years of crud all over it. I did discover that underneath the ink/dust/grime layer, there are gold details; very pretty!

Hopefully this upcoming weekend will bring two things: first, the trucks. Maybe they will even come today or tomorrow. Secondly, the fine art of gooping, and filling in all of the lines between the pieces of sheet rock. It will be warm enough!

And if it really is that warm, I might paint the type cases too.