October

A long overdue post.

My camera worked for about .05 seconds, and then decided that it does not want to work again, so instead I've found an exciting image to share from the archives. It's one that I took back in September when I was visiting Singletree Press down in Rochester. The Book Arts Center there had just received a lot of wooden type in a few different languages, as I remember. So that's kind of fun.

The press studio is coming along every day! I'm happy to announce that the two wooden Hamilton Type Cases have moved in; though the marble top that belongs to one of them has to wait until there are several strong men to heft it. And I printed new business cards today; just happy to be back in the printing business. (AKA remembering how to line everything up properly, since if you neglect these things, you tend to forget until you've done it again.)

Over the next few weeks, menus, programs, and save-the-dates will come to life.

Busy in the print shop, once again!

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.)

New Stationary Cards

Since these are now safely in the hands of their new owner, I can show these now too.

It's a rainy day here, I'm putting off going out to the print shop. Maybe I'll paint the inside of the window? Don't know yet.

Mailing List

I'm starting a mailing list! To send out samples and such. So if you would like to be on it, comment or send an email. I can't guarantee how frequently you'll get printing samples, but I'll be sure to send some!

And since there is no post on Sunday, I didn't get boxcar plates today.

But I did go up and clean the shop a bit.

Tour

Quick tour: the chase, which for you non-printing types, is where you hold the image to be printed. The wall looking west in the press shop, and finally the newly painted cabinet drawers... which I still need to put the handles back on. But you can see that the cranberry/aged red interior looks far better than the army green exterior.

Today was spent learning how to adjust roller height (finally, after 18+ layers of blue tape) with my fancy new roller gauge, then printing with a variety of cuts, and figuring out how to get the correct registration. Platen presses are certainly much different than cylinder presses. But I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Organization

Well. I bought string to tie up type with (I know, simple pleasures) and have started the process of reorganizing the cases. Right now, 17/18 of the cases are organized in this strange, alphabetical layout. 1/18, however, has been reorganized to be this layout, which is the proper layout for a California Job Case.

Maybe once the weather is nicer I'll start painting the cases too. I'm trying to figure out if they should be red, blue or green... not fire truck or christmas tree. Sensible shades.