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i've spent the last several hours working on the letterpress. the chemical cleaner arrived last night, so i made my first print! and then i cleaned up, which was a royal mess, and smelly. the prints were very simple, just to get the mechanics of it down. i am working on a more elaborate print, which will be a sort of postcard announcing the inauguration of the press -- the chase for that is on the work table in the last picture.

i now know that we desperately need a few more things to complete the shop space. a ton of rags, a table with a slanted top (to put type drawers on while pulling letters), and a level work table that can get really dirty. a printer's apron would be nice, too. we have had to keep the cats out of this room to avoid spills; maybe after the postcard project we will make a sign for the door: human printers' club, no cats allowed.

varn duplicator fluid this gallon of vile stuff is a bit smelly, and the back is plastered with dire warnings about airway irritation, cancer, blah blah blah. it's basically naptha; it evaporates relatively quickly, which is a plus when you're trying to clean up sticky ink. the bottle to the right is how we'll apply it to rags.	van son ink this is the ink we use on the press, van son black.
chase in press this is a simple cut (or image) set into the chase with no type. the image is actually two rabbits, it's a rabbit breeders' association seal. this is what you see looking in from above; it sits roughly horizontal.	test image prints in order to get the ink consistency right, i did these test prints until i could see all the fine details. in the black space around the two rabbit heads is some tiny calligraphy, reading "fur, fancy, food". john showed us how to tell the difference between too much and just enough ink by listening to the sound of the rollers passing over the plate -- it is really hard to tell, so i did these test prints instead.
wash-up bottle here is the wash-up bottle after i'd cleaned up the press for the first time. in pouring the naptha into it, it spilled in the sink, thus the paper towel and baggie treatment. i wish i'd taken a picture of my hands after cleaning, they were totally black with ink.	a set chase the text & image for the card project, locked into the chase. altogether, this typset job took me about two hours. as you can see, it's not perfectly centered, which will mean more work later.
work table here is a view of the table where i work.