today we bought a letterpress.
Nov. 12th, 2005 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aslantthis morning we drove east two hours to chicopee, to john barrett's letterpress things. we arrived around noon and we didn't leave for another five hours or so....john first lectured us gently, saying slow down, slow down. and then took us (and another couple, also first-timers) on an impromptu shop tour/letterpress class. we did our first impressions on a c&p in his shop, it was a heady feeling; he kept saying he wished he had a camera to show us our faces, that it was a moment we'll remember forever.
at the end of it, we left in a dazed state and with a trunk full of everything we'll need to get started. he made us promise to send him a copy of our first printing (he collects them), and also not to touch the type until we've practiced lots with a little cut (small image, like a stamp). i am so excited -- if a little exhausted, bone-weary from standing in a cold drafty warehouse all day. but so happy.
here is our new kelsey excelsior. it has a 5x8 chase. $425 for just the press, though of course there was so much else to buy, much of which he discounted or threw in for free.
an odd box with random tympan clamps, the ends from our rollers, our quoin key, etc etc.
two drawers of type, 14 and 18pt cheltenham. i desperately wanted to buy caslon, but he didn't have any of the right size.
pippa has jumped blurrily into this box, which holds quoins and a lot of other stuff. these pictures represent maybe half of what we bought, the rest of it is still boxed up and not very photogenic.
i wish i'd had the camera to take some shots of the inside of the shop. in the afternoon the light comes in through huge banks of windows covered with opaque tarps to keep in the heat, all this pretty light shining on banks of type cabinets lined up in long aisles. it was an amazing experience -- he was so friendly and funny, with giant hands gray with grease and ink. one of his fingertips was smashed or chopped off when he tried to 'double-bump' a piece of a paper in a running press (where you place it and then try to adjust it, but by then the thing has smashed down where your hands are). it was resewn on, but curved and dark and odd.
now we must buy washup fluid and a bottle to squirt it with...until then we can't do much but practice locking up the chase.
at the end of it, we left in a dazed state and with a trunk full of everything we'll need to get started. he made us promise to send him a copy of our first printing (he collects them), and also not to touch the type until we've practiced lots with a little cut (small image, like a stamp). i am so excited -- if a little exhausted, bone-weary from standing in a cold drafty warehouse all day. but so happy.
here is our new kelsey excelsior. it has a 5x8 chase. $425 for just the press, though of course there was so much else to buy, much of which he discounted or threw in for free.
an odd box with random tympan clamps, the ends from our rollers, our quoin key, etc etc.
two drawers of type, 14 and 18pt cheltenham. i desperately wanted to buy caslon, but he didn't have any of the right size.
pippa has jumped blurrily into this box, which holds quoins and a lot of other stuff. these pictures represent maybe half of what we bought, the rest of it is still boxed up and not very photogenic.
i wish i'd had the camera to take some shots of the inside of the shop. in the afternoon the light comes in through huge banks of windows covered with opaque tarps to keep in the heat, all this pretty light shining on banks of type cabinets lined up in long aisles. it was an amazing experience -- he was so friendly and funny, with giant hands gray with grease and ink. one of his fingertips was smashed or chopped off when he tried to 'double-bump' a piece of a paper in a running press (where you place it and then try to adjust it, but by then the thing has smashed down where your hands are). it was resewn on, but curved and dark and odd.
now we must buy washup fluid and a bottle to squirt it with...until then we can't do much but practice locking up the chase.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 01:41 am (UTC)wow!!
:)
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Date: 2005-11-13 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:02 am (UTC)i'm not too intimidated...he had already gotten the platen to 'zero point' before we bought it, which means a complicated part of getting started is already done. plus, he said he has a list of 72 dumb things every person must do, and once you've done every one you can consider yourself a master printer. ha!
one of the cuts we got is an old 'rabbit breeders association' logo or something. with two rabbits on it!!
anyway, yes. very excited. but i'm not sure where to get this special fluid, though apparently we can cheat and use mineral spirits instead.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 02:19 am (UTC)swoon.
Date: 2005-11-13 03:14 am (UTC)Re: swoon.
Date: 2005-11-13 12:32 pm (UTC)you know, if you're interested (and with all that extra money you must be swimming in) there are tons and tons of presses being bought and sold in california --- i swear every time i check the classifieds over half of them are in california. so if you ever want to try it, there is certainly a local supply!
Re: swoon.
Date: 2005-11-13 12:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-14 01:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 03:01 am (UTC)i was in a secondhand store about a month or so ago, & there were several drawers of type, each letter selling for about $5...
i considered shoving them down my pants & running...
no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 03:23 am (UTC)i am amazed by how press stuff sells, outside of the printing community. junky old type drawers for like $50 as a "vintage shadow box!", which you pick up practically for free from our supplier in western massachusetts. there are all kinds of stories from the 70s of printers (especially out in california, for whatever reason) just burning all their old wooden type because they couldn't sell it, couldn't store it. or they melted down all the metal type to sell as scrap. it breaks my heart -- but thank god there are plenty of packrats who managed to keep the bulk of the stuff alive.