Moving into the new studio

Just a couple random pictures from the new studio.  Until there is more time...
New shelves for the ink- everything is so clean.  Until that first time I drop a gob of ink on the floor and track it through the studio (oh, wait- it happened last night!)

Our shop dog, Ronin, posing in front of our "new cabinets"- in the truest sense of Vermilion Star Press, these cabinets were taken from the location and refinished.  (By us- many long hours cleaning, sanding, priming and painting)  Rather than buying new ones we just made these work- and the hubby created the countertop for me- nice and shiny- a great "clean area".

Blimy it's cold!!!

Ahh- the magic of space heaters...

And how amazing it is that an area that is insulated by all but one wall can get so cold.  Okay, I know that the weather in Georgia doesn't get that cold. (We moved from upstate New York (almost Canada New York last year).  I understand that cold is walking out side and your boogers freeze instantly. (Interjection here again- WE HAVE KIDS AND BOOGERS ARE PART OF OUR FREQUENT VOC.) 

That knowledge of coldness is cast aside when you are operating a piece of cast iron in 40 and 50 degree weather.  Your hands get cold, your nose starts to drip...

    My lovely knitted cap (slouched hat, or as my husband says with a shudder "Beret") becomes a necessity.

And I want to laugh and I say to myself "but it's Georgia, it's the south.  This isn't cold.  I have seen -35 weather, I have shoveled four feet of snow, I have walked the dog during lake effect snow!"

   Am I getting soft?  This semi-cold.  (Cold without the wonderous magic of snow. ) How can this be cold?

Why have my fingers quit moving like they should?  My hands stumbled and my fingers are slow to respond.  This is not good when operating a 1200lb press.  My motor chugs along and I finally have to stop it.  I am afraid of losing a finger in the press as it closes.  I have to stop and warm the hands. 

Georgia!

The space heater laughs as it pumps warm air in my direction. It sends it off and before it reaches my work area it is absorbed into the cold. I need that warm air, Mr. Henry needs that warmth.  Because unfortuantly, ink needs a certain temperature.  Too cold, not good.  I have heard that it is recommended not to print when the temperature is under 60. 

And there are rummors that in the old days small candles would be placed under the ink disk to help warm up the ink.

(I just don't like that idea one bit)

My composing room and studio is heated and wonderous.  But poor Mr. Henry still rooms in this unheated space.  One day...

Until then- I knit knowing that I am putting on a fashion show for Mr. Henry.  (I think he likes bright berets.)

And also- I know all too well that summer comes quick and hard to Georgia.  Hot and humid.

By the way the hat is from a pattern by Lucy Sweetland called Anemoon and is currently one of my favorite hats.

Pittsburg, Children, Letterpress And the Denture Cup

Shopping for letterpress always seems to lead me to a new adventure.  To start with, you can't hop down to a local letterpress store (even in Atlanta); they don't exist.  The "normal" shopping you can do is limited to a few printing supply companies.  Often it is about digging things up from different locations, different suppliers.  And of course, as I have heard, letterpress printers develop a sickness- crusing ebay, craig's list and Briar Press (kinda like a craig's list for printing).  (Okay, I have suffered from a slight dose of this sickness, although I believe I have it under control.)

Letterpress comes up as old time printers retire- people discover stuff in their basements, a buisness goes under and the old presses and stuff need to be gotten rid of -quick.

So this is how it happened that we ended up in Pittsburg, PA on one sunny weekend.  Actually it was sunny there but it happened to be the weekend that Atlanta had all that rain; neighborhoods under feet of water).

My husband had a wedding to attend- we couldn't find a babysitter for the weekend, so I stayed with the kids.  My husband jokingly said he would bring back letterpress to appease me.  I looked on Craig's List- Voila: type still in original packing to be sold- lots.

When my husband got there he said it was amazing. (Okay- this is my little dream- so to hear it from him I knew it had to be good.)  The gentleman was retiring from 60+ years of printing- and the things he had accumulated were amazing.  I asked my husband to not take pictures( I didn't want to see what I was missing and what he couldn't fit in his suitcase on the plane.)

When he got home I got goodies and he relayed what he had seen.

Which is how a month later we ended up on a speed run to Pittsburg.

All for letterpress.

And this is how we loaded 1000 pounds of metal type and cabinets into our 4runner.

Now let me tell you that we brought home two cabinets and that each cabinet held 24 cases(drawers).  All of which were filled with at least two fonts.  Judging by the sore shoulders, we guessed each drawer was at least 20 pounds. We had the drawers strapped down in the back of the truck to prevent them from running over us.

What made this trip memorable-

1. I had never been to Pittsburg and was fascinated by all the Bridges- they have more bridges than I can count on one hand- in the MIDDLE OF THE CITY- (we got to drive over a few- and back over them and then back around again)

2. We had coffee at the Beehive- and I a guiltily yummy piece of red velvet cake.

3. We had Taco's at    , and I order the duck taco- in some stupidity failing to realize that it had duck in it. (yeah I know- forgive me)

4. And I realized how wonderfully important families are and how blessed we really are- we have a great family and two wonderful boys. (Some people spend a lifetime without children in their lives...)

5. Letterpress is heavy-

Something about the first day of school...

I have long since passed mine, even the days of college and teaching, but they still send that little tinge of excitement down my spine as I see our son load up and head out.

What must their anticipation be? Can you remember? Life and death hinging on your seating assignment in class- would you get the bully? (Maybe you were the bully?) Does the teacher have coffee breath? (I had this fear- and then ironically I was one of those)

"Do I have to read out loud today," losing teeth can alter speak.

The first whiff of the cafetiria hitting you- "hope there's good food today."

"Do I have everything, what if I forgot something?"

But...

It wasn't all anxiety right? I was a worry wort- but still that's not fair to let all that stuff overshadow the good. Friends, comparing new shoes, who grew taller, laughing with someone your own age. Being around a group of kids that understood your jokes and laughed when your parents just smiled and nodded. Relief- I am free, "If I burp they will laugh..."

Ahh, yes, school.

And then the parents- pray you child gets a good teacher. After all, the curriculum of schools is more than math and science. The unwritten curriculum, the one passed from the teacher to the student: morals , beliefs and values. So important. Pray for those kids, and the teachers.

The little guy is not in kindergarten anymore, it's not as hard. Not like passing your sweet baby off and getting back a little monster. (Kids are sponges, and usually the things you least want then to suck up get absorbed.) (LIKE ARMPIT FARTS) But I still pray...

As we headed off for the bus stop, a little flutter in my stomach. Natural for a mother I guess.

The house will be a little (okay a great deal) quieter, and I might get some work done.

Letterpress and children, well not always a match.

Happy first day of school.

What is a Vermilion Star?

What is a Vermilion Star? Is it Mars? (That's the red planet right? ) Hmm...
Something to do with sailors predicting the weather? Umm, no?
Well then? What is Vermilion to start with?

sometimes spelled vermillion, when found naturally occurring, is an opaque orangish red pigment, used since antiquity, originally derived from the powdered mineral cinnabar. Chemically, the pigment is mercuric sulfide, HgS, and like all mercury compounds it is toxic. Its name is derived from the French vermeil which was used to mean any red dye, and which itself comes from vermiculum, a red dye made from the insect Kermes vermilio.[1] The word for the color red in Portuguese (vermelho) derives from this term.
Today, vermilion is most commonly artificially produced by reacting mercury with molten sulfur. Most naturally produced vermilion comes from cinnabar mined in China, giving rise to its alternative name of China red.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion



That's what wikipedia says, but orangish red is not the color I get when I open a tube of vermilion red paint...Usually it's more of a deep purplish red color...
What ever the case, my wonderful husband listened to me spout of press names for about two weeks. Some of them were interesting but all were missing something: nomadic press, sleepless press, penniless press...

We had the dictionary out, we thought of our favorite movies...

And then he brought out Vermilion- oooh!!! I love red.

And Stars...

A star was born. Okay- pretty cheesy. But come on, it's fun and it fits. Not too girly, but enough. And it has imagery attached to it.

Vermilion Star Press.

But Wait! There's more!!!

While looking through an old printing manual- old as in 1880- we found more. (Here, I would like to interject that letterpress isn't an easy subject to get stuff on. You can't walk into the local bookstore and get a letterpress manual. If you do find a book it's most likely a manual from decades past when it was still in vocational schools. (THAT IS A LONG TIME AGO)
See I told you it was an old book.

So as it turns out vermilion was the official color used in those old books for the very first letter. Pretty neat huh?

We think so, and if not it keeps people wondering at any event.

One other point, I am taking the artistic liberty and using all shades of red- including pink. And that is perfectly wonderful!

Glitz and Glitter

Lately, I have been using a great, great deal of glitter. It almost stands against every art principal that I was ever taught. (Glitter is taboo in art school after all.) Oh well, that was a long time ago and today, well today I love the way the glitter looks on the cards. It accents the colors and makes them pop. I think that sometimes letterpress is so precise and crisp that giving it a little glitz prevents it from become too stolid...

And well- it's glitter. It talks to the kid in me, to the part of me that wants to play in paints and get messy rather that keeping everything so pristine.



So enjoy the glitz...

Letterpress? (Living Well)

Letterpress. Well, why even bother you ask. I mean, in flash you can type something, adjust it's size color, the path (or line ) it sits on, and then change the font style. Topping it all off- you can even print it from your computer. Wow! Yep, sit there and hit print ( sometimes you have to change the ink cartridge- or load the paper- ugh). For the most part our world has printed documents down to a science. It is quick, cheap, painless and available for the masses.

And impersonal.


Yep, it's like buying that quilt from Target- not sure who made it, it might not even be that great of quality. Maybe it was cheap, maybe we have become accustomed to it. We don't know who made it, we might not even know if it touched anyones hands.


Or maybe you bought bread from the Walmart bakery- or Wonderbread for that matter. When was the last time that you treated yourself to fresh baked bread? Entered the bakery, let all your senses be treated? The smell of fresh baked bread... The face of the baker in an apron dusted with flour... The way the warm bread felt in the paper bag..

The sensuous feel of good cotton paper in your hand. The embossing of the type on this paper. The smell of ink ( yes, you can smell it). The fact that the printer touched each piece, mixed the ink, and set the image. Every step was touched by an actual person. That is important.


That, to me, is part of living well...






Steps involved in letterpress

1. Type locked up in chase.


2. Mr.Henry inked in pink


3. One card just printed


4. A whole pile of "LIVE WELL" cards
   

The Beginnings

I have always been fascinated with Letterpress, well, printing in general. The idea of creating something by hand, and then stepping away to let the "machines" take over. It is a process that lets you distance yourself, in some senses, from art that you have worked very intimately with. In college I loved being in the print shop- the large heavy presses- the inks, paper, the smells ( which some would say isn't always too healthy). It always fascinated me that things so large and heavy, could ultimately produced delicate works of art.

Letterpress was a passion that came about later, after college and after teaching. In fact, I would like to say it happened almost by accident. Kinda a collision of chance and desire. You see we were living in remote upstate New York at the time and I stumbled on a Kelsey table top printer. (If you are familiar with printing and letterpress you know that the first Kelsey's were difficult to get impressions on. I am pretty sure this is a first one judging by the ornate curves and the writing on the side)(Sorry if I have offended any of you loyal Kelsey's out there by the way) But that didn't matter. I was hooked. The press still had rollers (which thanks to the condition that they were stored- still usable- no cracks or dings.), wood planer, mallet, composing stick and the last flyer it had printed still on tympan. Oh, and the sound it makes when it inks and the plate rotates- awesome...But probably the most fascinating was the cabinet that came with it. Yep, thirteen cases filled, most with two to three fonts. It had it all; script, san-serif, wooden type, italics, 6pt to 30pt, ornaments!!! Of course, nothing that great comes without a price, a mouse or mice had made their home in one of the cases and I had to spend a descent amount of time cleaning it out.

Here I will pause and add some info about type and typesetting. Obviously, computers are a relatively new invention- but printing has been around for centuries. What most people don't know is how labor intensive printing is. For instance, take this posting- lots and lots of letters. (Probably more words than most care to read...) If I were to "set" this, each letter, space or punctuation would be a physical piece of type. That's a great deal of metal. And what if you forgot a word- no clicking- you would have to figure out how to insert it. You might have to move everything- every piece.... Amazing how much work it is, and how we take it all for granted. Enough of that, I will tell you that one of the first things I set I set it mirror image- and when I proofed it there was a great laugh to go around the room (yah I know moron).

Back to the Kelsey-that was how this really all started. A chance find, a love of printing and a fascination with letterpress. We worked with it- but I started to feel disappointed with the results and knew I wanted something more- something different- something reliable...