Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Welcome to the studio, Mason!

Last Saturday was an exciting day at the studio. Mason, our new foster press was delivered! After months of trying to co-ordinate between Sigrid, Craig and I, it finally came together! Mason ( a Vandercook SP15 that is rumoured to once have belonged to a famous Canadian writer that current mayor Rob Ford had never heard of ) was delivered to it's new long term temporary home at KOZO Studio. Along with Mason, Sigrid also gave me several boxes filled with various ornaments, leading, rules, metal display type and ink to use with Mason! Thank you Sigrid! I'll keep it all safe for your working visits to the studio.

It was a beautiful day for moving Mason. The last thing you want to do is movie a big press made of steel in the rain! As you can see from the photos we had lots of sun, a little bit of a breeze and a nice fall temperature! Thanks to Craig Black, Nick Kennedy and Albert Kwon for doing the pick up and delivery! Next time I have to remember to have more Coca Cola around.

So, right now the studio is in a state of disarray. Well, more than usual disarray! I've been sorting leads, cleaning and sorting ornaments, finding space for type and moving big pieces of furniture around (with the help of Ken and Albert - thank you, guys).  Now that all the press stuff and moving is settled I'll be able to start workshops again next week. Not sure how the new floor layout will work in terms of flow. Hopefully it will be fine. It ain't easy moving cases of lead and heavy metal presses around! We'll see how it goes.

Nick and Craig moving Mason onto the hydraulic cart.
Nick's new Universal Press is behind him.

Nick  and Albert posing on the hydraulic lift!

Lift down and now To move Mason onto the sidewalk...

...with a handy piece of flat steel to use as a ramp. 

The cool edge pry/lift-y thing helping craig get Mason onto the sidewalk.

There's Mason on the sidewalk.
Sorry guys. Mason is not going to walk into the studio on it's own!


Thursday, November 3, 2011

While on vacation...

We were doing our annual fall road trip and ended up going to Massachusetts. We stayed in the town of Lee in the Berkshires. Lucky for us it was just half an hour away from John Barrett's weekend letterpress shop/warehouse Letterpress Things! I could have bought so much...

Metal display type.

Nicely sorted quads and spaces for sale by weight.

Furniture racks and furniture sold by weight.

The picture says it all!

Printer drawers, card stock,  and many other maybe useful odds and ends.

Time to tally up.

...and don't forget this...

My daughter waiting patiently. She knows what to expect so she brought a book!!

Beautiful presses that need some tlc and a good home.

My big purchase. A set of new old wood type.