Photos from Don Black Linecasting

These are pictures of the Don Black Linecasting  "class trip" I organized in the beginning of October. I forgot to bring my camera so these are taken by our friend, photographer Michael Robinson, who came on the trip because he likes all things old!
Thanks Mike!

Like the type says.

 On the way into the Warehouse

When you walk into the warehouse this is what you see on your right. In the foreground is the Intertype machine and in the background against the wall is a flatbed press they use for proofing. Craig was kind enough to show everyone how the Intertype machine worked and he also cast some type for some of the group!

Ooo! Hot foil stamping!! Craig is demo-ing the hot foil stamper for Nerissa.

Shiny!

One of the most popular styles of presses these days! This is a floor model.

Two part qoins. I used these at school!

The name is in the photo! I still have a fear of these! Joe from Pomegranate Press told me a "poke your eye out" story about one!

A beautiful old paper cutter.

Lots of wood furniture!

Large Foundry type

some of the mechanical parts of the Intertype machine.

Printing some cuts

Rolling!

Beth takes a look at some images "hot off the press"! She even bought a small press just like my Showc

The cuts and the print on the bed of the press.

They have walls of drawers of letterpress stuff!!

Craig's work area.

A pile of lead "pigs" for casting type. We used them for weights for pressing handmade paper when I was at O.C.A.!

More drawers of stuff AND a bunch of presses that Craig is working on.

 

 MORE!!!

Packaged type and ornaments for sale.

Tanya from Snap + Tumble checking out the Ludlow mats and composing them in a casting stick. Craig let my husband, Ken, demo type casting on the Ludlow for us.

Drawers of type!

I believe these drawers contain mats for the Ludlow. The drawers are beautiful!

Wood type in a drawer.

Tanya, Christine and I looked at drawer upon drawer of cuts!

Craig setting up the hot foil stamper.

I was looking for ornaments and a cute little font to use for my Wayzgoose Anthology submission.

Craig talking with Nerissa.

Don Black Linecasting

We had a great time on Saturday morning at Don Black Linecasting! I was a bit groggy as I am a night person, but I managed to get to the studio before 9 am to meet everyone. Luckily we had three vehicles and so everyone got to go to Scarborough by car. Unfortunately we had several people who had to drop out last minute due to illness. Yup. It's that time of year again where colds are making their rounds of infecting unsuspecting humans!

When we got there Tanya and Christine had already arrived. I talked to Craig a bit and then we decided to start. Well, I had to start. After introducing Craig (Don's son who has taken over the business), the space and my husband (who was demo-ing type/linecasting on the Ludlow) everyone basically went wherever they wanted and started poking around and asking questions. 

We were lucky! Craig had a variety of presses that were restored and ready for sale. I fell in love with a Showcard flatbed press that has a bed size 4x my Mini Showcard! It was beautiful, but if I get another press I really want a flatbed press with a bigger bed than my Vandercook. I wish I had enough cash to buy one of every style of press... that's the collector in me... but one must at least try to be practical! I answered quite a few questions about presses. I know one person bought a small press and I believe another has their name on a press for when it comes in. 

Craig was a wonderful host! He patiently and kindly answered SO many questions, he let us rummage around freely and just before we left he even reminded us that the Intertype was heated up and if we had time we should see it in motion. I felt everyone should see that! It's an amazing machine. I used one when I was in art college and loved it. Craig showed us how it basically worked and cast people's names for them. A great souvenir from a great day at Don Black Linecasting (the letterpress candy shop!).

I was so busy I forgot to take pictures. Luckily our friend Mike Robinson, who is a professional photographer, took plenty of photos. He's putting them on a disk for me. I hope to have those up by the end of the week!!

For now all I have are pics of the cast type I bought for a short piece about my son for Wayzgoose 2011 and some ornaments that I found to add to the few I already had.

"Class Trip" to Don Black Linecasting

The Oct. 2nd trip to Don Black's warehouse is coming up on Saturday! Should be fun. I can't help but think of Don and Craig's warehouse as a sort of candy shop for printers! I'm hoping that we can car pool so those of you who want to go and drive a car please consider bringing one or two others in your vehicle if possible.

So far, here is the list of who is going. If I have left your name off the list by mistake or you want to attend please contact me so I can give you last minute directions in case we have a car.
Quinn
Jeffrey
Emily
Christine
Mike
Cheryl (?)
Ken

We'll be meeting at the studio at 9:00 to organize TTC and/or car pools!

Working, working, working!

I've been very busy trying to get stuff ready for the coming fall show that I'm in at the El Mocambo. I have to get everything done before I go on vacation in early October. If I manage to get everything done before the show, it will be a first!! I am always at the studio the night before a show trying to pack and put finishing touches on stuff.  I won't have that luxury for this show, so I'm going to try and be at least a little bit organised. I'll keep you posted on how I do.

Vintage  cowboy cuts that I've letterpress printed onto tags. Cute!

The run of tags I've printed on a flatbed press - hand inked!

I had two Intro. to Letterpress workshops this weekend. I'm SO lucky. The people that take my workshops are such wonderful, kind, creative humans! I tend to go overtime with the workshops if I'm not doing anything afterwards. Both days we went overtime because of too much chatting. All four participants were such interesting people. Saturday's workshop I had two young printmakers. One now works as an archivist and the other spent time in Japan taking an intensive moku hanga workshop!

Sunday's workshop participants were equally interesting. One is in publishing and is thinking of starting her own business and the other is an architect who now lives out on a farm and grows organic produce and is also starting up a business with her farm. She also does catering... I can't wait 'til they start making preserves from their farm. They both worked on pieces to do with their new businesses. We talked a lot about different types of presses and what types of jobs they are best for.

Photos from Sunday's workshop.

Is Gary Oldman in town?

So, yesterday Albert and I were printing away at the studio. I had the front door open so that some fresh air could come into the studio. I left the sign in the window saying "CLOSED" and I put a triangular step stool in the open doorway as a barrier. Towards the end of the afternoon a man sort of awkwardly hops over the low edge of my little stool and stands there looking at stuff.  I ask him, "Can I help you?".  and he says that he was just curious and looking around. I tell him that actually we are closed today and just here to work. The man - who has a British accent - asks what the space is supposed to be. I tell him it's primarily my studio space. He asks if he can look around anyway since he's there and all. The door was open so he just thought he'd come in (and hop the step stool). I mumble something about being closed and needing to work and stand there looking at him... Finally he "Oh. Okay. and goes outside, unchains his bike and rides away.
Then I look at Albert who is saying to me, "You just kicked out Gary Oldman!".
Huh? I guess I can see the similarity (though I couldn't re-focus that quickly on the man since I was looking at cuts up close) but I don't think Gary Oldman is in town and I don't think he'd be riding a bike in south Riverdale Chinatown. The British man was dressed well, but casual and kind of wrinkle-y. Nope. It wasn't him, was it? Well, I was polite! But Albert says I still didn't let Gary Oldman look around and I should have since he's famous.
"He probably thinks you're an A**.
Nooo! But I was polite and there was a step stool, a closed sign and my sign that says "OPEN HOURS..."!!
Should I have let someone stay when I just wanted to work?!
Was I mean to Gary Oldman?!
Uh-oh. Will this be years of bad Karma?...

Busy

 Well, I've finished my post cards for the Post card exchange on L of L. One hundred and twenty five have been sent off to Camille in Wisconsin. She planned and co-ordinated this whole exchange. Thank you Camille!
I have about 20 extra ones that I've kept for special people. Today I gave one to the Coast Papers Retail Outlet guy, Andy. He's so personable, patient and nice! And he knows what they have! But alas, he is leaving to go back to university. We just happened to head over there to pick up some paper on his last day! Best of luck back in university, Andy.

This is the window of my studio. The cool cinema marquee letters are drom a friend of ours who used to work at a movie cinema years ago before THX, Dolby surround sound and digital 3-D. I love the shade of red that they are. In case you don't know, Kozo is the name of the fibre from a type of Mulberry that is used in Japan to make washi paper. It's the fibre I used the most when I apprenticed in Ogawa-machi with artist Richard Flavin.

Walking home from the studio today at around 7 pm the clouds were beautiful. The light was kind of yellow-ish when I looked out the studio window. This was why. The sun was below the major cloud cover and shining on the big fluffy white clouds giving them a golden glow. Magical.

Work

Malcolm rented studio time to compose and print this great cover for "The Coming Envelope" which is a "... new periodical of experimental prose..." (I couldn't have described it any better so I just quoted "BookThug which is the Publisher). He did this one back in May and recently he came back to create and print the cover for the winter issue. Malcolm gave me a proof of the cover so I'll have to take a photo of it, too and put it up. 

The cover of "The Coming Envelope Issue #1, Summer 2010" letterpress printed

by Malcolm S. at the studio. Published by BookThug, Toronto.

http://www.bookthug.ca

Workshop Participant works

I love what people come up with in the workshops that I teach! I hate making people do "cookie cutter" style work in order to learn. It may be easier for me to teach that way, but I've always found those types of workshops kind of boring. So, I leave it up to the participant and I just stipulate a few basic parameters they just have to work within. 

The results are great! I wish I could take better photos to do them justice!

Basic Silkscreen

 Intro. to Letterpress

  Intro. to Letterpress

 Letterpress 1

  Intro. to Letterpress

 Letterpress 1

Basic Silkscreen

 Intro. to Letterpress