Recent photos

Albert is working on a design for a large-ish post card to advertise the studio !

New Birthday cards for the shop.

Student's lock up on the Craftsman Press.

KOZO Studio!

Lines of metal type set (and about to be re-distributed) by a student in the ABCs of Letterpress class.

ABCs of Letterpress student tying up their form for storage until next week!

S. Printing on Cookie the Vandercook SP15.

Ugh! Time to put all that metal type back.

Broadsides set in metal type and printed on the Craftsman press!

December 2012

Thank you to Lily who took these great photos during the seven weeks of the ABCs of Letterpress class she participated in! Lily brought a real camera every week to take photos. The rest of us just used our cell phones. I had a great time with this group. We even had a little Christmas party with baked goods and non-alcoholic Mimosas!

The space.

One part of a two colour project.

"Always kiss me goodnight" on the Vandercook SP 15.

Hand set type project!

Brady's hand setting project up close.

Luis's hand setting project... almost ready.

 

I love this shot!
Luis's hand set project... nice use of ornaments and centring.

Lily's form ready to be put to the test.
Will everything stay in place when it is lifted?

Proofing Lily's hand set type project on the Craftsman.

Proofing with Lily on the Craftsman.

Working away.

...and finished! It looks amazing!

At the Vandercook SP 15 with Luis.

Workshops

In all my years of teaching adults it is interesting for me to notice that usually females make up the majority of workshop participants. In Letterpress it's a different scene. The balance of male and female students are about equal. I'm not sure why. I just find it interesting...

I taught Julian and Robleh a couple of weeks ago. I really liked their projects. Julian was extra ambitious setting a quote in 12 point metal type with an image! It turned out beautifully. Robleh's positive message broadside also turned out well. I was able to get him to print on some chocolate brown stock that I had ... he was skeptical ... and loved the results! Yay! Too bad I was so excited that I forgot to take a picture of the print on the brown.

Julian at the Platen press printing his hand set type quote.

Robleh's broadside printed an the Vandercook with some of our  wood type.

Robleh pulling a print on the Vandercook  (yes, that is his arm...he was shy).

Julian's hand set quote with vintage "Bathinette" cut.

Hearts, Love and all things pink and red!

For about five years now I have been making gift cards for Soma Chocolatemaker. I've spent the last few days at the studio making their Valentine's Day gift cards. Hearts. Pink. Red. I have never been in love with the whole scheme of Valentine's Day scheme being red, white, pink with hearts and cupids! I'm so thankful that at Soma they like the brown card stock I use for their cards!!  I don't know if I could stand to print Valentine's cards if they all had to be on white or pastel colours. For me, the brown stock makes the subject and colour a little less... ummmmm... dislikable? Perhaps it''s because I like to think of the brown card stock as wonderful chocolate! They could probably even pay me in chocolate...

I tried printing on the Craftsman for the first time. Since these cards are gift card size it's a good size to try out on the Craftsman. The press is not working as smoothly as I think it should be, but it is printing well. One thing I don't have are the pins to hold the paper in place for printing! Oops! I had to fashion some out of layered cardboard. I was impressed! They worked pretty well. I was able to register the red hearts in line with the pink type using them! I won't be keeping my cardboard pins though. On Friday I'll go to see Craig Black at Don Black Linecasting to pick up some brass pins for the press and see if he has any suggestions for getting the press to work a little more smoothly.

Top: The Craftsman press with a locked up heart.
Bottom: My makeshift pins!
Right: Really nice wood type font in quarter cases.

Printed with metal type.

X's and O's printed with metal type.

A bit too much pressure with the small type.

The Rockwell metal type prints so nicely!

A new addition...

Katie's Craftsman Press

LOOK!!!
I'm so excited!! Now I have the addition of a Craftsman platen press at the studio! A huge thank-you to my friend Katie who has allowed me to give her press a home until she has a permanent one for it. It's been in storage for a while, so I'll have to give it some TLC before I try it out. I do love the platen press (they look much nicer sitting in a studio! it's such a satisfying moment when the paper meets the type) but for what I like to print, a platen press is not practical.
So again, "Thank-you, Katie for lending me and my students your press! I'll take good care of it/her/him!"