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.

Getting back into it

Well... I've been thinking of dates to start workshops again. I've been to the studio several times and can now be there without constant sighing. I will not have a booth at this year's Wayzegoose in Grimsby. I do hope to visit though!
I think I will start with some basic letterpress workshops in May.

Since the birth and loss of my son, I have been meeting many other people who have gone through perinatal loss. It is sad that there are SO MANY of us. I now am playing with an idea. One major thing that grieving parents need are tactile objects to help us remember and grieve for our child. There are very few resources for us. Most of them have to do with talking about our loss and sharing our grief. Not fun, but very theraputic and necessary. I thought it would be nice to also get together to create objects to help us remember our babies. Also something necessary but a little bit lighter. I have space and I know how to create and I would really like to share with other involuntary members of this special club that we have found ourselves in...