Letterpress Love

Just got finished with a two-day class on letterpress printing, and I feel like a schoolkid proudly rushing through the door with a clay turtle that looks more like an aardvark. Wheeee! Some time ago (four years? five years?) Robert bought for me an itty bitty table top press with all the little fonts and spacers and engravings and doodads (a whole new vocabulary; that word not part of it), and it's been sitting in a closet because we never got around to learning how to use it. It's been one of my little dreams to be able to print letterpress cards for our shops. I just love paper, love the look and feel of hand-printed cards and love love love typography.

Through the Art Station, I found out about the beginning letterpress class offered at Atelier 6000 here in Bend (very cool new space if you haven't discovered it yet), and couldn't be happier. Of course, I am still at the beginning level, where one only gets a glimpse of how very much more there is to learn, but did manage to print out my first project, a business card for our V.P. of PR, Mollie. It's very simple and doesn't look like much, but I am quite pleased with myself nevertheless. Tonight, I am the princess of printing. Yeah, right. We still have a lot to figure out (including finding a few missing parts for our press) and a whole lot to learn, but hope to be doing some tiny projects at some point in the near future.

I have a whole new respect for the letterpress process: it's unbelievably labor-intensive and detail-driven. It requires huge cabinets and rows and rows of drawers/cases filled with heavy lead type. The presses (mine not quite included because it's so dinky) are heavy and cumbersome. And, you have to have good eyesight (augmented by a magnifier) and good small motor skills. Oh yes, you also have to be able to read backwards and upside down. Yet, when the press makes that first satisfying click into position, and you pull out your freshly inked print, there's joy and happiness at seeing your little creation. I highly recommend it if you are interested in the art of printing: there are more classes and workshops available at Atelier 6000.

And if you're lucky, Mollie will give you one of her new cards when you visit Pomegranate at our River Mall Avenue location.