Letterpress.

Let me just state from the very beginning that I know I'm a little bit crazy.  Nothing probably exemplifies that fact more than my decision to take a letterpress class and create letterpress invitations for our wedding.  I've just completed the fourth week of class, and last night spent four hours in the studio printing the front side of our RSVP cards.

Letterpress is exquisite!  The fine engraved lines combined with the texture of thick 100% cotton paper create a feel more like currency than stationary.  And, did I mention the operation of a 100 year-old press?  It's mesmerizing to watch the circular motion of the big cast iron flywheel turn into the back and forth, opening and closing, rollers inking motion that results in tiny works of art.  There's danger too!  An OSHA agent would drop to the floor in an epileptic fit if they saw how the operator has to stick their hands into the machine's jaws at each cycle to remove and add the paper, one sheet at a time.

The class (this one at Pratt Fine Arts Center) covers everything from setting lead type, mixing ink, embossing, wire printing, operating platen and proof presses, and all of the little nuances of making a perfect print. Why do this?  It's a chance to get out of that office chair and work with my hands.  It offers the satisfaction of creating something physical and unqiue -- a very rare quality in our mass-produced world. And, it takes me back to a lost time when I was allowed to paint, draw, or make linoleum cuts for pressure printing at the same time as I was required to studied math, business, geography, and law.

All of the remaining materials that I need to finish the invitations should arrive over the next few days.  I'll upload photos as I complete the individual pieces.  For now, I'll just leave you with some links to great letterpress work that has inspired me:


Annie Get Your Glue Gun: beautiful work on small, tabletop press.
Three Red Hens: great tutorial on how to convert a photograph into a letterpress cut.
Oh So Beautiful Paper: a blog with great letterpress examples from many different sources.