For the love of Letterpress

I've been having trouble adjusting to non-school life, and adjusting to not being able to do anything lettepress related! So I was super excited to start my new Letterpress class with Jenny Wilkson at the School of Visual Concepts. Pictured above is the first project we completed, which was to typeset our name and print it to label our galley.

We got to print the first day on this wonderful Vandercook proofing press, surrounded with inspirational posters from past students.

The studio is really spectacular, and Jenny has been building it from the ground up for over ten years. It's extremely organized for the number of people that print in it, which is such a relief! Everything seems to be in amazing condition as well, including these table-top platen presses, which is something I aspire to get hopefully in the near future!

But the machinery I'm most in love with is this gorgeous platen press, with gold leafing and a heart-shaped treadle! Jenny said that because I have some experience printing on Vandies, she would be happy to help me focus on printing with the platen presses. GLEE! (there's also a larger C&P, not pictured here, but also treadle-powered, which is way less dangerous than a motor).

Our one large assignment for the class is to create a broadside with 1-2 colors. This week we were instructed to come in to the shop on our own time and explore the type to get inspired about what we might want to print. Though I've still been wanting to continue with my Home series, I found some awesome ornaments and things on Saturday that may lead me in a different direction.

Though I wont be able to print on the presses outside of class time until I've been approved to print, we're able to come in and use the proofing press to our hearts content. I may be there every day of the week, when I'm not too tired after work! So there will be some interesting letterpress work to come very soon :)