The world is a wonderful place and as is the manner of things, when we were planning to head to Calgary we wondered where else we might go. I suggested Portland because it seems such a creative place from afar (lots of blogs I read come from here) and so I searched around to see if I might be able to do a course or something. As the wonder of the world would have it - we chanced upon the Independent Publishing Resource Centre and were able to book into an Introduction to Letterpress course. We joined the IPRC for 3 months to enable us to do it - shame we can't be here longer to make more use of the print room!
We had a great teacher and I learnt so many new words - composing stick, chaser, tympan, plate, quoins, furniture and many more.
Barry came along and together we printed one of my quotes "The eloquence of silence". It was so much fun I just know I'll have to do it again!
As a teaser, here are some shots of the fabulous bibs and bobs we used. I'll post the outcomes tomorrow as they deserve their own post.
A box of coppers and brasses - the tiniest, thinnest bits of copper to help pack out the plate during locking up
A box of cuts or images that you can add as decoration to your type block
The type block being prepared to be locked up - filling the chaser with furniture and other bits to make sure it is nice and tight and firm. The two rows of type and image to be printed are in the middle.
The chaser set into the press, with the rollers below inked up ready to be rolled!
I just loved the whole process of making a kind of jigsaw puzzle come together and solving lots of problems along the way. And even better I loved the outcome of the process!
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