Letterpressing Riot

The lay of the case. Since capital letters were used less frequently in typesetting, they were kept in the case above the 'low letters,' hence the terms "upper and lower case letters" came to be.

It's no surprise that a typesetting trade art "lost" by the 1930s got a welcome reprise in the late 90s, particularly here in fair Portlandia.  I'd been aching to take an introductory class for a couple of years in hot pursuit of the wishful thinking I could spend some kind of long hours amid old machines and heavy letter type

Building form on a job stick, or as the printers say, "I like it backwards and upside down."

waiting to be locked up in poetic form and printed. In a fit of good timing and found luck over a year ago, I salivated over buying an old print shop out of Christmas Valley before even trying my hand at the Press. I seem to think the fastest means to making time for a new hobby is to let it invade my pocketbook and beg for its audience!Then time passes and classes come and go and finally one day there's a class on the Right day at the Right time with the Right partner in printing crime.

coppers and brasses, quads and kerning

  The language alone in letterpress print world is seductive enough to interest me:

Locked the form, planed the type, tightened the quoins.

coppers and brass, furniture and ringlets, chase, kern and quoin. There's even a Hell Box - the place for type no longer fit for the case! It's remarkably methodical yet puzzle-like all at the same time.

...this good idea came all the way from Florida...

There's a lot of decision-making on type size and style up front; start with a good idea,
flirt with precision to set the chase,  build and screw and ink it all up for the finishing. It's a lot of prep work for swift and smooth print production. It's worth the trouble and the tremble....and the long wait to get into the shop.

Registered, inked and printing!

We made it.

Thank you Chandler and Price.

first published May 2012