She prints again!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the C&P is returned to her former glory. With the help of my friend and talented artist BT Livermore (http://btlivermore.com/) we cranked out 4 seperate editions over 3 and 1/2 days!

I'll let the photos tell the rest of the story.

"Blue Skies & Cow Pies"

The type with some great Copper ink on it

BT choosing some wood type

Brand spankin' new ink alongside some of the oldies

"Let er Buck!"

Spring green on the press, the rollers from Ramco are some serious Cadillacs (aka, so smooth!)

"Cigarettes, Scooters, Salads, & SAX"

Day-glo orange is actually seen here glowing in the dark

BT is printing the last color on the "Cigarettes, Scooters, Salads, & SAX" print

Be sure to pick up a copy of BAM's June issue to read more about the collaboration & about the print shop. https://www.facebook.com/butteartsmonthly/

I'm having a lot of fun in the Hell Roarin' Print Shop, and there will be a lot more prints to be made in there this summer.

Cheers!

-Christa 

Spring is here and so are the new Rollers!

Butte Brewing Co. original can from the Museum

CHEERS!! The new rollers for the 8"x12" Chandler & Price printing press have arrived, and let me tell you what, they are a thing of beauty. We had Ramco Roller in San Dimas, CA recover them for us, as well as put new tires on our trucks, and they look awesome!

Before

Before

After (I love this shag carpet!)

I spent 3 days last week cleaning the Hell Roarin' Print shop. I oiled the C&P from head to toe,  cleaned, redistributed type, unburied a granite inking slab from miscellaneous supplies, and organized the reglets and furniture. Sometimes I think my personality type was designed for finding the places where things are supposed to go, to find their families.

This is something I love about letterpress, that everything should have a place. Some of my most relaxing and fulfilling days have been spent sorting type. I once totally lost my cool at MSU in Bozeman and alphabetized and sorted 17 cases of wood type (probably over 30 fonts). It felt so good!

People have been asking me what I'm doing after this residency, and I just keep hoping that I will get to sort type to make the fonts whole again. Someone give me a Hell Bucket of type and I'll sort every last little bit.

Can I get paid to do that?

-Christa

Letterpress reaches far and wide!

Letterpress is alive and well across the world.

Take a look at Typoretum's amazing print shop in this video: https://vimeo.com/63348604. They are located in rural Coggeshall of Essex.

In Belgium there is a wealth of printing museums and collections that one can tour around (maybe even pull a print?): http://typeand.press/museums/

And specifically in Antwerp there is Kastaar Press, which opened recently. They have been saving letterpress equipment from salvage yards! Here is a little write up about them: https://www.we-heart.com/2016/04/20/kastaar-press-antwerp-interview/


I really am head over heels about all this stuff, it's becoming a bit of an obsession.

-Christa