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

Discovering amazing things at the print shop all the time, look at these beauties!

Metal type/ornaments from the hell roarin' gulch print shop

"The Hand That Keeps the World Informed" from a linotype specimen book in the print shop

-Christa