Letterpress Love

The letterpress workshop I attended last week was really great.  Iota Press in Sebastopol is a hidden treasure and the owner/artist/poet/bookbinder extraordinaire, Eric Johnson, is one of the nicest guys in town.

You can read about Eric's sweet printing co-op here.

My love of fonts, typography, numbers could be fully realized and applied at this workshop.  I gathered a few friends and Eric taught us the basics and helped us each complete a small project.

He has three vintage presses and hundreds of fonts, type & artwork to choose from.

It was like I was in a dreamworld of the tools used to make the magical printed word, along with beautiful papers and the chance to create something with all of it.  Fantastic.

I've personally amassed a dozen or so vintage letterpress letters, which is nothing compared to Eric's collection.

I settled on creating two bookmarks and using my chartreuse-colored card stock from Paper Source.

Once the artwork was selected, fonts narrowed down and set - it was time to print.

We learned that inking a vintage press is an extremely cost-effective and sustainable way of using ink.  The small canister of printer's ink was over five years old and only half of it was used.  Just a little dab here and there and we were good to go.

We set up our projects individually on the Vandercook Proof Press and after a few tweaks, we were ready to print.

The process was extremely gratifying, yet time-consuming.  I think you must love the process, as well as the end result.  I really enjoyed both.

Of course, I forgot to bring my good camera and my iPhone died during the middle of the class.  My friend was kind enough to snap a few shots of the finished products with her iPhone.  

I have a newfound respect for the printed word and look forward to future workshops at this lovely establishment.  If you're interested in attending a workshop, please feel free to contact me or Eric at Iota Press directly.