What I Did On My Summer Vacation

OK, so the first week of June is not technically summer, but it was (some of) my vacation.

I have done some silk screening in my day, and I have been etching/printing copper plates at the Art Student's League off-and-on for 6 years or so, but I had never tried letterpress. I honestly didn't really even know how it worked until I set foot in the Center for Book Arts. I was a little apprehensive because I had signed up earlier in the year but the class was cancelled and they seemed a touch scattered when it came to refunding my class fee. But all was forgiven as I began to drop heavy, dingy, little pieces of type into my composing stick, added leading, set up my form on the galley and then locked it into place on the press bed. Oooh. It was a thrill in a totally Luddite, nerdy way. I have no doubt that any future letterpress printing that I do is far more likely to be done with polymer plates (I doubt I could afford the rental time it would take me to typeset anything worthwhile), but I was surprised at how much of a thrill I got from the simple act of printing. It took 2 days to typeset 3 short paragraphs of text, but it was totally worth it. I was actually sad when I ran out of paper. That's why there are a few prints that are only "black" (It's really blue with a little black). And did I mention how fun mixing the ink was? A couple of base colors and a (Pantone) "recipe card." It was like cooking and art all at the same time! Oh, cleaning the press? Not so much fun, but ehn, what can you do?

I am a huge fan of Guys and Dolls, as can be seen here, and a few years ago, I learned that the story that it is based on was written by one Damon Runyon. (And where was he born? That's right... Kansas!)

One eBay search and a few days later, I was the proud owner of this book:


I got this one because of the cover illustration. It was my first little foray into pulp fiction printing.

I feel like a bit of a dork for saying so, but I'm really proud of the print. My teacher called it "a masterpiece", but I think she was just being nice.



Thank goodness for employers with generous vacation plans!