There's something very strange going on in the garage; every time I go out there more letterpress items appear. I think they must be multiplying after midnight while I'm asleep!?
Right now I am waiting on Preston's rollers to come back from
Tarheel, so for now I am tuning everything up on him, trying to locate all the oil points, cleaning and organizing all of the "toys" that I have purchased off eBay in preparation for the anticipated first day of printing! HUGE thanks to Chuck at
Colonial who helped me find Preston and has helped me track down a lot of the gear needed to get him up and running.
Paul helped me redo Preston's wiring so I've got the switch right by the fly wheel. You can give it a
heave-ho on the fly-wheel and then flip the switch and the little motor starts right up! You'd never think that Preston hadn't been plugged in in 3 years - let alone be powered off an 83 year- old motor. Smooth as can be.
The only item we've actually removed to refurbish on Preston is the front counter balance with the Chandler and Price Co. Cleveland, Ohio USA on it - and that was only because when I started cleaning it the paint started pealing off with soap and water. So Paul unbolted it for me and I scrubbed some with degreaser...
And he scrubbed some...
And then I scrubbed some more. As the bubbles popped I saw green ink appear that must have been splattered ages ago, and then some red and finally...
We went to Lowe's to buy some paint stripper to take the remainder off. What a mess that stuff is. Turns into what looks like an oil slick before you have to dump a neutralizer on it and wipe it clean. Funny thing is after all that - the only thing that wouldn't come off is some blue printers ink that's probably 80 years old!
So one of the items that appeared on my doorstep in swaddling packaging was a cute little
Kelsey 3x5. Preston begged us to adopt him - because he thought it'd be cool to have a little brother. His name is PJ (for Preston Junior). He really is pretty cute. (Will have to post a photo of him later next to Preston.) A big thanks to my folks for tracking down Mr. Hancock of
Hancock Printing who put PJ up for adoption out of his own personal collection - and hunting down two "toy chests" and various other necessities for the letterpresses.
Here I'm unwrapping the type case that was delivered freight on a half pallate.
24
California Job Cases (drawers). Now all I have to do is stock them.
Inks arrived last week - so I can pretty much mix every color in the
PMS swatch book (Pantone Matching System). I bought silver and opaque white also. I do need to order some spaces (em's and en's) and quads for each of the various sizes of type I have 6pt-36pt or so - but that won't slow me down from printing something when my rollers arrive. So the big question is - what should I print first?
1. Personal cards with name & email, etc.
2. Stationary
3. Cards and envelopes (B-day, Thank You's, etc)
4. A Linoleum block cut of artwork (I would have to carve it first)
5. Gift tags (I have a round die-cut already I can play with)
6. Samples sheet of the fonts I have
7. A poem
8. Something totally different?
Labels: letterpress, PJ, Preston
Here it is - Firecracker Press - a beautiful little letterpress covey for Vandercooks, C&Ps, paper, type and ink.
Eric Woods, owner and operator was kind enough to give us a chat and a tour of his place after I mentioned Preston (my 10x15 C&P).
Here's Eric's C&P. Its from the mid 1930s - about 10 years newer than mine. They use is for finishing now - no ink - die cutting, folding and the lot.
I also chatted with Eric's employee (who's picking up ink on a brayer in this picture) about dies and Owosso. He was really nice too.
I bought some letterpress cards and Paul and I thanked Mr. Woods for the visit. I'm definitely going to try doing some wood cuts after seeing the beautiful results at Firecracker Press. I hope to one day operate a business very much like this one - and hopefully just as cool.
