Preston and PJ

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?

Meet Preston!

Been keeping this on the "down-low" for a little while but I think its finally time to introduce Preston - my new bouncing baby letterpress! He was delivered to the garage on Friday the 6th, 2007. Preston is a 10x15 Chandler and Price letterpress, circa about 1924. And he's an absolutely magnificent piece of machinery! Not to mention he can do everything - print, emboss, perf, score, die cut, even foil stamp if I had the extra equipment. Here are some specs on Preston:

• weight - 1800lbs
• fly wheel 3 ft in diameter
• 10x15 chase (the size of the printable area)
• Motor can be run on 220 0r 110 - variable speed
• serial number C66534
  
• circa 1924
• Preston nickname courtesy of Paul
  

Friday Paul and I gave Preston a bath with degreaser - probably the first one he'd had in about 50 years; and gave him a good oiling - since he'd been left idle for three years. The motor is original (newest patent listed is 1917) - and still had half of the original wiring. On Sunday we bought and modified an extension cord to replace the sketchy part - which oddly enough wasn't the 1924 wiring - it was a newer addition - and then got brave enough to plug him in and fire up the motor. Preston worked like a charm - super smooth and quiet for any machine, let alone one that's 83.

The fellows from Mid-South Moving taking it off the truck Friday morning.

The front of Preston - "The Chandler & Price Co. Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.

Preston's serial number located on the chase bed - C66534

Here I am degreasing the flywheel. Paul and I took off the red cover that you see in the second picture, which was probably put on for safety regulations in whatever print shop it was located in.

This is the leather brake pad that stops the fly wheel.

Paul testing out the motor after we rewired the sketchy part Sunday afternoon.

The chase still had the last job that was run three years ago in it. (a door hanger) Here I'm loosening the quoin to remove the metal furniture and die cut block.

I smelled a llama because I am AWESOME!

So the last post on Preston sets a personal comment record! Lets see if we can get even more!

A friend sent me a funny (thanks Jennie & Nick!) and I though it was funny enough to include here:


Pick the month you were born:

January------I kicked
February-----I loved
March--------I karate chopped
April--------I licked
May----------I jumped on
June---------I smelled
July---------I did the Macarena with
August-------I had lunch with
September----I danced with
October------I sang to
November-----I yelled at
December-----I ran over


Pick the day (number) you were born on:

1-------a birdbath
2-------a monster
3-------a phone
4-------a fork
5-------a snowman
6-------a gangster
7-------my cell phone
8-------my dog
9-------my best friends' boyfriend
10------my neighbor
11------my science teacher
12------a banana
13------a fireman
14------a stuffed animal
15------a goat
16------a pickle
17------your mom
18------a spoon
19------a smurf
20------a baseball bat
21------a ninja
22------Chuck Norris
23------a noodle
24------a squirrel
25------a football player
26------my sister
27------my brother
28------an ipod
29------a surfer
30------a llama
31------A homeless guy

Pick the color of shirt you are wearing:

White--------because I'm cool like that.
Black--------because that's how I roll.
Pink---------because I'm NOT crazy.
Red----------because the voices told me to.
Blue---------because I'm sexy and I do what I want.
Green--------because I think I need some serious help.
Purple-------because I'm AWESOME!
Gray---------because Big Bird said to and he's my leader.
Yellow-------because someone offered me 1,000,000 dollars.
Orange-------because my family thinks I'm stupid anyway.
Brown--------because I can.
Other--------because I'm a Ninja!
No shirt-----because I can't control myself.

Now type out the sentence you made, in the comments section

Can't wait to see what you get stuck with.

100% Lead

Triple S Letterpress was up and in full swing on Saturday and Sunday; Preston got a good work out. Between my Printer's Devil (Paul) and I we worked 32 hours.

Saturday we managed my mom and dad's Christmas cards, and ours too. Paul pulled and hand set all of our type while I did the make-ready and printing.

Neenah Columns cover weight stock - silver ink - my dad's linoleum block cut.

My parent's card turned out really well. The silver ink looks fantastic on the red columns stock.

Wouldn't you know it that the very first year that I'm able to actually print my very own Christmas card that I would have a complete mental block on what to draw!? So I worked up a little poem with Paul's help. We set it in Piranesi, and picked out a cool holly border for the front, and then I mixed a nice metallic green for the ink color.

The interior we set in Piranesi Italic with a couple of star dingbats. I feel like I need to work on next year's artwork now - so I can send off for a magnesium plate and have it in time to print.

Sunday I turned out bags for Jen's Redstreake Gallery, Paul sorted type and we started a cool layout for my Dad's business card (don't say anything to him - its a surprise for Christmas!) that I'll print in the next couple weeks.

Paul sorting type.

Jen's fantastic linoleum cut all inked and ready.

The finished Redstreake bags.

Pentax Play

I decided to shoot Preston (my 1924 Chandler and Price Letterpress) Tuesday night in the garage with Nathan's SIT method. A bunch of trial and error with f-stops and speed and such ensued and a bit of frustrated consultation with the manual for a certain setting until I finally got it just right. And then I was tempted to make a 1am run to Wal-Mart for some cool-toned compact florescent bulbs (instead of the warmer-toned ones I had)...but I didn't think Paul would really want me making a late night run to the store for bulbs and all. So I used a flash unit in combination with the fluorescent. And then stole my fluorescent lamp off of my desk as a last resort. As it was my head didn't hit the pillow till 3am anyway. I was WAY too excited and had to post the photos to Flickr.



And then this afternoon I played around with some daytime photography and a setting or two.

The tulips in the front yard are up and showing off their colors

Some of the settings on the Pentax are way crazy as I found out - crazy - but kinda cool!

The cheapest model there is - paid in treats!

Letterpress & Geocaching

Letterpress and Geocaching? Be still my heart! Paul found a geocoin for me today that is a printer's geocoin! Preston was pretty excited, so we took several photos of the coin with him and posted them on the geocaching website.

Triple S Letterpress by the way is the name I landed on for my "business" name. All of that is still very much in the planning stages. And I have to kind of laugh when I say business since there's no way I'm actually going to make any real money off of this - but I do have a sampling of cards for sale at Redstreake Gallery in Cowan, TN (Mrs. J. Redstreake Geary is a Superwoman! - and has poured her heart into her gallery - she does phenomenal art work and my cards are in good company). I have high hopes for a little Triple S Letterpress online store in the near future with original and retro letterpress designs.

Here's a few photo's of some birthday cards I worked on. This was the 1st run. I made the cards 3 color, meaning I ran the cards through the press three different times - 4 actually with the scoring to fold them. I slowly changed the ink color (yellow through dark purple) on press throughout the 1st run since there was so much ink coverage with 1-5/8" wooden letters. The second and third runs were with much smaller fonts and dingbats so I was only able to shift the colors a couple of times on both of those runs. Then the 8.5 x 11" sheets were cut in half to make two A-2 sized cards. And finally one more press run to score them with a matrix.


Here's a sneak peak at Brina Bat and Gray Bat's Travel Bug Hotel - which is where the geocoin will be placed tomorrow. If you're in Huntsville - and geocache at all I highly recommend visiting. Cachers are really enjoying it.

The Ghost of Christmas Past (Part 3)

Paul and I had the opportunity to print some birthday invites for a friend of Paul's from work over Christmas break.

My Dad had these hats stitched up for us - Paul's says: Printer's Devil and mine says: Triple S Letterpress. You can see the green ink color on the ink disc on Preston behind me.

A bit of goofing off while the press was being cleaned for the second color.

One of my "new" cabinets was a bit unsteady on its feet. My Dad did an awesome job cleaning and restoring and reinforcing the cabinet. Paul even built a few new cases (type drawers) for a few of the empty slots.

40 finished invites: 5 hits of the opaque green, with blow drying in between each hit (the paper was super absobent) and then 1 of black. 1 hit on the matching envelope. Total time: 13 hours.

More Harry Potter Mania

I still need to play catch up - with a trip to St. Louis, and my birthday and some Preston printing and the HCRU Tyrolean (oh - and the Huntsville Grotto newsletter too!), but for now its some more Harry Potter mania. Paul and I are reviewing all of the movies (even though there are some discrepancies and a few major flaws) in hopes to update ourselves before the release of the final Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It even sounds final doesn't it? Paul's madly rereading the 6th book right now and giving me a cliff notes version in between him reading some chapters aloud in between watching the movies. I'm half tempted to purchase the 6th book on CD - which would be the only possible way I could "read" it before Friday evening. I've only read it one time and the details are a bit rusty. Paul and I will be in the frenzied line at Barnes and Noble this Friday evening waiting with the rest of the world to learn of Harry's fate. I'd like to dive on in and read it through to the last word (Rowling says it's "scar") but then again I feel as if I need to really savour it because with the closing of the back cover Harry's world will be closed to Muggles like us forever. Rereading never gives you that "new-words-high" excitement. Perhaps I could read all of it but the last chapter - so I don't ever really finish it?

oh - on a side note - according to the sitecounter it looks like I'm up to 3,050 visits - I passed 3,000 without evening knowing it! how exciting! I would would have never guessed that so many people have pinged "Brina Bat" if I had not gotten a counter (thanks Laura!) And Thank you thank you thank you for your patronage and comments - comments most of all!

A Bit More Letterpress Fun

Here's another great video on Letterpress work that Paul found for me.

Firefly Press

I am gearing up for the day my rollers come back - 2 more weeks - and I can actually print! Will post some photos of the goodies I've gotten for Preston in the next couple of days.

Got Rollers?

I do!
Here's Preston on his debut inked press run!

Firecracker Press

I took a letterpress pilgramige of sorts with Paul to Firecracker Press on Cherokee Street, St.Louis, MO.

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.