On Friday, August 26, 2011, Carolin Ferwerda, Instructional Technologist, Jenifer Bartle, Digital Collections Librarian, and Katherine Ruffin, Book Arts Program Director, printed letterpress posters for the upcoming 2011 LTS Expo in the Book Arts Lab on the fourth floor of Clapp Library. The Book Arts Lab will offer letterpress demonstrations during the LTS Expo.
We set 24 point Century Schoolbook type by hand for the colophon. Metal type is kept in cases and set by hand in a composing stick.
The form of type, made up of wood type from the collection donated by Caroline Mortimer ’82, in honor of her father, E. Laird Mortimer III, and the metal type seen in the previous picture, locked up in the bed of the SP-15 Vandercook press. The SP-15, which was manufactured in 1963, was donated to the Book Arts Lab by the Friends of the Library in 1994 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Book Arts Lab.
We mixed a dark blue ink and put it on the rollers of the press. Ink was added to the rollers frequently through the course of the pressrun.
We fed sheets of paper into the press one at a time, being careful to position them against the paper guides so the type would print square on the page. We printed on Mohawk Superfine paper–65 pound white cover cut to 11″ by 18″. The cylinder of the press was cranked by hand and the paper was pressed down onto the type, resulting in the transfer of ink from the type to the paper. The pressure created by the process of printing the type left a subtle impression in the paper.
Our poster! We printed an edition of 40 copies of the poster, which will be posted across campus to advertise the LTS Expo.
Katherine McCanless Ruffin,
Book Arts Program Director
I am totally envious! What splendid fun you obviously had! The Wellesley Blue was a nice touch, of course. I used to work in the same building as an old-fashiond press, and I can still remember the delightful scent wafting my way. (I’m not sure if the scent came from the ink or the hot lead, but whichever it was, it was bewitching.)
I love rootling through typefaces – very calming! – and have over 800 fonts on my thoroughly-stuffed Mac.
Last year was my 50th Reunion, and class members were asked to bring along any books we may have written. As I am a poet – and was asked to write and read a poem for our Memorial Service – I put together a smallish book of poetry, with the help of Kinko’s. Alas, I am growing ambitious, and I long to hand-print some of my better poems, complete with dingbats and other embellishments. Is there any way that a doddering old alumna could be allowed a bit of time – perhaps in the middle of the night or some other time when your handpress might be free – to run some off?
If I had more space in my house, I would put a handpress there, but I must reluctantly relinquish that dream and throw myself upon your mercy, instead. I’d happily come up from Washington, DC to do that any time you might whistle in my direction. Ever hopeful – Susan Meehan’60
Dear Susan,
Thank you for your comment! Please do let me know when you next plan to visit Wellesley, and we can coordinate a time for you to come by the Book Arts Lab.
You might enjoy checking LetterMPress, a letterpress app for iPads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31qetzQ2nOQ
And the Briar Press online community for letterpress:
http://www.briarpress.org/
Best,
Katherine M. Ruffin
Book Arts Program Director
If you want to find out more about the printing industry, you should visit the Museum of Printing in Andover. Its is a fabulous museum and has the largest collection “in the northern Hemisphere”. The website is http://www.museumofprinting.org/
Dear Scott,
The Museum of Printing in North Andover is a wonderful resource! I highly recommend the Printing Art Fair the museum holds every June. It’s usually held on Father’s Day, and features demonstrations and a trade fair.
The Museum of Printing donated a Vandercook No. 4 printing press to the Book Arts Program in 2002, and we print with it all the time–we’ll be inking it up this afternoon, in fact.
Katherine