Signs of the Times

Bookbinding workshop is starting again. Most of my friends have dropped out due to the steep price increase, a sadness. However, a whole new crop of students will be using our equipment, so I took it upon myself to proof a bunch of safety placards.

The class has little safety training, but we use a manual paper trimmer,  a guillotine cutter, and cases full of type-- all without regular reminders of safe handling.  They are not printers, they are beginning bookbinders, so they don't even learn to set type into a composing stick, much less safe equipment use. I'm related to My Dad the Safety Nut, and it drives me crazy to see the students ignorantly handling things that could hurt them. Hence the placards.

I can't believe how many leave the trimmer blade up and just walk away.

Then there are those who lay their stuff on the guillotine cutter. . .

Font

Just a proof for you to look at, hoping for responses in re: my question about background letters.

It's a not-so-great shot of an iffy proof :)  Hope it conveys my intent.

Toolbox again

Just an excuse to post. My inking woes are solved. The rollers needed to be adjusted downward. That done, and inking was perfect. Before the adjustement, I had completed Tool #2 in the set, but there's no pic.

Tool #3 is half done! Color one went on press today, and I'm excited about the inking now. This tool, and its associated cut, is one of my favorites, because I use it every time I print.

Color two will be red: a smaller composing stick showing type lined up in it, and a drop cap H for the legend in Washington Text. Click to biggify-- I'm quite happy with it!

The height of irony: a problem with the camera's parallax makes the printing look UN straight!

Toolbox

Here is the first of my tool contributions for the Toolbox. The uneven look of the type is its rugged design: Pabst Oldstyle. Kids' art foam sheet mounted on a mag base printed the saw. Apologies that the cell phone shot doesn't display the Lettra paper effect.

Inking Issues

This post is mostly for friends from Letpress, the letterpress printers' listserv.

If you look carefully at the pic (double-click to biggify), you can see the areas which are not inking.

The last letter, s, in Pins, and the thimble at the bottom of the cut are simply not taking ink. The sad part is that they were inking perfectly all during makeready, and now they are simply not. At All.

As far as I can see, there was no contamination, no washup between makeready and printing, and no color change. I didn't even change packing.

Pressure is a little heavy; the cut sits a wee bit high, and I have had to add a sheet of typman under the type to bring it up, since I cannot remove anything from the cut.

I would love to get your thoughts on why this is happening when the proofs were all so good.

The Fern Stand

Every vacation needs a hero: a souvenir so great it simply had to follow you home. Mine is. . . The Fern Stand!

On my way home from the APA Wayzgoose I stopped in Albuquerque. Walking around an antique mall I found it: the beefiest fern stand I've ever seen. Its single leg is almost as heavy as one of my own. Four massive lion paws support its weight. A huge handmade nut holds it together.

It sat forlorn until I noticed the folk art Rooster was a perfect fit:

Awesome!

Books! Gotta Love 'em

Tonight somebody in my computer user group posted some thoughts on why e-books don't satisfy the way real ones (in print) do. It got me started musing on why I do like e-books, considering I am a printer and bookbinder and LOVE old books.

I realized that my use of e-books is probably atypical.  I use the e-book format for books I either a) can't find in print (and are totally unaffordable) b) take up too much room on a shelf, c) provide reference to specialized topics I am passionate about, or d) are too heavy for me to carry around.

Personal collection on my iPad:

- Complete works of Shakespeare with a little commentary
- complete Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- 2 versions of the Bible (modern & K. James)
- A few no-longer available bad Victorian novels, for fun
- at least 10 type catalogs & specimens (originally tomes over 300 pages in print)
- Numbers of knitting and tatting patterns, even entire books from Project Gutenburg
- complete printing press diagrams to go out to the press on the iPad
- Incunabula (which none of us can either find OR afford (see below)
- a few specialty costuming/sewing catalogs in digital form

These have all been free (yep, free!). Since most are what librarians call "reference" works, they would not circulate anyway, so having a nice, leisurely, personal relationship with most of them is not even an option. The e-book format allows me to enjoy them, use them again and again, and not waste valuable space in my house to keep them at hand.

So here's to books! Whether E or otherwise, I'm a voracious reader and I'll read what comes to hand. And I love my extensive e-library on the iPad, which weighs much less than one of the above-mentioned.

(example: page in Turnierbuch/Tournament Book - copy of original by Hans Burgkmair the Elder; 1540: Augsburg, Germany, in German and Latin. Held by the Bavarian State Library, www.bsb-muenchen.de)

Run One

I've been slowly working up to using my new-to-me proof press. After cleaning and oiling it thoroughly, the first impression I tried was a bust. I was new to this style proof press so I was in no hurry. Ordered new rollers, had a problem reinstalling them, and it took another year to get things together. More lag time. After all, my C&P platen does a fine job. While waiting, the Vandercook bed became the site of some Horizontal Surface Disease in the form of two type cases and assorted printers tools.

This week I cleared off the bed, and yesterday inked up to proof a large cut. Despite new rollers, I had no impression! What to do-- then I remembered I have no bed plate for this press. A galley fixed that problem, but I still had only a ghost of an impression. For a workaround I laid two sheets of tympan paper under the galley. Perfect!

Last night I finally got a decent print from my Vandercook No. 3. The Colt is not printed with "bite" impression, but he shows up clearly and the type is crisp. Now it's time to place the tympan paper in the packing rather than under the galley and have fun.

Yes. The ink is burgundy.

Rings!

Before leaving home, I tasted my favorite onion rings at our local hamburger place, The Habit. Mamma mia-- the best! I've tried onion rings across the country, and have never had better. Since I was taking a new route cross-country, I had to remember what the best taste like.

yummmmmm

FWIW, The Habit was once our local greasy burger joint. Somewhere along the line, new owners revived it and made it better. Much better. It's now a Central Coast chain, but the original location on Hollister in Goleta is where it all began. They're always busy. And why not, with perfectly grilled onions on the burgers. BBQ sauce to die for. They make real malts. And did I mention the onion rings?

The Habit's reputation is still intact after my return. Their rings are still the best!

5735 Hollister Avenue, Goleta: the heart of Old Town

Ornamental

Showed you the fonts, now for the ornaments. Three packages full, but identical packages. I wanted to have enough of any ornament I chose to use. So here is more deliciousness from Skyline:

REAL Fonts

I mentioned committing typographic excess. Here's the (literal) proof! More literarily, here are the proofs:

 Concave

 Keynote

 Rustic

 Spread

Victoria Italic

All of the above are from Skyline Typefoundry in Arizona. Except for Keynote, all are 19th century designs. Sky has the matrices to cast these great old faces and many more. Needless to say I am a delighted customer.

Back to the shop!

After a lengthy drive to the Wayzgoose, committing typographic excess, I'm back to my little (typograhic) composing room. I laid away three fonts today, and a fourth yesterday. Perhaps some examples are in order.

Ransome Initials 

Missal Initials

 Pencraft Initials (BB&S), name courtesy of John Horn
from the Letpress Discussion List

These aren't the only ones: these were some used faces I purchased. I also have five brand-new fonts to put away. Typographic excess wasn't hyperbole!

Stay tuned!

A no pix day

It was hot. I kept going. Prescott to Tucumari. I stopped a few times due to boredom, gas, or food issues, but That. Is. All. Tomorrow may possibly include a visit to the dinosaur museum. If not, on the way back then.

Thanks, Dad

Although you're not here with me, you are here in spirit. I'm living in the house where you and Mom raised me, and feel your presence(s) every time I turn around. The old clothesline, the garage doors, the pantry, and the back porch often bring you to mind. What a secure childhood I had. So thanks. I'm glad I thanked you while you were still here! You were God's blessing to me.

Skyline Type Foundry

On my way to the Wayzgoose, I stopped by Skyline Type Foundry to visit Sky & Johanna. Wonderful new home, and the print shop is immaculate. The typecasting building is full of the most incredible matrices and machines. I helped box a new border (pinecones & needles), printed sample cards for it, and hung out with Sky. Fun day!

Thanks, Dad (Memorial Day)

Dad spent most of WWII at an Air Force Base in Hobbs, New Mexico. He was an auto mechanic before the War, and he trained to be an airline mechanic. B-17s, the famous "Flying Fortresses," were what he worked on.

He toured a B-17 in the 1990s when it visited the Santa Barbara Airport and told me about it, but I was living 300 miles away. Last week, a B-17 paid a return call and I was there. I crawled through the plane and marveled at how little space there was for the crew. Dad, at 6'3", would have been cramped no matter where he sat, despite his very thin build. And flight crew flew in the most primitive location: on wooden drop-down boards in the uninsulated fusilage.

It would have been hot as all git-out on the ground (Hobbs is very close to Texas!), miserably cold in the air, crowded with nervous air crew, and scary to think you'd have to go into actual battle that way! The only way out was by parachute through the back door. A man over six feet tall could not stand up all the way. My Dad, the farm kid, might well wonder what he was doing there. I wouldn't blame him if he were scared. I would be.

Fortunately for me, Dad never saw battle. He was on a ship in Seattle Harbor when the War in the Pacific ended. But he trained, for real, and that took courage and guts. He brought his things home when the war ended, stored his trunk in the garage, and threw a tarp over it. Like so many others, he was busy with living. He never talked about his experiences in the Air Force.

Because of a million other men like him, plain guys doing their patriotic duty, the world was a safer place. Thanks, Dad. You and the B-17s.

Biggify to read!

Gotta Love the Innerwebs

I took Latin for two semesters in high school. It was interesting but I didn't put in enough effort, so I dropped it the following year. Spanish was already enough to satisfy my foreign language requirement, and I successfully completed 5 years worth.

Two things in Latin class made an impression on me. The teacher was a great character and the class was fun. And he presented us with a silly rhyme in ersatz Latin which I've never forgotten. I think of it occasionally to amuse myself but have never quite known how to write it out.

Enter the Innerwebs. A quick search on Sibili Si demgo was enough, and I now have the original ryhme and a few variations!

So, for your amusement, here it is the way Mr. Osborne taught it:

O sibili! Si demgo
Fortibus es inero
O nobili demis trux
Summit caus en summit dux.

If you're out there, Mr. Osborne-- thanks! I learned more than a little Latin doggerel: decoding skills for Spanish & English, and an appreciation of Latin culture. It wasn't your fault I did poorly in Latin. I did well in all the others, and it helped me with those.

But I'll go down the road occasionally intoning O sibili. . .

Hiding in Plain Sight

One of the places our hiking class went this time is the coast at Devereaux/UCSB, where the threatened Snowy Plover has had a small comeback, thanks to fenced areas and volunteers who watch beach users.

It's truly wonderful to be able to see these very small birds nesting only a few feet away, but it's quite hard to see them at first. They blend into the beachscape so well! They look like just a few more smooth stones -- until they move!

This is one pic you will definitely have to click on to biggify. Otherwise you will miss the cutest birds on the planet.

Without further ado, I present my amateur photo of Snowy Plovers. Look carefully! There are more than one in the shot. Have fun counting. Don't miss the one half-hidden in its nest.

Posting from iPad? Not so easy!

Just wrote a whole post and found Blogspot doesn't seem to work from iPad input. Too bad. It would have been totally helpful. Boo, Blogspot/Google for crippling creativity.

Cornering the Market

I fell in love with some corner ornaments Dave Churchman cast several years ago and finally asked him if I could buy all the rest. Here's an example of why.

Arranging the corners yields circles, half-circles, and scrolly lines. I love playing with them. They're not easy to print with, actually. The few times I have tried, the ornaments do not meet seamlessly the way I would like them to. It could be the casting, but I suspect it is a makeready problem.

But aren't they pretty!