Finally, letterpress is no longer just something I’ve seen in shops or read in books, but something I’ve actually done!
This past Sunday, I signed up for a letterpress workshop at a local letterpress studio–Modus. From typesetting to lock-up to operating the platen press, I had the opportunity to participate in the whole process of letterpress printing. It isn’t as easy as it may seem, and it involves a lot of patience and practice.
When I was typesetting the metal types, I thought of how people has used this method to print for centuries. And then I thought the way we type with keyboard and designing layouts with InDesign…. True, today we can save lots of time and money in printing, and make everything line up perfectly and every print outs identical, but is it necessarily better? And yes, letterpress printing can be quite tedious sometimes, and the result isn’t consistent, but I think we appreciate the crafty feeling and imperfectness that automated machines can’t achieve.
When I said tedious, it really was, such as putting the fonts together and aligning them with small metal pieces; “locking-up” the type with wooden blocks (called “furniture”) and quoins (expansion devices) into a metal frame (“chase”), and making sure it’s not too loose and not too tight; and aligning artwork on the printing plate. You really need to be detail oriented and VERY patient, otherwise you might need to start all over again.
Despite all the challenges, I still managed to print out two kinds of cards – a Valentine’s Day card and a contact card – without any major “disasters.” Now I love letterpress even more!
❉ Special thanks to Manna, the owner of Modus and instructor of the workshop.
❈ 留言的人有機會拿到 Bee Mine 情人節卡喔! 數量有限, 請在 2/7 之前寄給我妳的住址: annie[at]lemonni[dot]com
12 Comments
I recently took a letterpress class too at Art Center, it took forever to do the layout and find the perfect metal pieces but it was all worth it in the end <3
ps, I love the little imperfections, makes each of them that much more unique!
wow really? What did you print?
It’s a lot of fun! But I’m not sure if I want to own a press like that in the future…so much work involved!!
I want all the cards myself. They are so awesome!
For you, I have to charge you…hehe
台灣也可以嗎XD
給我妳的住址就有機會喔~~呵呵 :D
Soooooo cute~~~!!! <3
請問寄台灣嗎? :p
ok 啊~~我好像有妳的住址了 ^^
(可是我是說”有機會”喔~~~:P)
wow! looks so cool~! x)
For a second I thought you are my classmate, her name is Champagne…
XD
還要抽獎呀?
我有寄了
有收到吧 哈哈
back when i was in vancouver i always wanted to go
result is AWESOME!
nothing beats receiving these cards!
i need to get my “life” back *sob*