VISUALCHEMIST

A half ton piece of history fell onto my lap the other day. Here he is, “Professor Cook,” a Vandercook Model 4OS. Rusty and missing a part, but totally restorable.

I say it fell onto my lap, and it practically did, during a business lunch with friend and former coworker, Jennifer Hohner of D’Lischka. Jen mentioned that her cousin, Greg, was trying to give away his “Vandersomething.” When she asked “I don’t want it, do you?” images of letterpress poster printing started dancing through my head. Without hesitation, I was on the phone with Greg and 4 days later, I was hauling Professor Cook down 405, via Santa Monica to San Diego.

This was a Pasadena Art Center College of Design press that found it’s way into Greg’s Santa Monica garage studio, where it sat unused for 10 years. It had gotten rusty over time, but a little love and elbow grease can easily fix that.

At 1,050lbs, I thought we’d need to hire a mover and rent a forklift to pick him up, but instead, I got a little lesson from my dad about leverage using a few scraps of wood and a car jack. Getting Professor Cook home was a task full of hurdles requiring getting him out of the studio, tackling the rough terrain of Greg’s backyard, meandering him through a narrow gate, getting past the turtle sand box, through the furnished patio, down the long driveway, up the ramp onto the U-Haul trailer, and then making the two hour drive to his temporary home.

A little poking around on the Vanderblog census revealed that there are currently 1,401 presses listed as having survived to this point in time worldwide, and of them, 25 are 4OS models. Worldwide! That just blows my mind. Thanks for the press, Greg and Jen! And thanks Dad and Uncle for helping me haul this thing.

*Dad’s dolly wheel died from the sheer weight of the press. Rest in pieces, old dolly wheel. You did a good job today.

My long awaited package of juicy prints finally arrived! I recently participated in a letterpress print swap put together by Kelly of Paper Stories. Unfortunately, because I had to leave town, my submission ended up being a rush job. Needless to say, I was up disappointed in my Wind Powered Wishes linoleum cut, so I had some magnesium plates made and printed up a second and third edition, in teal and magenta. These prints are now available at LetterpressJunkie.com.

View all of the prints in the letterpress swap collection here, courtesy of Lilibeth and Lee Jay of Bon Vivant Press. The following are a few of my favorites in the collection in no particular order from L-R // Empty Nest by Bound Staff Press // Bon Vivant Press Surgery Room by Bon Vivant Press // Chairs by Bespoke Press // With Each Tiny Step by Roll and Tumble Press // Sneakers by Olivia San Mateo of Olive Route // Ligatures by A. Favorite // Photos by Bon Vivant Press.

Everyone that participated in the swap was given the chance to throw in a few extra prints. Those sets of prints were then featured on Poppytalk, a popular blog site about all things handmade. Poppytalk unveiled the details of “The Incredible Massive Letterpress Giveaway!” (that’s really what it was called) and the comments on the blog started pouring in. 629 feedback comments later, three lucky winners were chosen. This was a great collection from talented folks across the US and was awesome exposure for all that participated. Thanks, Paper Stories and Poppytalk!