visualchemist

Back in March, I attended the first official meeting for the Seattle Freelance Designer Co-Op. Being new to Seattle, it was the perfect opportunity to meet local creatives and take the temperature of the current design/freelance market in the Pacific Northwest. Several creative events had been held by the Co-Op since that first meeting, but today’s studio tour was one meet up I didn’t want to pass up. Today, I had the pleasure of meeting Becki Mullins of West Seattle’s Myrtle Alley Press. She opened up her letterpress studio to Co-Op members and we were given a tour of her space. This is where her magic happens.

Her studio walls were covered with a growing collection of letterpress prints including some original Hatch prints. It was awesome to hear her story and goals for her shop. She did a quick demo on her 8×12 C&P NS named “Jack,” and her Vandercook 219 OS “Ray,” (formerly owned by the late Chris Stern of Stern & Faye, Printers). Co-Op members were welcome to crank out a type poster to take home. With my days in Seattle coming to a close, it was great to have the opportunity to visit another local letterpress studio. Long live letterpress!

We didn’t want to show up at yesterday’s birthday party empty handed so we decided to bring a dozen donuts from Frost, the hand-crafted gourmet doughnut shop/boutique in Mill Creek, WA. We are temporarily living just two blocks away from this fancy place. My top 5 flavors are Red Velvet, Pink Lady, Wedding Cake, White Chocolate Truffle, and Banana Split fritter. Yum. Oh, and the birthday girl loved them so much, she kept them all to herself.

So is it donut or doughnut? However it’s spelled, these perfect little sugar-coated calorie bombs are the bomb.

While in Seattle, I made it a point to visit as many local design and letterpress studios as I could. Last month, (08/29) the School of Visual Concepts hosted their 8th annual Letterpress Wayzgoose and Steam Roller Smackdown.

Along with the Smackdown, I also took the dollar tour of SVC. I visited their event vendor/exhibit hall and checked out their letterpress facilities. I also had the pleasure of meeting Carl Montford, wood engraver/printer at ‘The Montford Press.’ I printed up my own souvy on his tiny Sigwalt, Carl’s hand carved commemorative SVC 2009 steam engine. (BTW, that’s his hand in the photo.)

It was a quickie visit to SVC, but totally worth it!

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.

I had sent Lucy’s old squishy rollers to Ramco Rollers to be recovered. I was pretty excited when they finally arrived all nice and new, but when I performed my first ink test, I was a little panicked when I saw that not only did my plates get inked, but my entire Boxcar base did as well. Upon inspection, I noticed the diameter of the rollers were a lot larger than the trucks. I was preparing for a fairly large print run which was due asap, and I needed these rollers fixed, fast!

A quick call to Ramco convinced me to hop in a car and drag my family over to San Dimas, where we met the owners, Adrian and Jayne. Adrian was kind enough to show us around his shop. He even educated me on the process of creating rubber rollers and how he was going to shave mine down to the proper diameter, which he did while we waited. Adrian was even willing to shave down my blue synthetic rollers for Lieutenant Price. You can see the shavings as his machine meticulously grinded down the excess rubber. Soon after, we headed back to San Diego and I was ready to roll.

Remember that rusty old pearl I got for Valentine’s Day? Well look at “Lucy” now. In case you missed the story of how this gem was unearthed, catch up here.

After 25 years of being buried deep in the garage of a Paradise Hills pack rat, this Golding Pearl No. 11 finally got a new pair of shoes. Once we started the process of getting to her, there was no turning back. And when she finally emerged into the light of day, while others would have frowned and turned away, I saw all the potential that she could become. I had to leave town and after two weeks of being away, my dad and uncle managed to strip all the nasty off of her and give Lucy a new coat. Then I had to leave for Seattle, so sadly, I had to part with her again. In the two months I was gone, my dad had managed to outfit her with a new feed/delivery board (with a secret compartment), a cabinet door, and some new wheels. So not only is she polished and new again, but now Lucy is mobile. She and I have a lot of catching up to do. I love Lucy. (I think my dad does, too.)

I had been shopping around for a solid ream cutter for some time now and had narrowed my options down to several different models readily found on eBay. I was so close to making a bid, when I spotted this awesome Challenge Advance 19″ guillotine paper cutter on Craigslist… That was a few months ago… Between a shiny new modern Paper Cutter 3000 or a 300ish lb. cast iron guillotine cutter, nostalgia won. Since I was back in SoCal for three weeks, I made sure to squeeze in time to finally take him home and introduce him to the rest of the studio. He’s old, heavy and rusty, but that’s all superficial. There’s plenty of cutting life left in this old guy. I guess I have a soft spot for heavy antiquated machinery. Welcome to the family, “Zorro.”