visualchemist

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!

Have you ever captured a butterfly? Almost a year ago, I managed to capture a really big bright orange one. Read my post regarding the day I captured a butterfly. “Madame Butterfly” was a Craftsmen Monarch 9″x12″ Tabletop Letterpress. Unused. Unloved. Growing old. Sitting in a dark garage in San Diego.

Those that have been following the events in my life know that my family and I made a temporary move up to the Seattle, WA area back in March and to keep my fingers inky, I brought along Madame Butterfly. My dad and uncle helped me build a black crate, suitable for a Monarch’s journey up to the Pacific Northwest.

We’ve been up here for seven months now and I’m loving every minute of it, but I just found out yesterday that my stay up in the Seattle area is coming to a close as of next month and then I head back home to SoCal. Boohoo. I really love it up here, too. The leaves are starting to turn red and fall is in the air.

I was thinking of selling my beloved “Madame Butterfly” while I was up here. I have a couple other presses that I’ll be focusing my time and energy on and would love to see her go to a good home. Here’s the spiel:

Craftsmen Monarch 9″x12″ Letterpress for Sale
Original orange paint
Comes with 2 chases
Feed/delivery boards intact
New rollers/new trucks (rollers recast July ‘09)
Local to Seattle area or w/i reasonable driving distance (pickup/meetup only)
Accepting serious offers through Sunday, September 27
Looking to release her by end of month
Email visualchemist@gmail.com
Accepting offers – Serious inquiries only

If there are no takers, she’ll travel back down with me to San Diego, and if so, maybe she was meant to be mine in the first place.

UPDATED 09/20/09: Madame Butterfly is now spoken for and has found a suitable new home in Seattle, WA.

I was recently asked to design for the public good – a logo for Books of Hope, of New Hope Seattle (a registered non-profit Christian organization). Building around the organization’s established illustration of open prayer hands, I developed a logo inspired by their mission: Building Libraries and HOPE for Kids of the Future.

About BOH: Books of Hope was inspired by New Hope Seattle members, who recently returned from a trip from the Philippines. They visited various schools in squatter villages, where they witnessed Third World poverty firsthand. As the team worked with local educators, parents and students, they developed a huge heart to continue to serve overseas and perpetuate hope and new possibilities for future generations. Through literacy, education and reading materials, they believe these children will gain access to knowledge and build confidence to continue on to higher education. To make a 100% tax deductable donation, contact BOOKS OF HOPE – SEATTLE, 6549 Sunnyside Ave. N, Seattle, WA 9810 or call 206/579-9145 www.newhopeseattle.org

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!

Just finished designing and printing 1,800 Rabbit in the Moon invitation sets for Balboa Park’s Japanese Friendship Garden, in San Diego. These invitations are for the garden’s 10th Annual Festival of the Harvest Moon. Invitations, response cards and envelopes were letterpress printed using black ink. Garden volunteers will be adding a strip of brightly colored washi paper to add the finishing touch.

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.