Rainy Planet Press

I just stumbled across this old-ish report of an intro letterpress class at the San Francisco Center for the Book via the MAKE blog.

I made it to the Third Annual Print Arts Fair at the Museum of Printing in North Andover, Massachusetts, last weekend. They had a pretty impressive collection of equipment, and I’m certainly going to make it a priority to get back there sometime when it’s not quite as hot and crowded and I can take some time to look at some of what they have.

They had a Linotype machine up and working, and I got my name cast in hot lead. I took some quick video on my digital camera of the process, but I should probably edit it together and rotate it before I post it. This is what three finished lines of Linotype looks like:

The exhibitors included some people whose cards I’ve seen and admired at Bob Slate, including B Designs and Jesse Marsolais (the name of whose press escapes me, and is not mentioned on his card (Update: it’s Smudge Ink; see the comment below)). I also talked to Ed Rayher from Swamp Press, who does monotype casting; I think I may actually have bought some of his Christmas borders at Letterpress Things last year. I bought a really beautiful little book of haiku that he had printed on translucent paper.

I also bought some silver ink from someone who was selling gear. I really wanted some of this for the beer mats I did for The Hyphens earlier this year: I thought their logo would really have looked good metallic ink. I guess I still have the cut, so I can see.

It seemed like there were a lot of people from Somerville walking around. Heck, a few days earlier I picked up a flyer for this event at the Someday Cafe. Maybe I should join up with the Cambridge-based Letterpress Guild of New England?

Also giving demonstrations (and also Somerville-based) were Muskat Studios who do lithography.