Friday, December 23, 2016

Letterpress Fundraiser

Help me buy an antique letterpress and bring hand printmaking to Wolf Creek!

After years of production weaving, I'm ready to move on to another hand craft. For the last year, I've studied many different types of printmaking, traveling as far as Nebraska in search of the best teachers. The skills I've learned are immense, but two techniques have stood out from the rest - woodblock carving and letterpress printing. After a deep search, I actually found a spectacular letterpress from the turn of the 20th century, recently restored to museum quality. I've paid a deposit and just need to come up with the rest of the money to buy it and move it to a rented studio space in my home town of Wolf Creek, Oregon.

On Solstice night, the longest night of the year, I spent the night in a rented printmaking studio in Eugene using a letterpress from 1870 to produce a special line of cards to help me get this amazing press.

Here are a couple of photos of the press that I'm trying to pay for...

 
[Operator's view]

 
[Spectator's view]

And here are the two items that I have listed on Etsy to try to raise the funds...


 

Please feel free to spread the word far and wide. I would love to have this press paid off and moved to Wolf Creek in the next couple of weeks.

And finally, for those wondering, "What the heck is letterpress?" Here's a video of my first day on the rented letterpress. My new press is about twice the size of this one, but still totally powered by the treadle.


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