Hello, Georgia

Welcome Georgia. Sounds like you really struck it rich. I'm very interested to learn what type faces you've acquired. It Also sounds like you've got a lot of work to do cleaning everything up, including those type cases. Maine sounds like a nice place to be 'cause it's been hotter than hell down here in Arkansas.

  Julie Leonard of the University of Iowa and Dana Moore, program director at Penland, arrived here late yesterday evening (Thursday) and after a nice Mexican dinner, we settled in for lots of talk, but not before feeding our deer. Today, it's off to the print shop for some serious work. Dana wants to learn to drive my backhoe while she's here so we'll have to word that into our schedule.

Hi everyone, sorry I've been out of touch...I'm a neophyte "blogger" too! (does that make you feel better, John?) Also, have been very busy setting up our new Letterpress / Book Arts program at the Corcoran all summer. We were lucky to bid on (and purchase!) Los Angeles' oldest print shop at an incredible price which included a Uni 1 along with tons of type, Hamilton cases, and miscellaneous items that would have taken an incredibly long time to accumulate. It arrived two weeks ago, and we really have our work cut out for us cleaning up dusty old type drawers! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated...

We also purchased 2 4-T's, and found a "treasure" of old wood type in Richmond which arrived as well. Right now, we have an etching studio PACKED with letterpress equipment waiting for the completion of the studio that it will be moved into. It will be a very busy August I'm sure.

Also went down to Knoxville for a family wedding and visited Kevin and Julie at Yee Haw Industries, and Kevin had lots of nice things to say about you John, when I mentioned our workshop at Penland.

Now I'm heading to Haystack School in Maine on Deer Isle, to teach a two week papermaking / printmaking workshop from July 19-31. Anyone up that way, come visit!! Georgia

From Cari!!

Cari sent this email to everyone but I thought it would be nice to have all the info in one place. So I'm cutting and pasting it here, you know, like I do. Cari wrote:

Hello friends!

I can't believe it's July, and I haven't written a word to congratulate those of you who have gotten presses or are generally doing well! I think about our class at Penland very fondly and it has been inspiring me to create and explore more in every aspect of life. Thanks to everyone for making our class such a wonderful, creative, and incredibly fun experience.

On my way back to Wisconsin, I met up with Alex in Nashville and had a fantastic time! The highlight of the trip to Nashville was Hatch Show Print. They had beautiful presses and LOADS of cool woodcuts and blocks. Seeing Hatch fed my hunger for letterpress until I got back to Wisconsin, but shortly after I returned I started calling up local newspapers looking for a press. I managed to track down a C&P about 30 minutes away,but in the last decade a wall had been built around it. The owner didn't seem to have any interest in it and seemed willing to give it up if I wanted to put the effort into taking it apart and moving it. I decided to keep looking and the next day I mentioned I was in search of a press to someone in town (population 1468). She led me to someone I knew, but had never associated with printing. He has cases of type, slugs, leads, galleys, and a linotype which he had purchased from a printer going out of business a few years ago. Unfortunately this was all packed away in his mother's barn with no place to go. What seemed like another hurdle turned into bliss when he directed me to the previous owner of the local newspaper. Jackpot! I don't believe any of the presses were original to this particular newspaper, but the previous owner had kept all of the letterpress equipment from the other 5 newspapers he owned. This includes 16 cabinets of type, a huge Hamilton composing table, a Challenge proof press, Two C&P presses, a Heidelberg Windmill, and a Kluge. I don't believe Bill will ever part with his collection (even though it hasn't been used in at least a decade), but he's letting me clean, move, and use the shop as much as I please. It's been quite the project to clean and move 10 years of neglect, but the potential here is great. I've already found troves of treasure including at least a dozen brass galleys of different sorts and beautiful wood type. Hopefully now that the theater season is through the initial push to get things rolling I'll be able to spend more time in the studio.

Summer is in full swing here in Wisconsin, so come up for a visit if you please!

Hope everyone is well,

-Cari

P.S. There are some pictures of the presses and cabinets here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carimyong/3568561579/

ALEX'S VIST

Alex came to Little Rock to pick up two type cabinets and get the tour of my shop. He went shopping in the piles of excess equipment and decided he wanted a proof press too. Then he called his pal Brad at Hatch Show Print and Brad bought a galley rack and a furniture rack. Alex left here with a full pickup truck, John gained 16 square feet of space in his warehouse and around the same amount of space in the tractor shed/printing junk annex.

  Have you ever seen a press fly? Well, here's some photos of one in the air.

Put the press in this empty space.

The press coming off the floor.

Press in the air.

The press going over the fender of the truck.

Real easy now.

Almost there.

Down! Another successful press loading. Nothing dropped, bent or smashed.

Alex is here

Hey John said on the blog last night that Alex is here so I'm going out to have lunch with them. Film at 11.

Update: Saw Alex and met his lovely daughter Mamie today out at John and Robyn's. They came down to shop at John's Used Printing Equipment Emporium. I think Mamie was sent along to make sure her dad didn't get into too much trouble.


Then they took us to lunch at Izzy's and I ate way too much chicken quesadilla. That's Mamie in the background and Alex is telling a story about something big or heavy or both.

Anyway, it was great to see Alex. I'll let him post the details of his trip. Hope more of you find your way to Little Rock.


Last week, my brother and sister-in-law finally had that baby of theirs. His name is Matthew Lee Lambert and he's pretty great. I was in Houston for a few days so I'm a little more behind than usual. And now I'm an aunt. Here's what he looks like:


I love that he's just three days old and he looks like the godfather. Kid cracks me up.

WHAT'S UP?

Well, @#$%^&!! I hit the wrong button.

  Ally,thanks for all the photos. I'd like to see more photos of the crops and fields. Probably nobody else is interested but I am. My own garden is toast. No rain for over a month. We finally got a nice rain yesterday but it may be too late for my veggies.

Those quail-like birds crossing the road in your photos are guineas, or as we say down here, guinea hens. Supposed to be good for eatin' ticks. Alex and his daughter are due here at ten tomorrow (Thursday, July 2) to see my little shop and pick up a couple of type cabinets. Have roofers finishing up putting on a new roof on one of our guest houses and had two big slabs poured today on Robyn's end of the shop, one for parking and one for an outdoor work space. We're off to Texas next week to close up Robyn's parents house down there. Hmmm, loading furniture and stuff in July in Texas?? Doesn't sound too pleasant to me.

Dana Moore, remember her?, the program director at Penland and Julie Leonard, bookbinder extraordinaire and Penland board member are due here on the 16th of this month for a little R&R and maybe some printin.'

Sure wish we could hear from all the other folks.

WHAT'S UP?