A Visit to Print Shop

Finally my photos from John's shop here in Little Rock! I went last week but forgot camera, so made a special trip tonight, blowing off friends and extended Mexican food feast to head out west and take some pictures for you. Of course when I got there, John said he'd already taken a bunch of pictures and was waiting for me to tell him how to post them, which I will, in a minute.

So I mostly focused on things he will probably ignore, like some of the Little Rock peeps who are dear friends, and some sundry details near to my own silly heart. But this is what John looked like when I said I was going to take pictures:

This is Kate on the left and Gladys on the right. You can see John is looking happier already. You may also have noticed there's a pretty strict dress code at Print Shop. Kate just finished some great posters she is probably going to put on Etsy and Gladys is working on a kickass garden journal.

Here are two of the other apprentices, Lamarie and Andrijka. Sorry this photo is so washed out. They were being so silly they made me mess up my camera settings. I won't tell you what they were doing but it had something to do with a line gauge.

Here are some better photographs of these two in action. Andrijka has been setting a lot of type lately, good for her, but I forgot to ask her what her project is. I think it has something to do with Flannery O'Connor. I am not a journalist. More the creative writing type. I should work on this.

Lamarie brought something interesting tonight. She is making some envelopes and had a die made. I will find out more about this because I've always wanted to do this and I was very excited to see that she had done it. The cuts and ornaments she was using for her envelope were very nice as well. Why didn't I take pictures of these? I don't know what is wrong with me. There is so much to photograph out there. It's hard to focus.

Here is the famous attendance chart for apprentices. You will notice that my name is not on there because I don't get to go to Tuesday night anymore except during semester breaks from my own teaching. I really miss it!

This is the linotype area.

I noticed this in the Print Shop tonight and couldn't resist a photo. I think it might be John's letter jacket from high school. When John was in high school (cue violins) you could letter in Print Shop, just like track or football. Incidentally, my grandfather, the great Agge Louis Scruggs (yes I'm related to Earl Scruggs but that's another story) was the printing teacher at Central High in Little Rock, but that was even before John's time.

This bulletin board is kind of like Ice Station Zero for Print Shop. When you come to Print Shop, you check here for envelopes with your name on them, or the newest books John (or anyone else) has found. It was a tradition for a while, that if you printed something, you left a copy for John and all the other apprentices. If they weren't around that night, it went under the bulletin board. I'm not sure that's still going on with everyone. But I still leave a copy for everyone when I think to and I still get a kick out of it when they remember to leave one for me.

This last picture is just something I love. It is a collection of different typecase handles John has collected or found or something and I've always been drawn to it. I love the variety in shape and size and form. I look at this every time I go to Print Shop.