C & P 12X18 CLAMSHELL LETTERPRESS: OURS

At a high school art workshop, I saw my first letterpress at the University of Utah, where I also learned to bind my first book.

In Spring 2006, I took a Letterpress Class. I made olive oil bottle labels, thank you cards, and an artist's broadside of Leslie Norris' poem, "Hippopotamus".

During my mission, Meredith Jones Hendricks, my good pal from graphic design classes (including letterpress) told me about a new addition to their family: A Vandercook flatbed letterpress. She & her husband fixed it up to working condition.

Over the Fourth of July Weekend, Meredith & James stepped us through the process of ordering paper & photo-polymer plates, mixing inks, registering & printing & cutting, which produced a little treasure called "Our Wedding Announcement".

Then just weeks ago, James & Meredith might have just been joking when they told us we should buy a press that had just gone up for sale as close as Salt Lake. But I think it surprised everyone when we got serious about it. Mom & Papá, Kurt & Becky - all highly in favor of the investment. (It was quite a deal.)

So now its ours. But getting it from one place to another is a CRAZY job. It involved A LOT: A lot of thought, a lot of strength, a lot of straps, a lot of time, a lot of pounds of letterpress (about 1500lbs). I'll let you extract what you can from the pictures below:

























A few of the perks thrown into the deal:

A guillotine- for cutting a bunch of paper at a time - and evenly.

A trash can for the rags with the cleaning chemicals.