Diary of a Printed Page

I must confess ~ each time a piece of paper goes into the printing press blank and emerges again filled with words, I am astonished. 

What still feels like the sudden epiphany of language out-of-nothing is not, in fact, miraculous. It is careful, collaborative craftsmanship by author and papermaker and metal-caster and printer, among others. It’s a strangely fluid movement of human and machine ~ an always-changing choreography of eye and iron, hand and fiber, thought and ink and breath. 

Joyous!

Here’s a little photo diary from today’s print run. I was printing the second color (in red) on the title page of St Brigid Press’s newest book, forthcoming in early February.

It all starts with sheets of beautiful blank paper...

This is "Ben," the 100+ year old iron handpress, and my workstation.

Here's what we're printing today ~ the title and decoration for the title page of our new book. It's all set up in metal, locked securely on the bed of the press, and ready for to print.

The first step is to place, or "hang," the sheet of paper-to-be-printed on the tympan. You can see the little metal guides that keep the page in the correct spot. (You can also see the words in black ink that I printed earlier in the week.)

Next, we fold the frisket over the top, so the paper is secure and any non-printing areas protected from ink.

Now to ink up, or "charge," the roller with that glorious red!

Rolling the red ink onto the type...

Now I close the tympan/frisket/paper assembly down over the bed of the press, on top of the inked type.

The whole bed then gets rolled back under the heavy iron platen.

Now we pull the bar ~ this lowers the platen onto the tympan, etc., which presses the paper into the inked type!

After gently releasing it, the bar is back in place and the platen has lifted up...

... allowing me to roll the bed back out...

... and unfold the tympan...

... and unfold the frisket...

... to reveal The Printed Page!

Whew! One down, 49 more to go. :-)

Thanks so much for joining us on this journey. All best to you all,

St Brigid Press

POST-A-POEMS! Celebrating National Poetry Month

Greetings and Happy Spring, Friends!

Just in time for the start of National Poetry Month on Tuesday, St Brigid Press has created pre-paid postcards featuring three wonderful poems by Emily Dickinson. These cards are hand-set and letterpress printed in lovely colors on our 1909 Golding Pearl treadled press. The back of the USPS-compliant cards have plenty of space for your personalized note, and include the postage stamp.

To order direct, click HERE. If you are in the Waynesboro, Virginia area, pick up these postcards at Stone Soup Books.

Share the gift of poetry this month  ~  POST-A-POEM!

All best to all,

St Brigid Press

Coaster Contemplations

Hello dear Friends,

As the first real chilly weather arrives outside, we're workin' up a sweat inside the Shop ~ treadling our 1914 Chandler and Price printing press to bring you some contemplative coasters to slip under your glass of holiday cheer!

Poet Jeff Schwaner, author of three collections of poetry, has written a wonderful sequence of eight linked haiku entitled "Night Walk on Cape Cod." Originally published in his book, Vanishing Tracks, Schwaner recently approached St Brigid Press with the notion of letterpress printing the haiku as a set of coasters. Needless to say, we thought the idea brilliant, and set to work composing the lovely poems in metal type. Here's a taste of the depth and elegiac beauty of Schwaner's work:

~

Write about home she

said ~ many journeys later

I write about her

~

~

Every walk

Is a walk with a stranger

Identity's tides

~

Each haiku, a thoughtful little cosmos in itself, is thematically and emotionally linked with its seven companions, telling the heart's story of home, memory, and connection-through-time. All of which are fine musings to mull over a glass of wine, tea, hot chocolate, or spiced rum, and which are -- like a cup of coffee -- good to the last drop.

Each set of 8 haiku coasters (one for each poem) were designed, hand-set, and letterpress printed here in the Shop on extra-thick coaster stock. The coasters are durable, reusable, colorfast, and, when the final red wine stain at last obscures the poetry, fully recyclable and biodegradable. The top side, with haiku, are printed in dark green; the bottom side, with title, sequence number, author and printer names, is printed in deep blue. Limited edition. $16 per set-of-eight coasters.

To order from the St Brigid Press Store, click HERE.

Many thanks to Jeff Schwaner for a fun and meaningful collaboration. And all the best to each of you for a peaceful week,

St Brigid Press

Here's a video of the printing of the coasters, plus more photos of the process and the product:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoZJW2clO_E]

So, what IS "letterpress printing" anyway??

~

Before eBooks and all-things-digital, before laser printers, before photocopiers or typewriters, how in the world did the written word get into print? Well, slowly and carefully, letter by hand-selected letter.

In the Western world, we usually associate Johannes Gutenberg with the development of the printing press in about 1450. Other cultures, notably in Korea and China, had also developed printing techniques by this time. The brilliant idea that Gutenberg also employed was moveable type. By casting, in relatively hard metal, multiples of each letter of the alphabet, the printer could set the text for a given project, print it, redistribute the metal letters  and spaces in their cases, and set another text. This was, like the invention of paper itself, REVOLUTIONARY.

In the centuries since Gutenberg, letterpress printing has continued to evolve and innovate, but its hallmark has remained the same -- the tactile, lush kiss of type upon paper, the physical sculpture of language that becomes manifest before our eyes. At St Brigid Press, we are committed to practicing and to passing on this craft tradition, working with hand-set type and elegant old presses to bring words into being.

If you'd like to know more about the history of printing and about the letterpress process, there are a host of great websites to learn from. Here are a few to get you started:

• Briar Press, a Letterpress Community
• Five Roses Press, introduction to letterpress printing
• Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum (Two Rivers, Wis.)
• The Museum of Printing (Andover, Mass.)

Thanks, and all the best,

St Brigid Press

Raptors and Wood Type Fun

~

Warm Greetings from St Brigid Press!

Well, it's that time of year again -- the cooling days of late summer and early fall that provide the impetus for some of the most spectacular mass-movements of species on the planet:  the annual migration of hawks and other raptors from North America to Central and South America. Those of us in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains are fortunate to live along a major flyway -- the updrafts along the spine of the mountains support a bird highway from Canada and New England south toward the Gulf of Mexico. And Rockfish Gap, near our home in Afton, Virginia, is one of the best locations in the East to watch this magnificent flow of raptors.

To commemorate the birds and the hundreds of people who gather to witness them, I spent the last week joyfully rummaging through the 20+ cases of wood type here at the Press. Most of the type was made in the US between 1875 and 1910, and still in very good condition. The idea for the design this year came from the list of raptors that the official Hawk Watch Counters tally -- there are fourteen species for which they scan the skies, from Broad-winged Hawks (the most numerous) to the rare Mississippi Kite. Other species include Ospreys, Falcons, Eagles, and many different kinds of Hawks. I set the names of all fourteen raptor species in various typefaces of wood type, creating a fun collage of avians.

Each poster is hand-inked and printed on the Potter Proofing Press (circa 1915, Chicago). Paper is Stonehenge Rising Fawn, with oil-based ink in either deep blue or deep green, in 12"x18" size. The posters were printed in a limited edition of 35, all signed and numbered. Each is backed by stiff board and sleeved in protective archival plastic. Price: $30 each, with 20% of the proceeds being donated by St Brigid Press to The Raptor Conservancy of Virginia. To purchase, go to the St Brigid Press Online Store.

With thanks, and enjoy the beautiful days!

St Brigid Press

[ For more information about hawk migration, go to www.hawkcount.org ]

"Hope is the thing with feathers..." Poetry Broadside

Warm Summer Greetings from St Brigid Press!

We are inaugurating our SBP Poetry Broadside Series with a limited-edition print of this beloved poem by Emily Dickinson, decorated with an original block carving by SBP printer Emily Hancock. When Dickinson first penned this verse around 1861, America was in the initial throes of civil war, and through the century-and-a-half since, its themes of courage and ever-available hope have remained relevant, revelatory, and inspiring. (Read the full text of the poem at the end of this post.)

The text-body of "Hope is the thing with feathers..." has been hand-set in Victor Hammer's wonderful American Uncial typeface, with hand-set Lombardic Capitals illuminating the opening word "Hope," in forest-green oil-based ink. The broadside is letterpress-printed with the 1914 Chandler and Price treadled press, on lush Rives 100% cotton mouldmade paper. Decorative Thai kozo-and-banana-bark paper frames the title and the carving. The decorative feather was hand-carved here at the Press, and printed on the Rives paper with warm brown ink. Ready for framing, the broadside is matted with forest-green acid-free board, and backed with sturdy acid-free foamboard (mat is lightly affixed to the backing board with archival artists' tape).

Produced in a limited edition of 40, with 30 available for purchase. $35 each. Finished size: 12"x16". To order, please go to the SBP Online Store. For more information, Contact Us.

With thanks, and good Summer wishes to all!

St Brigid Press

~

FULL TEXT of the poem by Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.

~

"Tasting the Wild Strawberry: Blue Ridge Haiku"

Warm Greetings from St Brigid Press!

We are delighted to announce the publication of artist and author Nancy Maxson's second collection of poetry ~ Tasting the Wild Strawberry: Blue Ridge Haiku.

Nearly sixty new haiku evoke the beauty and surprises of a life lived in these Virginia mountains. With humor and deep insight, Maxson gives us a poem's-eye-view of her journey through the seasons of a year; in the Introduction, she elaborates upon the artful and spirited aesthetic which inspired this work.

The book's design and hand-crafted execution seek to reflect the nature of the poetic form, as well as Maxson's mindful sensibility. Each edition is 6-inches square, with black covers of Nepalese Lokta paper, decorative interior papers of red Thai Unryu, and a warm-white text block of bamboo paper. Binding is in the traditional Japanese style of 4-hole stab binding, with red linen thread. Cover and interior art is from Maxson's original watercolor, "The Strawberry Seeker." Produced in a limited edition of 100 numbered books.

Available now in the St Brigid Press Store, and, for those of you near Waynesboro, Va, at Stone Soup Books and Cafe. For more information, contact us at stbrigidpress[AT]gmail.com.

Best wishes to all for a lovely summer!

St Brigid Press

The First Day of Summer at St Brigid Press

Come, shamanic bee,

turning light into sweetness:

pollinate this dawn

~

Warm Greetings, Friends,

The above haiku is the opening poem of Summer in a new book by Nancy Maxson, Tasting the Wild Strawberry: Blue Ridge Haiku, forthcoming from St Brigid Press. In this, her second collection of poetry, Maxson explores the seasons of the year and of the heart in fifty-six wonderfully distilled, 3-line gems. Known throughout the region for her fine watercolor paintings, we are thrilled to collaborate with Maxson to produce this limited-edition, letterpress printed, hand-bound collection of her written work.

Below are a handful of photos from some of the stages of creating Tasting the Wild Strawberry. If you are in the Waynesboro, Virginia, area, please drop by Stone Soup Books next Saturday, June 29th, for Maxson's art opening and book launch reception. Books will be available for purchase at Stone Soup and through our website here, as of the 29th.

Very best summer wishes to all,

St Brigid Press

Letterpress PocketNotes

Now available from St Brigid Press -- Letterpress PocketNotes!

We are glad to introduce a sweet little line of letterpress printed journals, in five dandy designs and one handy size. At about 4.5" tall and 3.25" wide (closed; 6.5" wide open), these blank booklets are perfect to slip into a pocket or satchel and go wherever you do. Printed on our 1909 Golding Pearl treadle-powered press, the sturdy cream-colored covers brightly display five themes: "Fly Fishing," "Piper Airplane," Golden Sun," "Sailing Ship," and "Notes." Inside, 40 pages of warm-white paper await your thoughts, lists, ideas, and art. All are hand-bound with linen thread.

Offered only through our website, please see our SBP Online Store for ordering information.

Thanks, friends, and all the best from St Brigid Press.

~

Acquisitions and Migrations

Warm Autumn greetings from St Brigid Press! It's been a blustery couple of months here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. All that wind has pushed thousands of hawks south on their annual migration, and we've had the pleasure of watching some of them. Rockfish Gap, at milepost 1 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, is a prime location for spotting migratory hawks and other raptors -- Broadwing hawks, in particular, "kettle" (a term describing their spiraling formation in thermals of warm air) and stream overhead by the thousands, joined by the occasional bald eagle, falcon, osprey, and others. Veteran birders and neophyte's alike gather each September at the Afton Inn to scan the skies for these gorgeous birds.

To commemorate this year's Hawk Watch, St Brigid Press created a limited edition of 10 hand-pulled posters, in the old Western "Wanted" poster style. It was great fun, and gave a chance to play with SBP's newest acquisition: a tall antique cabinet filled with vintage wood type.

The wood type collection is comprised of 20-plus drawers (called "cases") of fonts, varying in size and style. Most were made in the United States between about 1880 and 1920, and range from the 5" tall letters of a chunky sans serif to the 1" tall elegance of almost calligraphic script. We are thrilled with the opportunity to care for and use this precious collection. Stay tuned for more printed matter using wood type!