The J-O-Y of Printing

As I stood at the old Pearl treadle-press yesterday, listening to the rhythm of the turning gears, the spinning flywheel, as we printed more holiday gift tags, I was filled with the sense of participating deeply in the Season. As each little tag bearing the word "JOY" came off the press and onto its stack to dry, I couldn't help feeling joy myself, welling from within.

How wondrous to be part (in whatever ways -- small or large or unique) of that Mystery which rises and weaves and creates in us and between us, the Peace and Joy which lift off the page and enter any of us who come bearing the gifts of an open heart, open mind, open hand,  and which can heal us, within and without.

I give thanks this Season for the connection I have with each of you, and hope that your Hanukah, Christmas, and New Year are filled with Light and Love. And lots of JOY :-)

With gratitude,

Emily

St Brigid Press STORE NOW OPEN!

Warm greetings to you from St Brigid Press! In honor of "Small Business Saturday," a movement to promote the patronage of local shops this holiday season, we are delighted to announce today's launch of the St Brigid Press online STORE. Now you may purchase our handmade items directly from this website — simply click on the page entitled "SHOP the St Brigid Press Store" in the menu to the right. On sale immediately are our selection of bookmarks, holiday gift tags, and the Welcoming Prayer print.

To go directly to our Store, click **HERE**.

Thank you so much for your support of St Brigid Press, and we wish you a lovely holiday season!

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!

Summer Shop Notes from St Brigid Press

Summer greetings to you, Friends, from the "new" shop-space at St Brigid Press!

It has been a long, hot, humid summer here in the central Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, but the Press Room is cool and bright and dry. With most of the physical improvements to the basement space accomplished (never say "finished" -- there will always be a long list of little things to do and tend!), we moved the equipment into it's new home in July. Everything takes longer than one anticipates, and many of the improvements required more effort than first assessments suggested, but all those weeks of work have finally paid off in a very nice place to spend the work-a-day hours.

Several weeks ago, we also welcomed the long-awaited Potter Proof Press into the refurbished shop. Manufactured in Chicago, circa 1915, the Potter is now our largest printing press -- a VERY heavy hunk of cast iron and steel. It has a large cylinder, inking rollers, and 17" x 26" bed, which will allow us to print larger formes such as poetry broadsides, woodblock prints, and multi-page book layouts. It was quite the process wrangling her off of the delivery truck and into the shop -- involving 3 people, a lift gate, a pallet jack, iron digging bar, numerous 2x4 blocks, and 3 hours -- *whew*! All went well, and the fine press is now ready to enjoy a good cleaning before getting down to work.

The former Print Shop space in the adjacent room has been transformed into the Paper Arts Studio. A new utility sink and tables at one end of the room will serve the craft of papermaking; a long counter, large flat file, and new paper cutter at the other end will serve the craft of bookbinding.

As one can see, it's been a busy summer, and I am very glad to say that it is now time to turn our attention to the fun part -- printing! Several projects are in the design- and early-proofing stages, and I look forward to sharing more news about that in the near future.

Until then, thanks again for your interest and support of St Brigid Press. Blessings to all,

Emily Hancock

A New Press and a New Space

Warm greetings to all from St Brigid Press! There is much news to share here, beginning with the homecoming of a new (old) printing press ~ a Golding Pearl Number 3, built in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1909.

A couple of adventurous friends and I trekked to Florida at the end of April to visit Gary Johanson, a delightful printer, artist, musician, and techie who had lovingly restored this press over the past few years. Found derelict in a Florida barn, the machine was lucky to have been discovered before rusting into oblivion. Gary spent untold hours dismantling, cleaning, restoring, and reassembling, and she is now in very good working order ~ has even finished several printing jobs already, all with her native excellence and elegance!

As you can see, this press has a flywheel and treadle (reminds me of my mother's old Singer sewing machine), which means that multiple prints can be made in relatively short order. When she gets rolling, the Pearl operates smoothly and quietly ~ much more so, in fact, than the desktop laser printer in my office! Here's to the continuing relevance, ingenuity, and artistic capabilities of some of the 19th century's technologies!

Paste the link below in your browser's web address field to see a ridiculously unprofessional short video clip of this press in action (hope to make a better one soon) ~

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stbrigidpress/6976307112/in/set-72157629920341693/

With the addition of the Pearl, it became clear that St Brigid Press was straining at the seams of her original space (a very small, enclosed room in the basement, which nonetheless has very good lighting, a window, and a utility sink ~ also the washer/dryer, a long cabinet/counter, and, at night, the dog!). So, with that realization we began to plan how the larger, open portion of the basement (with walk-out door and big window looking south) might serve the needs of the Print Shop.

After extensive excavations of various piles of "stuff" everywhere, the walls and floor-spaces of this room came into view. Last week, I applied blue foamboard to the cinderblock walls, to help moderate summer and winter temps (and to provide a nice place to attach posters, photos, cork, etc.), and this week I hope to paint the sheetrocked wall a nice warm color. A dark and dingy basement this will hopefully not be!

Next challenge ~ moving all the presses and equipment into their new places in the "new" space.

Many thanks to all for your continued interest and support of St Brigid Press, and best wishes for the remaining weeks of Spring.

Blessings,

Emily

Spring Work at the Press...

St Brigid Press has just finished its first commission -- this letterpress-printed frontispiece that opens the donor appreciation book for the Waynesboro Public Library. The Library just completed some major renovations, and the Friends of the Library put together this book to tell the story of the branch's history and to thank the folks who made the construction possible. An acquaintance (and Friends-member) asked if I could letterpress-print an inspiring quote to go in the front of the book. The Friends committee chose a wonderful quote by Carl Rowan, one of the most important American journalists of the 20th century:

"The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history."

The theme of the library's capital campaign was "The Giving Tree"/"Branching Out." Tree images and Rowan's wisdom combined to inspire a design that would highlight both learning and leaves, growth and inner light. I first set the text (24 point Garamond Italic) and printed it on 100% cotton paper with a soft fawn tint.

Next came experimentation with printing the leaves. I had read about such a technique in John Ryder's wonderful 1955 book "Printing for Pleasure." So, one bright morning I grabbed a basket and went for a long walk around the beautiful 10 acres where I live. This piece of Virginia Blue Ridge valley is a mixture of woods and field, and has a surprising variety of trees. This, in conjunction with an early and robust Spring, gifted me with many young leaves to work with. The night before my excursion we'd had a sturdy windstorm, so I did not have to look further than the ground at my feet for specimens. I gathered a good sampling from oaks, pines, poplars, etc, and brought them back to the shop. After mixing and rolling out a warm-brown oil-based ink, I carefully placed each little leaf on the ink, pressed lightly, then transferred the leaf to the press. Placed ink-side-up, each leaf was then cranked through the press and printed on light tan cotton paper.

The detail possible with this technique was amazing. Each tiny vein and stem and curve was imaged. The character of each species was reflected in almost radiographic quality -- when I practiced using black ink, it looked similar to an x-ray. What an incredible way to experience the miracle of trees!

The last part of the project was to typeset and print the colophon: the "note or the finishing stroke in a book usually found on the final [page] and giving details of the author, printer, date and place where printed" (John Ryder's definition).

This was a wonderful project to work on, and I'm very grateful to Latane Long and the Friends of the Waynesboro Library for giving me the opportunity. I had a lot of fun, learned a great deal, and was very glad to contribute to our library.

"The Wearin' o' the Green..."

"Dear March, come in -- how glad I am…" writes Emily Dickinson, and indeed we are welcoming the new month and its new growth with new projects here at St Brigid Press:

The print shop is housed in a small room that has served as a laundry room, dog kennel, and storage space -- so there is much cleaning (and cleaning out) to do! I've been taking up the old, dusty carpet, putting down rubber mats at work stations, and hauling assorted "stuff" to the shed (where it will wait to be either recycled, given away, or dumped).

This week I have also been cleaning and sanding some sturdy old type cabinets and cases, in preparation for repainting (Hershey is inspecting the sanding job in the above picture). Not sure where they originally came from, but sometime in their history they were given coats of (to me) gastly colors -- lime green, grey, bright orange-red, teal, and crimson! Yikes! We're going to calm things down with a nice uniform application of a color called "Cedar Path Green." Ahhh…. When finished, these cabinets will house St Brigid Press' collection of metal type and ornaments.

Thanks be for sun and warmth for a day of painting under the poplar tree!

An Afternoon with Emily Dickinson

I spent this beautiful winter's afternoon in the printing studio with Emily Dickinson. We enjoyed each other's company, along with tea and National Public Radio, and co-created a nice little letterpress print.

The poem I chose to work with is the same one as appears in the previous post, that begins "There is no frigate like a book..." This was one of my most-loved Dickinson poems as a child, and I have been wanting to set it fully by hand and print it on the Poco press. It was great fun (much laughter as I studied the first proof and found several typographical errors, including upside-down letters), and I learned a lot about the process of setting type, locking it up in the chase, and experimenting with registration.

And with the wonderful poem itself for constant and spirited companion, what a joyful time indeed!

Here are a few more pictures of the process:

Welcome, Welcome!

This is the beginning of St Brigid Press online. Pictures of the press(es) and commentary will follow as we get up and running here at Arbora Studios! Blessings to all,

St Brigid Press